IKEA: A Brand that Immerses Itself into Augmented Reality
Product visualization is what contemporary consumers really need and enjoy. Digitalization is hovering over the entire world, including the marketing sphere, with brands demonstrating their intentions to go hand-in-hand with the demands of the current era. Today’s brands seem to be largely willing to immerse themselves into digital marketing via the successful application of related tools, such as augmented reality, which grant consumers an opportunity to see how a selected good matches their real-world environment. IKEA is a world brand that is successfully accomplishing this task, thus offering their potential consumers new experiences, further enhancing customer loyalty, and increasing the level of consumer aspiration.
If you have already experienced the IKEA AR service, that would be great! If you haven’t done it yet, no worries, I will tell you how it works.
How is IKEA Using Augmented Reality?
The primary question that might arise while hearing the decision of IKEA to use augmented reality is as follows: how is the brand using this digital marketing trend? The company has launched a new augmented reality app named IKEA PLACE that provides consumers with the opportunity to test the offered goods in real-time via Apple iOS 11’s ARKit technology. Essentially, application features that can use on either iPhone or iPad are completely free and allow to render the offered products into true-to-scale 3D goods. The major characteristic of the app is that it automatically scales goods on the basis of the available room dimensions with about 98% accuracy. The visualization of the product can be made possible in a certain space via the app scans and camera of a device that a potential client uses. A user should then select an item from the IKEA list of products, point a personal device to the desired place, and, finally, drag and drop a chosen item onto this location.
A Tool for Achieving Marketing Objectives
The brand is achieving its marketing objectives while using the augmented reality trend. Augmented reality lets potential clients preview how furniture looks on their smartphones before the selected items are purchased. According to Michael Valdsgaard, a leader of digital transformation at IKEA, consumers seeing life-like versions of the offered products in rooms allows them to make a “reliable buying” decision since they actually see how a selected product matches their home space and whether it suits the created atmosphere.
A Decision That Intrigues
The decision of IKEA to adopt the augmented reality trend was wise and successful. I believe that consumers find it beneficial since they do not necessarily have to visit physical locations. IKEA is catching one of the most important consumer insight——save time! Augmented reality is valuable for brands as it assists in creating positive brand perception and even increases user engagement by 66 percent. And even though users are not purchasing anything, the relationship between them and the brand becomes strong enough.
The Future of Augmented Reality in the Digital Marketing Sphere
The pandemic hit has demonstrated that augmented reality is a digital marketing trend that businesses need to embrace and further develop. The current COVID-19 has significantly disrupted the normal functioning of almost all business structures, while quarantine measures that were undertaken all over the world have forced brands to find new ways in which they can reach potential consumers while their shopping experiences can be made real.
Customers have positively accepted the embraced augmented reality, while the relationship between the brand and its clients has been further strengthened, which means that this trend should be further pursued and developed. Thus, augmented reality is likely to have a bright future. I believe that other brands selling furniture would follow the decision made by IKEA to attract more consumers.
