Biometrics – A Nascent Technology

Nowadays, most of the companies all over the world started using Biometrics either for Time & Attendance purpose, to maintain a note of who is visiting their respective establishments, or for nabbing trespassers who try to sneak-in. Although there are various types (facial, iris, thermal, etc) of biometric products suitable for various purposes on offer, the most marketed biometric type so far in the domestic market (in India) is the Fingerprint biometrics.

From corporates to small start-ups, everybody is using these fingerprint biometric scanners hoping that they can provide some sort of additional security compared to the regular manual security. But this falls under the category of interceptive biometrics where the user needs to spend sometime to get authorized by the machine. Using facial biometrics, which falls under non-interceptive category, has become a new trend nowadays.

Marketing biometric products is always a tricky one. Although biometric industry has grown by leaps and bounds due to the recent terrorist attacks, the technology behind these products is still nascent. The technology has not yet attained the maturity stage so that it can provide foolproof security wherever it is deployed. Having known this fact, marketers are trying different ways to push biometric products in the market using all sorts of flashy advertising to hide the shortcomings of the technology behind the product.

Biometrics falls under the security products category, which concentrate heavily on safety, security, and protection. The only marketing strategy that works for Biometrics is the emotional marketing strategy rather than other flashy marketing strategies. Since the technology behind the biometric products is still in the nascent stage and the customer relies on the product for the security reasons, it is always better to let the customer know "what to expect" and "what not" from the product in terms of functionality.