Key takeaways:
- New trends, rising rivals and faulty models cause brands to rethink approach from time to time
- Brand repositioning offers a powerful and profitable framework to plan change
- How 3D and augmented reality (AR) can help brands get more out of their repositioning journeys
When foodies started calling their pizza ‘crap’, Domino’s went right back to the oven, modified their recipe and relaunched a ‘new and better’ pizza. As the company went from ‘the pizza delivery guys’ to ‘mealtime solution’, the world tasted brand repositioning at its finest. When patrons started calling Gucci a brand ‘for old people’, the brand went ahead and added vibrant strokes of visual glam to be reborn as ‘eminently instagrammable’. It was repositioning at its most artistic. Google started off as a search engine, but now we turn to it for email, maps and even payments. We discovered brand repositioning at its smartest.
Change is the only constant in commerce. Fan perceptions morph over time. Market rivals up their game. New trends bring new opportunities. Each represents a potentially dynamic shift for business leadership. Those who take the roller coaster ride in their stride and respond with agility and vision march ahead.
Market rivals up their game. New trends bring new opportunities. Each represents a potentially dynamic shift for business leadership. Those who take the roller coaster ride in their stride and respond with agility and vision march ahead.
From a branding perspective, there are two major ways to respond to flux. The first is rebranding – a drastic revamp largely for survival entailing changes to key brand elements and assets such as logo, core offerings, business model and so on. The other is brand repositioning – a milder, more calculated adjustment aimed largely at rejigging a brand’s perception in the public imagination without altering its core identity parameters. Brand repositioning involves strategic tweaks to the brand vibe, story, personality, associations, and manifestations.
While rebranding is usually a last resort undertaken when a brand is clearly failing and desperately needs a fresh start, brand repositioning is less radical and more practicable. This makes brand repositioning a more common, and popular, tactic in contemporary commerce. Brand repositioning offers a clear path forward for company owners, revenue leaders and entrepreneurs grappling with adversity and disruption, and presents an opportunity to put the business front and center in the consumer’s mind.
3D and augmented reality (AR): The ‘buyer ready’ super tool tailor-made for modern day brand repositioning
As visually immersive experiences become the new benchmark of customer experience (CX), as personalization becomes a non-negotiable fan privilege, and as a new breed of empowered, DIY-savvy buyers look to advance up the discovery and consideration stages of the acquisition funnel unaided and uninterrupted by sales reps, brand leaderships across sectors are faced with a dilemma; find new ways to engage and delight prospects, or recede into oblivion.
They are in luck. With a slew of unprecedented features that address these very challenges, 3D and augmented reality (AR) tech offers sales and commerce leaders a tested formula to avoid the latter and master the former, returning control back to the sellers’ hands. Here are three ways 3D and AR adds muscle and magic to the brand repositioning journey.
1. Winning new markets by appealing to young, tech-happy buyers
According to recent research, 54% of 18 to 24-year-olds appreciate brands that connect with them in new and innovative ways. This is also a demographic group that prioritizes the environment, prefers to communicate visually, and digs interactive content. The attraction this generation has for 3D and AR is understandable, since;
- 3D and AR embodies the spirit of green technology; it reduces the environmental damage associated with logistics and transportation with its ability to reduce the scourge of product returns in e-commerce.
- 3D and AR can draw users into highly interactive sequences where they can swap colors, tweak angles and change the background and context of products.
- 3D and AR heralds the next age of see commerce built on compelling visuals and spatial narratives.
3D and AR merges physical and digital realms seamlessly to create fun, jaw dropping and highly sharable moments a new generation of consumers adore. It’s how Pokemon Go baked real-world locations and mapping into their virtual game experience and broke records by grossing $100 million in just 20 days. It’s also how Burger King reached over 11.6 milion users on social media and witnessed over 54% in in-app sales.
3. Pushing up sales by ‘multiplying store locations’ and expanding reach
3D and AR lets users scale products from the online world (e.g. websites, e-commerce pages, and digital catalogs) to their own homes and workspaces, allowing curious prospects to try out functionality and fit in their own environments. This results in an authentic and insightful store-floor experience (from the comfort and convenience of ‘anytime and anywhere’) that not only improves purchase decisions vastly, but also helps e-commerce sellers minimize product returns by as much as 30%.
It’s how Ikea’s iconic Place app, which allows users to visualize how store furniture can look in their own home with 98% accuracy, became the second most popular free app built on Apple’s ARKit based on downloads. It’s also how beauty brand Sephora’s Virtual Artist app, which leverages facial recognition to help fans put on eyeshadow, lip color and false eyelashes through their mobile cameras, earned over 8.5 million feature visits and over 200 million virtual try-outs, with a 28% lift in AR feature adoption.
Integrating the web based version of 3D and AR, such as the one being pioneered at Enhance 3D and AR Solutions which only requires an internet connection and no headgear, is akin to having trial rooms and test drive outlets everywhere customers are, enabling businesses to expand their geographic presence and demographic reach at zero real estate investments.
4. Correcting brand positioning and strengthening relationships with real feedback
A brand can fall behind competition if it hasn’t kept pace with tech and trends. The reverse can happen too; a brand that is more evolved than its rivals will fail to convert the advantage if it doesn’t put the right message across to consumers. There could also be a rift or mismatch between a brand’s positioning and the vibe its touchpoints project. For instance, Apple re-introduced its watch as a health and fitness essential when its status as a fashion accessory was struggling to connect with consumers.
Each of these cases presents a lacuna – and an ‘opportunity gap’ – between reality and perception. Feedback from users – a feature available with some versions of 3D and AR, like the one developed by Enhance 3D and AR Solutions – can set it right. Enhance’s granular and real time data analytics can capture vital behavioral information to bridge the gap, thus helping manufacturers, founders and brands build more personalized and authentic relationships with patrons and prospects.
Listening attentively to its audience is what convinced Spotify to restructure its product model by adding new creator tools and content formats (like podcasts) to the standard music fare. Tracking market sentiment closely is what helped Starbucks beat rivals who were starting to copy its formula, and rejuvenate growth with a fresh approach and tagline. Following fan sentiment intently is what nudged Taco Bell to upgrade its image from a low-cost Mexican food company to a fun and aspirational lifestyle brand.
Be it stalling sales slumps, rebuilding shrinking audiences, leveraging market disruptions, cementing a competitive edge or re-igniting positioning magic, 3D and AR helps brands take charge of their destiny by repositioning themselves. Effortlessly, profitably, memorably.
