【新闻】VR Applications in Market Research

Holding a dream to be a phycologist, Professor Raymond showed interests in the motivations inside the people since he was in the elementary school. Later on, he focused his study on consumer psychology and more specifically, on advertising. He got chance to work together with advertising agencies and conducted some advertising testing on some FMCG companies in order to find how persuasive of advertising would be and how advertising could influence shopper’s behavior. Some traditional ways of experiments would work, such as evaluating the effects of advertising on magazines or TV shows. However, such kind of study was time-consuming and costly. Professor Raymond was inspired to do such experiment in laboratory by using computer-aided simulation. He and his team created a simulated shopping program where shoppers can virtually select products from shelf in the program. That was in 1980’s, IT industry’s early era, but virtual reality already took shape.

Professor Raymond’s study proved that information collected in the simulated environment could predict how shoppers chose different products in physical groceries, super markets. One example was simulating a vending machine to study how shoppers would choose snacks or beverages and to find correlations existing among these products. Another example was simulating a tire store to study how shoppers made decision among tires with different tread design. In those cases, shoppers used the visual appearance of products to make their choice and virtual reality truly did a quite good job to replicate the shopping scenario.

Nowadays, when researchers do market research, they can still use old-fashioned concept research, design a survey with demographic questions and purchase intentions and concept statements, finding enough numbers of responds, then researchers would be able to answer which new products will sell best in competitive retail environment. On the other hand, there are more sophisticated tools available to study customer behavior. In one cereal products test, a few items are scanned and generated in a simulation and layout of simulated shelf is set up. Respondents “go shopping” in such environment, taking several trips, searching for multiple products. Respondents’ behaviors are easily recorded and analyzed by the system. Based on these collected information, researchers are able to change the layout of shelf and repeat the test. Professor Raymond has done hundreds of simulated tests on varieties of products. The output of these tests helps merchants optimize window displays, store organization and signage to encourage store traffic and purchase.

VR simulations possess substantial advantages over field experiments in marketing research. VR simulations are faster and less expensive. Also, they provide greater flexibility and more options for researchers. Furthermore, business confidentiality can be well protected in the simulated environment. Lab-based simulation makes use of cutting-edge technologies to create high realism with advanced immersive display, sophisticated user interface, photorealistic 3D models. Online simulation is another alternative that can reduce setup costs and simplify modeling of store shelves. The limitations of existing simulations are also noticeable that current simulations only provide visual and auditory cues. Production interactions are not sufficient and social interaction is absent. These mentioned obstacles are expected to be conquered in the near future with the advent of science and technology.

At the end of presentation, Professor Raymond exchanged views with audiences about utilizing virtual reality simulations in marketing research globally, especially in developing countries. China has a remarkable market environment, which provides challenges as well as opportunities and virtual reality has been attracting attention of both marketing researchers and commercial companies.

Fudan MBA Program

Cot 13, 2016