Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 4.12
MyVirtualModel
™
, an e-merchandizing application that allows
online shoppers to create a personal avatar with their exact human proportions,
has been integrated into several websites including H&M, although luxury
brands are yet to adopt it. This tool enables virtually trying on articles like clothes,
shoes and jewelry and is particularly suitable for the e-retail of sensory goods
such as luxury products
from the human form in three sizes. Other e-retailers have also identified the
need for the virtual trial of products online and one such player is Browns,
which recently introduced a virtual changing room on its website although
this doesn't feature avatars for the moment.
Flavor
How do you reproduce the sense of taste in the virtual world? How can
brands like Jean-Paul Hévin or La Maison du Chocolat or Fauchon, whose
products are basically based on taste, succeed online? Does this mean that
they are restricted to using images, text and the occasional interactive flash
and video to create a desire for their products online? What about brands
like Dom Perignon, Rémy Martin and Château Mouton Rothschild whose
champagnes, spirits and wines are renowned worldwide but their apprecia-
tion remains dependent on the arousal of the senses of taste, sight and smell.
These brands not only require to be online, but also face the challenge of
transferring their core brand promises through their online sensory codes.
How could a client's taste buds be stimulated online without actually tasting
the products? It's impossible to taste anything online, right? Yes, I agree that
we cannot literally taste products online but do you think that our sense of
taste can be stimulated virtually without actually making the product itself
available physically? I believe so.
The stimulation of our taste buds and the arousing of the desire to
acquire taste-based goods like champagne and chocolates could be success-
fully achieved online through the tactical use of web elements to focus on
