While many of us may think that retail salespeople are already doing quite enough to sell us their wares, the folks over at the Recom Group obviously believe that face-to-face sales still has some untapped potential. That's why they've developed the Video Name Tag, a 2.8-inch OLED screen that displays still and/or video advertising, that salespeople wear like a traditional name tag. Now, why they're trying to sell you one product, you can get the goods on another by staring at their chest.
Each tag weighs 3.9 ounces (110 grams), has 2GB of internal flash memory, and can run for 6 to 10 hours on one charge of its li-ion battery. The 320 x 240-pixel scratch-resistant screen has a 180-degree viewing angle, and attaches to the salesperson's shirt or jacket using a two-part magnetic clip, or hangs from a lanyard. Users can set the playback order of multiple stills, videos, or both, and can manually toggle through them to show a client any one particular item.
Content can be loaded from a PC into up to ten tags at once, via a docking station that plugs into the computer's USB port. Users can provide their own content, or the company will produce it for them.
While the tags are definitely appealing in a cool-little-color-TV kinda way, one question does arise – are you supposed to pay attention to what the salesperson is telling you, or what's playing on their tag? It's possible that the dual presentation could be distracting to customers, and that it could make it more difficult for salespeople to hold their attention. On the other hand ... who knows, when it comes to advertising, perhaps it simply always comes down to a matter of "more is better."
Video Name Tags are available online, at a price of US$198 per tag. The docking station runs an extra $199, although individual tags can be recharged and reloaded through a simple USB cord.