When embracing today’s mass-customization phenomenon, auto manufacturers are showcasing their innovative new cars using appropriately-innovative new marketing technologies in order to differentiate themselves from the competition. To stand out from the crowd, the auto industry is turning to animated content, gamification and virtual reality to spark consumers’ imaginations and create a strong emotional connection to their brand.
Designing with the consumer in mind
Consumers today no longer value a product itself, but rather the experience it creates. Based on consumer demand for smarter, sleeker and more intuitive cars, manufacturers need to integrate traditional automotive design disciplines with Internet-connectivity, alternative power-sources, and autonomous driving technologies.
Tesla understands the benefits of 3D digitization and virtualization technologies and is using Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform to design next generation vehicles that deliver on what consumers want, while maintaining a safe and reliable driving experience. In fact, Ars Technica recently featured Tesla’s use of Dassault Systèmes’ solutions to design and create the Model 3.
The digital in-store dealership
Technologies are also changing the way we shop, allowing consumers to satisfy their demands instantly by ordering things with the click of a button. With Amazon’s recent acquisition of Whole Foods, it’s becoming easier to imagine a world with cashier-less pay stations and driverless deliveries.
Similarly, notions of shopping for cars only at traditional car dealerships will also evolve to become more experience-focused. To appeal to the digital generation, automakers are turning to 3D design technology to combine the physical showroom with the digital world and change the way consumers’ purchase cars. PSA Retail, the leading automotive distributor in France and second-leading in Europe, has created a digital in-store dealership that leverages virtual 3D models to allow shoppers to experience and configure their dream car, choosing from different variants, lighting conditions and effects to customize the vehicle’s interior and exterior based on preference. DS Automobiles is offering consumers similar experiences through the use of VR headsets.
What does this mean for the car-buying experience? For starters, it means dealerships don’t need to keep every variant of trim option, wheel design or interior fabric on-site in order to market them to consumers. This is going to enable dealerships to do ‘more with less’ physical inventory. The sprawling suburban dealership lot just isn’t practical for densely populated urban areas…but with 3D and VR technology, automotive companies can still provide a full view of their vehicles in space no bigger than a garage. In areas where storefront square-footage is at a premium, an urban ‘car dealership’ just became much less cost-prohibitive.
The benefits of immersive experiences go beyond the storefront as well. Ford teamed up with Dassault Systèmes to launch its “Mustang over Manhattan” immersive virtual reality experience, an installation open to the general public that allows guests to experience the iconic moment in 1964 when Ford assembled a Mustang on the top of the Empire State Building. With the help of Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform, Ford was able to deliver a fully immersive virtual reality experience with an incredible level of detail, interactivity and realism to connect with their consumers.
As virtual reality continues to shape our world, auto makers are turning to 3D technology to blend the physical and digital worlds, transforming how consumers buy automobiles. To learn more about how Dassault Systèmes is at the core of this digital transformation click here.
