3D virtual prototypes let customers pre-evalute the products they buy
Wednesday, November 1st, 2006It has almost become accepted common knowledge that marketing departments should be able to take advantage of engineering data for sales and promotion. The same CAD data that was used to develop a car, can be repurposed as 2D renderings for the sales brochure.
But what about using that engineering data to gauge interest in a product before it is even manufactured?
Boeing did something like this for their 767 commercial aircraft. Potential customers (airlines), could evaluate the 767 using photorealistic renderings before the plane was even built. This provided a combination of market research and sales promotion. It was considered a stroke of genius back in its day.
But can we take this a step further: what about using the actual 3D, not converted to static renderings for brochures, but as an interactive 3D models. Could you use an interactive 3D PDF as a way to evaluate customer enthusiasm for a product or even get a feel for specific features that a customer might want - all before the product is even built?
The idea of using 3D virtual prototypes to test market a product is not new. What is new however is that 3D PDF makes it possible and easy for a very large audience to evaluate the “concept” product. No limited test groups with just the right 3D viewer software running on the right PC platform. The Acrobat reader is free and ubiquitous. So your sample audience can be anyone on the internet in markets anywhere in the world (i.e. a large and diverse sample size). Moreover, with Acrobat 3D tools and simple Javascripts, you can build a sophisticated prototype evaluation interactive 3D without hiring a team of programmers.
What got me thinking about this is our latest case study on the very cool DiMora Natalia SLS 2 sportscar.
DiMora Motorcar is creating the world’s first hand-built, $2 million, sixteen-cylinder production automobile: the Natalia SLS 2 sport luxury sedan. DeMora decided to use their professional engineering drawings, converted to a photorealistic Acrobat 3D PDF, to showcase the world’s most luxurious, expensive, and technologically-advanced sportscar. In addition to creating market awareness, they are using the 3D PDF to gauge enthusiasm and interest in the car. They are test marketing the product using a 3D PDF!
DiMora is actually going a bit further and using consumers to help them in the final design and feature set of the car. They are taking advantage of crowd sourcing - the trend that allows customers to help design the products they buy.
Where DiMora stands out, and where Acrobat 3D can really make an amazing impact is with consumers or companies pre-evaluating new products and designs using 3D PDFs.
- The evaluations are using the actual 3D engineering data so they are as close to real as possible. This makes a big difference in terms of the validity factor.
- PDF makes the “concept” model available to anyone with a computer (and a 3D accelerated graphics board). This gives 3D almost the equivalent ubiquity as printed material.
- Acrobat 3D and related 3D PDF creation tools, make it possible to create sophisticated interfaces without significant programming skill (this is in contrast to 3D technologies like VRML)
- With form capabilities in Acrobat Reader 8, you have a built-in feedback mechanism
- You could even do Acrobat 8 Connect sessions for live feedback or simply use the built in commenting features
- And don’t forget the impact on market awareness. An interactive 3D PDF is simply cool and compelling. It is just a matter of time before some clever company gets the idea of distributing 3D PDFs on inexpensive USB flash drives. Instead of receiving your Mini Cooper promotional box with brochures and Mini paper cut outs, you will get a basic (and reusable) Flash drive with a 3D PDF of a Mini Cooper which you can “test drive”.
The possibilities on this are rather endless.
