Seeing the Most Direct Path to Revenue in Augmented Reality

The Challenge:

Augmented Reality (AR) is an emerging technology with hundreds of potential commercial applications.  A leading provider of AR headsets already had success within the medical and dental sectors but wanted to know where to focus its efforts as it aimed to enter the industrial and manufacturing arena.  They lacked the time and resources to assess which applications were the best fit for their technology and could result in solid revenue streams in short order, so they asked Skoping to help them figure it out.

The Approach:

We started by focusing on 4 sectors that were identified as having multiple potential applications for AR technology:  Automotive manufacturing, Oil & Gas, Mining and Land Surveying.  We then gathered info on processes and functions within each where workers typically need to access information as part of the work process.  Utilizing industry and government data, we were able to quantify the number of potential workers within each sector that might benefit from the use of AR, giving our client an initial sense of the potential size of these markets.  We then conducted primary market research with operations executives and decision makers at 3 dozen leading companies within the 4 sectors to validate specific applications where AR could solve a key pain point vs. their current methods.  We then shared a prototype AR product and spec sheet with them and got their reactions, as well as identifying the key requirements that the product must include in order to be a viable solution.   

The Result:

Based on our detailed analysis and research, one sector clearly emerged as the best entry point into the Industrial/Manufacturing sector for our client, due to the compelling needs/benefits that AR could deliver, the size of the opportunity and because it would require only minimal changes to the current product.  If the client could add some new capabilities to its product, one other sector would also be attractive to pursue as the AR device could command a significantly higher price and competition would likely be more limited.  In addition to identifying the top applications within the 2 sectors to pursue, Skoping was able to provide the client with clarity around the messaging and methods to use to market the products.

The Bottom Line:

Armed with the detailed assessment of the four sectors, our client had a clear view of how to proceed.  They applied the findings to focus their product development on modifying their offering to pursue the first sector and developed a marketing and sales strategy to target it.  They also began development of their next generation product with added features, enabling them to pursue the second market.

Our manufacturing sector experience includes industrial automation, robotics, injection molding, packaging and labels, textiles, physical security devices and building automation systems.

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