Have you ever experienced virtual reality (VR)? No doubt this technology is worth trying and is leaving an impression on the roads of marketing. VR has undoubtedly been in the developmental phase for years but has now become mainstream for marketers.
With an emergence of technology like Samsung Gear VR, Oculus and other pocket-friendly platforms, this technology is no longer just for the movies. For marketers, VR can help to promote a business and differentiate it from its competitors. At the same time, you may ask yourself: Is virtual reality just a fad? It's hard to say.
As the founder of a digital agency who keeps an eye on the latest industry trends, I have noticed that VR offers a whole new way for brands to tell stories about their products. Now, let’s see what VR can achieve.
How Marketers Are Stepping Into The World Of VR
VR provides consumers with a platform to interact with a brand in a more personal way and has proven to be a beneficial tool for marketing, education, web design and other spheres of work. All you need to do is put on your soft headset, open up a browser and enter the world of VR.
A number of big brands have already started to benefit from this technology. IKEA uses VR in its app, giving buyers the option to virtually check how the furniture will look in their house without visiting the store. Another big brand is Oreo. In order to promote its newly filled cupcake-flavored cookies, the brand created an animated virtual video where users can experience the magical fantasyland complete with chocolate canyons and milk rivers.
As per WebpageFX, 73% of Gen Z say they’re interested in VR, 66% of consumers want VR shopping and 53% of adults say they'd buy from a brand that uses VR over a brand that doesn’t. So, VR brands will eventually consolidate in the near future. But here, again, a thought comes to your mind: How can VR benefit small business owners? Is it worth it for them to invest in this type of technology?
There might be dozens of reasons behind VR success, but these five are vital to know for both large- and small-business owners.
Business Representation
Adopting VR is a great way to represent your business. In order to increase engagement and brand awareness, potential customers can experience the "reality" of VR with real images, sound effects and more. For example, the use of VR in real estate business is rising. Whenever a potential buyer visits a property, he or she builds their own imagination about how the house will look with furniture setup and style. With VR, the potential buyer and seller can enter the virtual world and experience the house with full setup.
Adopting virtual reality can help business owners in a number of ways:
• Customer engagement: Virtual reality is exciting and helps to delight and engage customers like never before. It helps draw customers' attention with a complete immersion of 360 content.
• Increase accuracy: A wide range of companies are going paperless by adopting this technology. In the commercial construction business, for example, the adoption of VR is providing accurate and timely results for digital (versus paper) blueprints.
• Training: VR used for training can teach employees how to handle expensive equipment before actually having to use it. The reduces the chances of risk. VR provides them a hands-on experience through simulations.
Immersive Experience
In this digital era, the art of visualization has become more powerful. Consumers usually make a purchase after a complete vision, and VR allows viewers to engage with a complete sense of presence. It allows customers to make quick decisions and create strong brand connections, for example, by being able to experience a product in a business's physical location.
Content Marketing Perfection
Today's business owners know that quality content drives online marketing efforts by giving consistent value to their audience, who further become regular, faithful customers. VR can enhance a business's campaigns and goodwill by offering customers a dynamic way to experience the company's products (or other content) right from their browser or VR headset.
Business Differentiation
VR helps businesses to stand out in a crowd and, because of its completely immersive, interactive content, VR can potentially keep customers — both new and existing — on your website for longer.
Customer Trials
Whether your company sells real estate, computers or automobiles, buyers not only want to see a product first, they want to experience it. Product accessibility is not always available for customers. With VR, customers can interact with a product and see it from all the angles.
Let’s have a look at some big brands that use VR as a marketing tool:
Marriott
Marriott has created a virtual reality travel series for select Marriott locations. This gives customers a new way of looking into the rooms through a VRoom Service feature. The hotel chain has also created VR Postcards, which are immersive and intimate travel stories that users can experience in 360 3-D by using a virtual reality headset.
L’Oreal
L’Oreal has broken all the barriers and has come up with a makeup app, Makeup Genius, that works with VR. It is the first-ever virtual makeup app that allows users to apply makeup virtually and get a real sense of what a particular product will look like.
Whether you are looking to show off your products or want a new way to train your employees, VR is proving to have brilliant uses within the business world. It is an innovation that can enhance your capacity to build relations with clients, convey benefits and oversee groups.
