Do you have objectives to launch new products or services, increase margins by X%, or create the best promotional campaign your industry has ever seen? When you take a close look at actual goals they really consist of three key areas of customer focus that contribute to increased revenues:

1. Customer Acquisition – the ability to grow market share by increasing your customer base
2. Customer Growth – developing a “stickiness” with our customers, providing new offerings for them so they continually return to our brand
3. Customer Retention – implementing ongoing programs that incent people to maintain their loyalty

By adding augmented reality to your planning, you can grow awareness and hit your targets.

Food, errr…. Wine for thought!

Since I can’t cover all industries, I’ll demonstrate the opportunities via a successful product launch that hit its target market (young adult male drinkers with an outlaw attitude), surpassed its acquisition goals but… is missing a huge opportunity to effectively utilize the initial (creative and financial) resources and success to grow customer purchases and retain or build customer loyalty.

19 Crimes (Treasury Wine Estates)A brief background – From Wine Economist – 19 Crimes is an Australian brand of seven wines precisely engineered to appeal to an important demographic — millennial men, especially those who see themselves as a bit of a rogue. Outlaws, who identify with others who defy convention. Outlaw wine for self-styled renegades? Now you are beginning to see the 19 Crimes logic.

Launch (Acquisition) – They made headlines both with their unconventional label and sales success. According to Better Retailing in 2017 they had shipped over one million cases and the brands grew 60% in volume sales and 70% in value. Since its introduction, we haven’t seen much promotion, viral or otherwise. Just think what could be done with that hard to reach the market of young adult men. They bought the wine, have the app and experienced John Boyle O’Reilly’s story of hardship.

Using the same label without the cost to enhance it in any way, we see five key areas of opportunity:

1. Storytelling (growth) – using the label and data captured from the customer, Treasury Wine Estates can continue the storyline of each criminal and/or include the story of one of the other label criminals. They have the video content and AR allows for easy repurposing of that content.
2. Promotion (growth) – Along with the criminal’s story, imagine if the buyer was invited to a “crime party/wine tasting” at their local wine shop. By adding an invitation based on geographic location to the AR experience the bottle would drive people to the retailer.
3. Coupons (growth) – There is an opportunity to include a coupon for their next purchase of that same bottle or one of the other choices (cross-sell). Adding a simple button to the AR experience would drive traffic to the store.
4. Loyalty programs (retention) – Treasury Wine Estates can create loyalty programs for its customer base for both 19 Crimes as well as its other brands. Buyers can join the “outlaws’ club” to learn about new offerings, wine pairing recommendations, and local wine tastings. Data collected to provide an individualized offering for each member.
5. Point of Purchase (acquisition/growth/retention) – utilizing the POP display the customer can experience one of the stories, receive a promotion, or be informed of a “crime party/wine tasting” in their area.

With a projected growth of one billion AR users by 2020 according to Statista and investments by Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and others, it’s time for you to consider how AR can impact your marketing programs, brand’s app and your goals for 2019.

M.J. Anderson, realityBLU, Chief Experience Officer, is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events where he shares his expertise in increasing marketing relevance through tools like mobile apps, video, augmented and virtual reality.