Road to Challenger Brands: How iRobot Is Adapting to a Rise in Home Cleaning Amid Covid-19

As the Covid-19 pandemic turned everyone into a bit more of a homebody over the past year, iRobot has seen consumers place more priority on keeping their living spaces clean. The brand behind the Roomba robot vacuum has adjusted to this rise in demand by shifting certain product development strategies and go-to market plans to emphasize personalization in its automated cleaning devices. The company is able to continue evolving this way after three decades in business thanks to a longstanding focus on heavy research and development spending. Ahead of her appearance at Adweek's upcoming Challenger Brands event, iRobot CMO Kiran Smith discussed how the brand has adapted to pandemic consumer habits, keeping its products on the cutting edge in an ever-changing field and the future of consumer robotics. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. How has business been during the pandemic? Has the company made any big changes because of it? The pandemic has had an impact on all of us, and as a company we adapted by reprioritizing certain go-to-market plans and product development initiatives. We are seeing that as more and more people are forced to stay at home, they are gaining a greater appreciation for keeping their home clean—and with busy schedules, they are looking for help. With this in mind, we are placing added emphasis on cleaning technologies and digital experiences that provide a whole new level of personalization and control over how people clean, taking into account their unique homes, individual needs, schedules and even smart home integrations. We’re glad that products like the Roomba robot vacuum and Braava robot mop have resonated with consumers during this challenging time and that these products are helping them to accomplish even more at home. What are some of the ways iRobot’s products have evolved in recent years to take into account new advances in robotics? In 2015, we launched the Roomba 980, our first robot with mapping capabilities. Since then, we have continuously brought new innovations to market that take into account user feedback and set new bars for cleaning robots. This includes the introductions of the Roomba i and s Series robot vacuums and Braava jet m6 robot mop. With even smarter mapping technologies, these robots can learn a home’s layout, allowing the user to clean specific rooms or designated areas by name, and using voice commands. The Roomba i and s Series also brought automatic dirt disposal to the market. This allows these robots to empty their own dust bins, letting the user forget about vacuuming for months at a time. Most recently, we launched iRobot Genius Home Intelligence, a robotics platform that gives users greater control of where, when and how their robots clean. iRobot Genius combines state-of-the-art robot software, AI, app control and consumer insights, resulting in a level of robot personalization and control that is unmatched. What sets iRobot’s approach to innovation and research & development apart from the average company? iRobot invests more than 10% of its annual revenue into research and development efforts, and holds more than 1,500 patents worldwide relating to robotic technologies. The level of investment iRobot allocates towards research and development is unique within the consumer technology industry. We feel it is essential to ensure we are developing products that address actual consumer needs and meet their expectations in terms of cleaning performance and reliability. It’s also important that we continue to invest in developing further-out technologies that will enable new capabilities for cleaning robots in the years ahead. What advice do you have for anyone who has an idea for a product that challenges an entrenched incumbent? Go for it! And be patient. Successfully bringing a product to market and communicating its value to consumers takes time. It’s also really important to not just focus on inventing and demonstrating new products and technologies. It’s essential to have an understanding of how consumers live, what their needs are, and how to meet those individual and evolving needs. Only then will people begin to recognize the true value of your product. This is one of the reasons iRobot has found success. We have focused on creating robots that are practical, useful and have enduring value. People can use our products every day. What is the most exciting prospect for the future of robotics research right now? We’re excited that home robots will increasingly become more than tools, but rather truly collaborative cleaning partners that help customers get through our increasingly complicated world. We also feel that the mapping and navigation technologies behind iRobot’s products, and the spatial understanding that they provide, will be the keys to unlocking the full potential of the smart home ecosystem, where the home and devices within have a better understanding of the environment and can deliver an even more personalized homelife experience. As iRobot continues to push the consumer robotics industry forward with advancements in AI and machine learning, we’ve really only begun to scratch the surface of what’s possible.