Virtual Reality disrupting Marketing Technologically

The new concept of virtual reality has changed the marketing strategies of businesses as well as their products have made marketing more fun and interactive. The impact of virtual reality on marketing strategies is that they have changed over the years. Earlier leaflets and pamphlets were heavily used for advertising products, but now, most of the advertisements are done by social media and VR. 

VR

• Virtual reality is like an immersive experience in a box. In VR, the user’s avatar is used to connect with others.
• It gives the feel of being in a different environment than the ones users are actually in. Virtual reality enables the users to sense as well as interact with the environment created. 
• VR is used in many fields like sports, and professionals like coaches invest in VR to train their players for better performance in the games. It provides a perfect analysis of the player’s techniques.
• In retail, VR can be used to try clothes without buying them, and even different kinds of makeup can be tried on virtually. This improves customer satisfaction while buying products.
• In the Automotive industry, VR technology is used to make 3D models of car parts and designs. This saves time and effort for the employees, and it also makes them more efficient and productive.
• Virtual reality is used in Healthcare for real-world scenarios where it is used to plan out complicated procedures. It is also used for educational purposes for medical students and to teach them procedures of surgeries.
• VR in education and training can be used by educational institutions to teach students about real-world problems. Medical students can use VR for surgeries. Automobile students can use VR by fixing or making cars in the VR environment. 
• VR can also be used by the army. They can use it with students to help them learn about real-world scenarios and help train the professionals to do better in missions.

How Virtual Reality has changed Marketing Strategies? 

• Visual marketing – is videos that explain or advertise the goods and services that the company sells. We can use it to get interaction with other users. It will effectively advertise the product’s 
• Immersive experience – due to Hollywood movies, the popularity of virtual reality and its immersive experiences have gone viral. When users interact with the brand or the brand’s campaign, it is considered a successful marketing campaign which is possible with VR.
• Virtual fashion shows and concerts are organised. This gives the advertisers an element of uniqueness. They can entertain their audience, educate them and launch their products without the hassle of inviting and coordinating with the audience by being physically present.

The Impact of Virtual Reality on Marketing 

McDonald’s introduced a happy meal box that could be converted into a Google cardboard virtual reality headset. This boosted the sales of happy meal boxes. It was because the marketing was immersive, attractive, and something new.

Marriott also used virtual reality to promote vacations to people by creating teleportation devices. These devices used 360° video streams, heaters, coolers and many other things that made the people experience going to different destinations by entering a plain old telephone booth.

John Legend hosted his first virtual live concert at a social music venue called Wave. The concert was a success. The impact of virtual reality was seen here. The concert had more than 500,000 audience members. It also raised awareness regarding the free America campaign, whose goal was to transform the US criminal justice system.

The world health organisation launched a campaign where a health worker named Florence helped its users quit tobacco. The impact of virtual reality is used to influence users by Florence, who is a VR avatar that would guide the tobacco users with ways to quit tobacco and direct them to apps that can help with the process.

Disruptive Digital Technologies 

Technologies are no doubt very helpful to people, but then they are harmful to the users as well. The first concern is the rates of these technologies, the VR headsets or the kits available in the market cannot be afforded by several people, and so it will be fruitless to market a product where almost half of the population or target audience cannot see it. The VR headsets provide 360-degree vision to the user. When a user is in the immersive experience that is provided, they do not have any knowledge of the ongoings beside them. It can prove to be a huge health hazard because if the user is not aware of their surroundings, then they can easily injure themselves, be it the furniture nearby or walking directly into a wall. Anything can occur. 

Marketing in VR is also not a piece of cake. Special apps, software and mainly staff that knows about the work can do the projects. This means it will cost much more than the advertising costs normally. Small scale businesses cannot afford these expenses, whereas the MNCs and big businesses will easily be able to make it happen. This proves that VR is not an ideal way to market products. 

Another concern is the breaking of laws in virtual reality. What if some kind of abuse is done in the VR? Who is going to be held accountable? Who will fix it? What if the marketing strategy of a company is stolen by another? Does that not hinder copyright issues? Do the copyright laws apply in VR? Many issues like these are still not solved for the normal public. So, VR is not widely used as a marketing option.

Conclusion

Virtual reality is like an immersive experience in a box. In VR, the user’s avatar is used to connect with others. It gives the feel of being in a different environment than the ones users are actually in. Virtual reality enables the users to sense as well as interact with the environment created. Virtual reality has changed marketing by providing users with immersive and interactive experiences to try out a test sample of the services/products. The impact of virtual reality is that it is something new that everyone wants to try. It is a unique experience for users. However, it is not as widely used due to its novelty and unresolved issues arising thereof.