(Note: Answer the Q# 1,2,3)

Chap 10 / Super Making 419 REAL WORLD CASE Kimberly-Clark Corp.: Shopping for Virtual Products in Virtual Stores sing a new cool developed by Kimberly-Clark Corp, a woman stood surrounded by three screens showing a sure aisle, a recina tracking device re- cording her every glance. At Kimberly-Clark, innovacion doesn't stop with developing more-absorbent diapers or stronger paper towels. The consumer-goods maker also is using IT to help retailers market and sell products and not just the ons made by Kimberly-Clark. Virtual reality technology has found is footing in many industries and applications, including health care, sutom tive, and aerospace. Now, consumer goods manufacturer Kimberly-Clark has incorporated proprietary virtual reality technology into is new Innovation Design Studio, and it ex pects big payback from its technological leap. Asked by a Kimberly-Clark researcher to find a hig box of Huggies Natural Print diapers in sine three, the woman pushed forward on a handle like that of a shopping car, and the video simulated her progres down the aisle. Sporting the distinctive red padlages of Hugis, she turned the handle the right to face a dorrying antay of diapers. After pushing a button to get Inceling view of the shelves, she reached forward and apped the screen to put the box she wanted in her viruslar Kimberly-Clark hopes these virtual shopping sides will help it better understand consumer behavior and make the testing of new products fester, more convenient, and more precise The mobile testing unit is usually based in a new high-tech studio that Kimberly Clark completed in the basement of a nondescript office building in Appleton, Wisconsin. The day- mous room also features a shaped floor-to-ceiling screen that re-creste in vivid detail interiors of the big retailers that sell the company's produces tool that the company will be in presentations to ctecutives in bids twin shelf space. A sepa rate ses is reserved for real replicas of stre interiors, which can be customized to match the flooring, light fixtures, and shelves of retailers such as 'Targer Corp. and Walmart Stres Inc. As the fragmented television market rises doubts about the effectiveness of traditional ads and competition for shelf space increases, manufacturers and retailers are intensifying their focus on ways to get consumers' attention while they site in the more. The efforts go well beyond the wul cardboard displays and sample handouts. A group including manufacturers Procter & Gamble Co., Coca-Cola Co, and General Mills Inc., and retailers Kroger Co. and Walmart announced the results of a text that tracked shoppers' movement in stores - ing a combination of infrared heste sand human observation. Nielsen Co plans to syndicate such data and sell it to clienis, much as it does with television ratings "By engaging ourselves and our customers in this virtual world, we can spark better ideas to improve the shopping experience and collaborate on new product concepts and in- novations," says Ramin Elvez, Kimberly-Clark vice presi- dent of North Adancic Insight, Strategy and Growth Kimberly-Clark says its studio allows researchers and designers to get a fast read on new product designs and dis- plays without having to stage real-life teses in the early stages of development. Doing the research in a windowless hase ment, rather than an actual test market, albo avoid tipping off competitors early in the development proces "We're trying to test ideas faster, cheaper and better," says lamin Eivu, a vice president Kimberly-Clark focus ing on site Before, new product testing ypically took eight months to two years. Now, that time is cut in half, he says. Projects that rest well with the virtual reality tools will be sex-tracked to real-store trials, Melissays Once product design options have been determined Kimberly-Clark bring retail executives into the studio so they can see how the new product would actually look on the shelf and fit in with the existing somentan important factor in decisions the retailers make on space The company declined to reveal how much it spent to build the Appleton studio. "We made a significant invest- ment in the studio and expect it will yield a positive return with our customers in the future," a spokesman says. The battle for shelf space is accelerating sa consumer- products companies have introduced more and more new products. Meanwhile, retailers are churning out more of their own private-label products. The rate of new-product launches has grown steadily since 2000, with more than 40,000 new packaged-goods introductions in 2007, says Tom FIGURE 10.23 Virtual reality technologies enable companies to develop and test new products without actually making them So Tir Hasiun Lancer Vierhile, director of Productscan Online, market research firm Datamonitor duabuse of new products. However, Kimberly-Clark is particularly enthusiastic about how the design center can help is retail partners im- prove their in-wore designs and merchandising. For cuample, using the virtual reality technology and K-C SmartStation, the manufacturer can create store modek, allowing retailers to envision hypothesisl suure designs and merchandising concepts. Likewise, eye-wacking technology in the high-tech biosk allows the study of consumers' reactions in simulated shopping settings to determine how different