If you are familiar with IoT, fashion, or New York startup scene, there may be people who have heard of Ringly's name. Ringly is a venture company that is based in NY and is developing ring (ring) and bracelet type IoT device · wearable.
Ringly 's CEO is Christina. It is said that he will come to Japan in July 2017, pilot boatNY Silicon Alley MeetupIn cooperation with Mr. Christina held the event to appear.
Ringly CEO Mr. Christina
Christina Mercando d'Avignon, is the founder of smart jewelry startup Ringly. The jewelry connects to the Ringly app. Women can customize which phone calls, texts and app alerts filter through to the ring. They select how to be notified - via vibrations or D 'Avignon - His background is in product development - cofounded the startup in 2013.
"Cute" wearable device for women
Ringly develops a ring and bracelet type wearable device. Wearable things come up with functional devices such as apple watch and FIT PIT, but Ringly is more feminine and develops highly designable items that can be enjoyed as fashion.
Mr. Christina's left wrist is a bracelet. Ring next to the smartphone is the ring.
Anyone would have thought that smash notifications are annoying. Although notice comes from one end of e-mail and chat, there are scenes that it is not necessary for you to confirm immediately, not for yourself. In addition, women put smaho in a bag and there seems to be a problem that they do not immediately notice an incoming call. Although other devices are likely to solve these challenges, Mr. Christina says that other devices are too big for women and not fashionable. Ringly developed it there. By the way, the price is about 125 to 165 dollars.
It is that small that you understand Ringly in hand. Even an ordinary watch is smaller than a male one, but the image of the woman is smaller. It certainly is small and it seems to be a burden for women. Design is also outstanding. Wearable is a wearable thing as its name suggests, that is, it is a fashion item, so it is important for women to be fashionable, in particular.
Functional aspects are currently focused on notifications. When the phone, mail, slack etc arrives at the smartphone, it will inform us with LED lights and vibrations. The above-mentioned unnecessary notification problem can also be alleviated, for example, slack notifications can be reacted only to those of their own. There are several color variations such as rose gold and silver, and you can enjoy the combination you like by selecting from 20 kinds of jewelry parts.
Currently it is sold only in the USA, and it can be purchased at Bloomingdale's (American department store) etc. In the future we would like to develop other countries including Japan. However, it is possible to use it even in Japan if there are even products.
Ringly's value is experienced and software
Originally Mr. Christina was working on the development of artificial intelligence as a startup software engineer, but that company was acquired by eBay. I gathered my friends and set up Ringly. Currently it is about 20 people, the ratio of men and women is half. In Japan, there are few women engineers and there are not many male engineers handling items of women, but Mr. Christina is also a woman, I have never had much trouble in the sense of collecting engineers so.
In wearable devices for women, Ringly is a predecessor player, but recently he has also wearable fashion brands such as Kate Spade and Michael Course. It is a wearable device that has an impression that is not yet popular in Japan, but it seems that many consumers wear it in NY with many players.
Wearable is a fashion item. There are various brands in clothes, it is a good thing for various brands to come up with wearables. More people will be interested by having various players. Ringly thinks that it is different from the user experience and software as well as the value as a brand. (Mr. Christina)
Even my acquaintance, I have not been interested in apple watch at all, but I bought it as soon as a certain fashion brand issued a band. As Mr. Christina says, not only functions but also stylishness and cuteness, engagement on brands may be an opportunity to expand wearable. It seems that Ringly itself may collaborate with other brands in the future.
Branding from SNS
I also talked about Ringy 's marketing. The keywords are "picture", "influencer", "branding".
Because there is a physical thing, Instagram is a valid SNS for Ringly. Tens of thousands of people have been followers, listening to stories from them and doing research to make people like Ringly's brand values become influencers. Such activities will lead to branding. (Mr. Christina)
Such branding has been successful, and Ringly has enthusiastic fans called RingLeader (ring leader). When a new model comes out, they replace it, and they will buy Ringly's items.
When PR is devised how to show, it is focusing on technology according to the purpose of coverage and media, and on the contrary as saying that it is messaging as sending out as a brand and functional aspects are also fulfilling was.
By the way, although it is not limited to marketing, what kind of data are collected and used in wearable devices (IoT), which is worrisome, how do you use it? After 2 years and half of product launch, full-fledged data activities are coming Thing.
Carrying the latest model of ring and bracelet
The contents of the interview are also distributed by podcast
As I also mentioned at the beginning, Ringly focuses on what I heard in the event (and its pre-interview). The audio of the event is released below, so please listen if you are interested.
