What's The Difference? Marketing vs. Sales Augmented Reality Solutions
“When and how should I utilize augmented reality technology?”
I get this question a lot, and the answer depends on multiple factors. Primarily on your industry and the end user of your experience.
To keep it simple, I place Augmented Reality experiences within two buckets; Marketing and Sales. Marketing AR is primarily fun and highly interactive and is all about brand engagement. Sales AR is about adding value to the end user bringing them down the sales pipeline from consideration to purchase. There will often times be crossover, but experiences are typically heavily marketing focused or sales focused. Both can be extremely valuable if implemented correctly.
Before we focus specifically within the building products industry, let’s step back a few (thousand) feet. Majority of Direct To Consumer (DTC) brands will implement a Marketing AR solution. Think of cereal boxes coming to life in AR, Hollywood movie experiences, and gaming. Those are all examples of utilizing augmented reality for marketing purposes. On the other hand, augmented reality solutions for collaboration, training and visualization fall under the Sales AR experience. Examples of this would be car manufacturers using AR in the design phases, visualization of products and more.
One noteworthy example is Warby Parker’s AR app. A direct to consumer (DTC) brand that utilizes AR for virtual home try-ons. The end goal is to get customers to try on the glasses and go from consideration to purchase. It’s also very fun and engaging, so it also checks off the Marketing AR checkbox.
Let’s jump into the building products industry. When I launched the AZEK AR App, I initially launched with a marketing AR experience. I did this for two reasons. First, I thought it would be a unique and fun experience. Something nobody else was doing. Secondly, it was also a test. This was two years before Pokemon GO, and nobody knew what augmented reality was. My goal was to create something simple and intuitive as their first augmented reality experience.
When scanning any of the AZEK catalog covers, a 3D model of a home popped up which allowed users to change out the porch, decking, railing and pavers in real time. We had every profile, color and railing infill available to visualize. It was simple, engaging and cool. It didn’t increase sales, but it served it’s purpose.
About six months later, I launched phase 2. The AR Deck Visualizer. An AR experience that allowed users to place a deck on the back of their home, in real size and customize the decking profiles and colors and railing profiles, colors and infill options. This tool was valuable to the homeowner, but I was targeting the pro-channel with this experience. This was a Sales AR experience through and through. The goal was to help our dealers and contractors close deals and grow their business. We gave our sales reps iPad’s and they were off to the races training and promoting this one-of-a-kind tool. It wasn’t long before the app helped close a $50,000 job.
Sales AR apps serve a specific purpose with a goal of moving users from consideration to purchase. I really enjoy the marketing AR experiences, but I absolutely love the Sales AR experiences. Guess what, so will your CFO.
Questions to ask yourself before developing an Augmented Reality experience.
What are specific pain points in our path to purchase that augmented reality could help solve?
Is our end goal engagement, PR and brand recognition?
Are we targeting the homeowner or the pro (contractor, builder, dealers)?
Do we have products we sell online where WebAR could help increase sales?
What would “success” look like?
This is a small list of questions that I use when strategizing an Augmented Reality experience. If you are interested in brainstorming ideas, schedule a free 30-minute consultation. Let’s Start Building…