Up until twenty-five years ago the idea of a different world existing inside of a computer was something that was just imagined in Hollywood movies. It was in 1982 that Tron became the first blockbuster to showcase the power of computer graphics and in the process introduced the real world to the concept of "Virtual Reality".

In recent years however online virtual worlds have become an established part of cyberspace, moving beyond their initial manifestation of video games to become the more complete simulations of reality offered in virtual environments such as Second Life and HiPiHi in China. Increasingly, virtual reality is now playing an important role in the world of marketing - both as a testing venue and as a new marketplace in its own right.

The manufacturers of packaged goods have found that virtual reality stores offer many advantages when testing early concepts and prototypes, especially in the areas of packaging design and merchandising materials. In particular, the approach is flexible and cost effective and the major 'real-world' hurdle of getting cooperation from the retailer to use their store is removed completely from the process.

Typically such virtual stores are used to simulate shopping trips, where test participants can take products off shelves, examine them and add them to their shopping basket should they wish.

But in addition to brand choice, other data can be collected and used to provide analysis of navigation through the virtual store and eye tracking data on the shelf visibility of products. Working with our partner, Berlin-based Eye-Square, JMI is able to provide heat maps and statistics both for the bird's eye view of the store from above and for specific category shelves:

Bird's eye: virtual store navigation	Evolving heat maps of shelves

Marketers are therefore able to measure which products are most effective in grabbing the initial attention of consumers (usually an unconscious process) and which products are able to hold that attention sufficiently long enough develop interest and interactions i.e. the pathway to becoming a product that is considered as a potential purchase.

Having established the typical patterns of movement and gaze in a virtual store set-up, it can be helpful to demonstrate these using individual "representative shoppers". This is done by creating so-called "avatars" or virtual consumers whose behaviors are shown in 3 dimensions. To see a sample click here.

So we see that it is now possible to gather all the data that would normally be collected in a shopper study conducted in a real store, using combined mobile eye tracking and a store traffic navigation systems, but from within a virtual store infrastructure.

The one area that still requires much improvement is that of ease of navigation within the virtual store, since not so many middle-aged housewives are adept at 3D video games! One common way around this is to automate the pull-through of the respondent to particular virtual category shelf, so that while the feeling of being in that retail outlet (e.g. a convenience store or a drugstore) is generated, the respondent is not left struggling to orientate themselves in the desired direction using a mouse or a joystick.

Finally, it should be added that validation studies that compare shopper behavior at virtual shelves with that observed at identical shelves in real stores, show a strong level of consistency in findings with respect to viewing patterns and brand choice.

Moving beyond the use of virtual stores as testing tools for the real world, the possibility also exists that online virtual environments can become markets in their own right. This is exactly the idea that Dentsu, Japan's leading advertising agency, had in mind in the recent launch of a new virtual city in Second Life, named "Virtual Tokyo".

Dentsu spent US$870,000 to acquire the 85 hectares that comprise Virtual Tokyo and aims to attract three million users within its first year. The company will use this infrastructure to host various events and hopes to make profits from clients that wish to advertise or open stores/offices in the Virtual Tokyo area.

Of course the same marketing ROI related issues will exist in the virtual environment as in the 'real' marketing world. i.e. How can a company be sure that online consumers are really noticing their marketing presence and that this presence is effective? In this regard, the same eye-tracking tools that are being used in virtual store tests can now be applied to measure the visibility of a billboard or storefront as consumers wander around the streets of Virtual Tokyo.

Going forward it is clear that virtual reality marketing environments will become more sophisticated and realistic as the power of the supporting technology grows. In the process the importance of such environments both for marketing simulation and as markets in their own right can only increase. Who would have thought that 25 years later Tron's virtual odyssey might have ended up in Virtual Tokyo, in a virtual drugstore, buying virtual shampoo?

For more information on virtual reality testing in Japan contact Jeff Matsui.