Augmented Reality: A Sustainable Marketing Tool? (2010)

Purpose - The present research aims to look at the ways in which Augmented Reality Experiential Marketing (AREM) is beneficial for companies and brands not only on short-term - the “shiny object” syndrome, but also on the long-term, contributing to the creation of customer satisfaction, as other forms of experiential marketing have done, which can lead to an increase in customer loyalty, intention of repetitive purchasing, positive word-of-mouth (WOM) or a greater market share. Based on the aim of this research paper and on the literature review, three measures of the perceived value have been chosen – enhancing convenience, influencing enjoyment and affecting brand attitude. Design/methodology/approach - Because this research focuses around the concept of perceived experiential value, the methodological approach chosen will be interpretative “underpinned by the belief that social reality is not objective but highly subjective – shaped by our perceptions”. Focus groups will be the method used for this qualitative study because they are dynamic group discussions much like real unconstrained everyday conversations which have the capacity of surfacing meanings and emotions about AR experiential marketing applications that might not be articulated elsewhere. A semi-structured approach informed by the previousmentioned objectives will be used in conducting these focus groups being rather flexible but also overcoming the researcher’s inexperience in research studies which, in the case of an unstructured approach, might become risky leading to serious deviation from the subject. Findings - There is little understanding of the long-term effects of AR marketing due to scarceness in benchmarks, measurable elements and research studies. Based on these findings, this paper explores the ways in which AREM leads to the creation of perceived experiential value, and thus contributing to the development of customer satisfaction. Glasses Direct is the brand chosen for this research because it is one of the few companies that uses AR as an ongoing marketing process, not just as part of one particular campaign, being very often given as a positive example of how brands should undertake AR technologies to enhance customers’ experience and drive longterm brand benefits. Focusing on a particular case also makes the abstract concept of AREM operational in terms of participants’ understanding of the subject and the researcher’s analysis of the results. Research limitations - The lack of any AR experiential marketing research studies and the few mainly quantitative experiential marketing studies have led the researcher to take an exploratory qualitative approach which will also extend marketers’ understanding of AR experiential marketing’s effects on experiential value. This approach will allow a deeper mining into the participants’ mind and will provide a more accurate representation of consumers’ subjectivity. Also, this lack of any research studies on AR experiential marketing, the inadvertences, ambiguities and the predisposition towards quantitative methods in the aforementioned experiential marketing research related to customer satisfaction are only a few of the rationales behind this research project. Moreover, controversies and the problem of limited knowledge arise with the question of “what are the long-term effects of AR experiential marketing on our business?” even for marketing practitioners.