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Tagged Umbrellas to Provide Market Research to Merchants
Eventually, Rostmeyer says, the company intends to outfit the RainDrops with fixed RFID readers connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi. A Web-based server will then collect and store data about the umbrellas. However, she says, such a reader has not yet been released by any of the RFID hardware vendors Dutch Umbrella has contacted. Noting that the manufacturers are now developing small Wi-Fi-based readers that would fit into retail establishments, she says she hopes an affordable reader will be available within the next year.
With a Web-linked real-time RFID system, data could be made available to the sponsors via Dutch Umbrella's Web site. "We plan to have fun with this," Rostmeyer says, including possible giveaways and awards for specific umbrellas when patrons bring them to a particular RainDrop.
Dutch Umbrella plans to use the RFID data to create reports for sponsors that chronicle where the umbrellas have traveled. This will let the sponsors know where their customers are coming from. "It lets the businesses know if they are getting people from a particular part of town," says Rostmeyer, since Dutch Umbrella regularly captures reads of umbrella locations during rain showers.
The umbrellas themselves, she and Carlson explain, offer advertising for stores and encourage umbrella users to revisit the businesses on rainy days and to return the ones they have borrowed. Carlson says a certain amount of lost umbrellas is expected, but adds that the advertising on the panels continues to serve the sponsors, no matter where the umbrella may be used. Pilot sponsors include a coffee shop, hair salon, restaurant and real estate agent. Each paid about $1 per umbrella per month to have its logo featured on a panel, with the option of having a RainDrop located at their business as part of the umbrella fee. For the duration of the pilot, each sponsor paid to have its logo placed on 100 umbrellas. The cost will increase at end of the trial.
According to one sponsor—Troy Musto, owner of Flying Saucer Café, located at 26th and Brown—lost umbrellas are not a problem. If a downpour causes customers to grab umbrellas on their way to the bus stop across the street, he says, they are that much more likely to return later to drop them off and make another purchase. Musto himself uses the Dutch Umbrella occasionally to ward off rain. He says he sees more customers coming to his business now from other neighborhoods, either because they saw the name on the umbrella, or to drop the umbrella off. "Surprisingly, everyone is bringing them back," he says. "We'll have a heavy downpour, and all the umbrellas are cleared out, and in the next day or two, people start bringing them back."
Musto says he's still awaiting his first RFID-generated report. When it comes to deploying a fixed RFID reader in his shop, he states, "Anything that would make it a better service, I'm willing to try."
According to Carlson, Dutch Umbrella is launching the pilot in Philadelphia because it's the founders' home city. "Our plan," he says, "is to have hundreds of locations across Center City." Eventually, the company intends to branch out to other cities across the United States as well.
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With a Web-linked real-time RFID system, data could be made available to the sponsors via Dutch Umbrella's Web site. "We plan to have fun with this," Rostmeyer says, including possible giveaways and awards for specific umbrellas when patrons bring them to a particular RainDrop.
Dutch Umbrella plans to use the RFID data to create reports for sponsors that chronicle where the umbrellas have traveled. This will let the sponsors know where their customers are coming from. "It lets the businesses know if they are getting people from a particular part of town," says Rostmeyer, since Dutch Umbrella regularly captures reads of umbrella locations during rain showers.
The umbrellas themselves, she and Carlson explain, offer advertising for stores and encourage umbrella users to revisit the businesses on rainy days and to return the ones they have borrowed. Carlson says a certain amount of lost umbrellas is expected, but adds that the advertising on the panels continues to serve the sponsors, no matter where the umbrella may be used. Pilot sponsors include a coffee shop, hair salon, restaurant and real estate agent. Each paid about $1 per umbrella per month to have its logo featured on a panel, with the option of having a RainDrop located at their business as part of the umbrella fee. For the duration of the pilot, each sponsor paid to have its logo placed on 100 umbrellas. The cost will increase at end of the trial.
According to one sponsor—Troy Musto, owner of Flying Saucer Café, located at 26th and Brown—lost umbrellas are not a problem. If a downpour causes customers to grab umbrellas on their way to the bus stop across the street, he says, they are that much more likely to return later to drop them off and make another purchase. Musto himself uses the Dutch Umbrella occasionally to ward off rain. He says he sees more customers coming to his business now from other neighborhoods, either because they saw the name on the umbrella, or to drop the umbrella off. "Surprisingly, everyone is bringing them back," he says. "We'll have a heavy downpour, and all the umbrellas are cleared out, and in the next day or two, people start bringing them back."
According to Carlson, Dutch Umbrella is launching the pilot in Philadelphia because it's the founders' home city. "Our plan," he says, "is to have hundreds of locations across Center City." Eventually, the company intends to branch out to other cities across the United States as well.
