How AR is Transforming Customer Experiences for Brands

The Challenge

Browning was looking for better ways to market their line of firearms safes to their consumer base.  These safes are large, heavy, durable, and quite customizable: truly the perfect product for properly storing and protecting one’s firearms.  The nature of this product, however, comes with some marketing challenges.  These safes are not easy to move around and test out, much less to imagine how one would fit in one’s home environment without some kind of hands-on experience with them.  Add in the effects of COVID shutdowns for tradeshow floors, and Browning had a real problem getting an exceptional product before the eyes and into the hands of their most interested potential customers.

Browning came to Marketing.com for help in overcoming this hurdle in the marketing process.  After developing a comprehensive understanding of the issues facing Browning, our team of marketing and tech experts devised a plan to help overcome the marketing and sales challenges presented.

The Solution

Once we understood the full scope of Browning’s safe troubles, we felt that Augmented Reality (AR) was the obvious solution.  Augmented reality is widely available through most smart devices and allows users to overlay images and real-time video capture with digital elements and interfaces.  Through collaboration with Browning’s Creative Division, we were able to recreate their Medallion series of safes with Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) and load these manipulable 3D models into what became the Browning Safe Builder app.

As highlighted earlier, the nature of firearms safes makes it difficult to demonstrate their value and features without hands-on experience, made all the more challenging by the inability to market them at trade shows.  In digitally recreating this product line, Browning was able to demonstrate the full spectrum of what they could offer with their safes, including but not limited to:

• Sizes
• Colors
• Decals
• Locking Mechanisms
• Interior Options (racks, shelving, pouches, etc.)

This collaboration has made it possible for any interested buyer to preview the full, feature-complete product line in any environment, building their safe to their preferred specifications and “placing” the CG model in various corners of their space until an ideal placement is found.  It effectively allows the user to get the full safe-buying experience from the comfort of their home, using only the device that is already in their pocket, without any of the physical labor or in-person interaction that previously stifled this stage in the marketing and sales process.

The Result

Through teamwork and communication, Browning and Marketing.com were able to identify the problems in marketing their safes by pooling resources and developing a modern and elegant solution that is easily accessible to all users.  Such modern solutions also provide valuable data to accurately assess the tangible impact that these creative solutions have.  The Browning Safe Builder app experienced a 30% uptick in usage during COVID shutdowns, with 25,000 active sessions of the application being logged to date. 

In the past few years AR has been proving itself as a useful tool in strengthening communications around products and increasing customer satisfaction.  This sort of “touchless preview” has made sense for a wide variety of other online purchases.  Its application towards Browning’s business greatly emphasizes the ways in which advancing technology streamlines the purchasing of enthusiast goods, taking a process that once required a specific marketing environment for these heavy items and making it an effortless, weightless, accessible experience.  If Browning’s success story has you considering the impact that AR could have on your business or project, please contact us to learn more about our unique problem-solving approaches.