environments or packaging aller buying decisions Inside the center's virtual reality theater, visitors are sur- rounded by screens on which rear projection equipment dis- plays virtual images powered by applicacions running on eight Hewlett-Packard high-end rack-mount PCs. The sys- tem's 3-D capabilities were developed with Red DotSquare Sensors embedded in the walk, ceilings, and floor detect the visitors' movements, track their locations, and can even tell coactly what they're looking at, says Kurt Schweitzer, direc- tor, IT busines parmer for marketing strategy and innov- tion. This allows the system to further immerse visitors by making things happen around them, such as opening a door near where they're standing or changing their perspective on what's going on, he says. The center les store manages use multiple senses and not just visualization to axes product display effectiveness Schweizer says. The front screen of the immersion center is more than 20 feet wide and is flanked by two side screens that rex a 45-degree angles, creating a wraparound effect. The wings can move inward to 90-degree angles, form- ing a three-sided box. "When you step into thar B-foot-high physical space, the word immersive takes on a whole new meaning, Schweiger says. To sel retailers on new products, manufacturers are re- vealing more about their product pipelines to drum up inter- est early on. Over the past several months, Kimberly Clark says it has brought in executives from major chains, induding Targes, Walmart and Kroger, to see the Appleton facility Kimberly-Clark is the data from iss virtual reality tests with consumers to tou how products in development perfom. "It no longer words to show up on a retailer's doorstep with your new product and say, "Isn't this pretty?" Mr. Eva says "We need to be an indispensable partner to our retail- ets and show we can do more for them." When grocery chain Safeway Inc. asked its major mamu- facturers for display suggestions to lift waffic through its center aisls in late 2005, Kimberly-Clark used an early ver- sion of the virtual reality modeling technology it was devel- oping for the new studio to pitch for more room for is Huggies diapers and other baby products. The company created three-dimensional models of a store display that re- sembled a nursery, complete with a giant, colorfid bathub. The company had consumers navigate the store virmally, testing how easily they could find certain items in the ares "We hadn't seen the type of technology applied to that type of traditional merchandising and store decor before." says Michael Minasi, Safeway's president of marketing When it tested the display inside is stores, sales of items in that section increased. Nevertheless, in the end, reality set limits. Some of the decor and decoration components were easier to do virmally than they were to do in the real world, mostly from a cost and implementation standpoint," Minasi says. However, a version of Kimberly Clarks concept was put in place at a handful of Safeway store In the store-model section of its new studio, Kimberly- Clark goes to elaborate lengths with its re-creations aimed to impress retsalenutive Once, the company readied the stu- dio for visitors from Targe. The store branded shopping Es were lined up at the doorway, next to a stand holding re- cent Targer sales fliers and a faux AT'M. Standing behind a pharmacy counter was a Kimberly-Clark employee outfined in Ishcoat with a Targer logo. Targers standard white ciles.com ered the floor, is beige light fixurshungsbove, and Targer store shelves were fully stocked with diapers and other baby products made by Kimberly-Clark and its competitors. "What if you just spent a lot of money on a packages shade of red but it doesn't look good in their store?" says Don Quigley, president of Kimberly-Clarks consumer sales and customer developmen, North America. "This is where you can spor that, before you ship a single case of product." Same: Adgaro bilen Byron, "A Viral View of the Seals." WAYS Oceastas. 2007. Jilljuk, Kinderly-Clark limba Virtual Realillary, December 1, 2017 and Marian Kolback M. "Informacion Veck son Kimberly Clarks Viral Prades Demo Come Vide Rallidos HS Mare Produk Squasher 17,200 CASE STUDY QUESTIONS REAL WORLD ACTIVITIES 1. What is the current cutting-edge technology in virtual reality, and how are companies using it Go online to research this topic and prepare a presentation to share your work 1. What are the business benefits derived from the technol- ogty implementation described in the case? Also disces benefits other than those explicitly mentioned in the case. 2. Are virtual stures like this one just an incremental inno vacion on the way marketing tests new product designs? Or do they have the potential to radically reinvent the way these companies work? Explain your respons 3. What other industries could benefit from deployments of virtual reality like the one discussed in the case Leaving aside the cost of the technology, what new products or services could you envision within those industries? Provide several examples 2. With technologies like these will consumers entirely do away with retailers sometime in the future, shopping only through virtual representations of a retail store will consumers even want it to look like a retail store Break into small groups to propose arguments for and against these questions