Body Scanner Proposal Description Body

Body Scanner

Proposal Description

Body Scanner is a software application that enhances the online clothes shopping experience. Body scanner is marketed to websites that retail clothing. The software requires the user to submit three photographs -- front, back and side -- and then these images are turned into a three-dimensional model "dummy" based on the user's own shape and size. This allows the user to "model" clothes virtually before buying.

The Body Scanner concept has a number of consumer behavior implications. The product is based on the idea that consumers behave differently in the online shopping environment than they do in stores, and that these differences have a negative impact on the amount of clothing that is purchased online. For clothing retailers, the Body Scanner serves to help overcome some of this behavior by better imitating the in-person shopping experience in the online environment. In addition, the marketing of Body Scanner will carry a significant consumer behavior component in that the modification of consumer behavior is a key marketing component. The ways that consumers respond to and utilize Body Scanner software will dictate how the product is marketing. This paper will analyze the consumer behavior elements of the Body Scanner marketing program, and will provide insight into the managerial implications of these insights.

The in-store clothes shopping experience for many consumers rely heavily on trying clothing on for fit and look. Because this is an essential part of the experience, businesses have had difficulty building the online market for clothing. Software to create virtual dummies has been in the works since at least 2004 (BBC, 2004) and firms are still trying to refine the product and introduce new versions (Way, 2010). Kim and Forsythe (2008) noted that two of the major factors determining the adoption of virtual try-on technology were technology anxiety and innovativeness. One of the key success factors for Body Scanner therefore will be to overcome these consumer behavior obstacles.

This was supported by the primary consumer research undertaken. This research consisted of a survey of 20 shoppers in an area shopping mall. The respondents were chosen at random and consisted of 11 females and 9 males. They ranged in age from 16-38. Each respondent was asked ten questions regarding to their online and offline shopping habits. It was determined in this survey that most consumers (70%) are reluctant to purchase clothing online. The most commonly cited reason (60%) was the inability to try the clothing on. The second-most popular response was the view that online shopping is less social than in-person shopping (20%). Those who responded that they wanted to try clothes on were asked about their experiences with virtual dummies. Of these 75% indicated that they had tried virtual dummies. 78% (7 total respondents) indicated that they did not trust virtual dummies. This supports Kim & Forsythe's finding that technological anxiety contributes to the difficulty in virtual dummy diffusion. Consumers simply do not trust the software that they have experience with.

In order for Body Scanner to succeed where other companies with this idea have failed, it is important to integrate these concerns that consumers have with the software development. Of the survey respondents who were reluctant to purchase clothing online, 86% (12 total respondents) indicated that they would be willing to purchase clothing online if they could trust virtual dummy software. This means that 90% of all consumers would be willing under the right conditions to purchase clothing online. The problem is that at present the right conditions simply to not exist, but Body Scanner could go a long way to creating those conditions if it is able to deliver superior virtual dummy software to consumers. The strategic implications of this analysis of consumer behavior are outlined in the coming pages.

Managerial Implications

Given that consumer trepidation with respect to the process is a major contributing factor to the relative reluctance on the part of consumers to embrace the software that is currently on the market, specific user-experience issues will need to be overcome. This highlights the need for strategic alliances. The software is only as good as its inputs. The consumer is responsible for his or her inputs from their photographs, but these need to be matched against the clothing that is being offered for sale. This requires clothing retailers and manufacturers to present their goods for scanning as well, so that the sizing is accurate and can be well-matched for the consumer. In essence, the software is going to work better if a small handful of companies work in close alliance with Body Scanner than if a large number of companies use the software in a generic way. One of the objectives of Body Scanner is to improve upon the existing software, so close alliances with major manufacturers and/or retailers is going to be necessary to improve upon the existing technology in a way that will reduce consumer anxiety.

The need for this close work also highlights the need for relationship marketing both at the consumer level and the enterprise level. Consumers will benefit more from the software if they are regular users and can overcome the learning curve -- it is expected that the software's outputs will be interpreted better by the users the more experience that they have with the software. The same is true for manufacturers. This emphasizes a key opportunity for Body Scanner -- both consumers and manufacturers are expected to see increased benefits from increased usage, so that creates an opportunity to use Body Scanner as a mechanism to bring consumers, manufacturers and retailers together based on the effectiveness of Body Scanner.

Based on the primary and secondary research, there are going to be two types of end users for Body Scanner. The first will have no technological anxiety, the second will. The first type will likely be characterized by the ability and willingness to use Body Scanner as a tool in online purchasing. The second type -- at this point this group is likely to be significant in size -- is likely to use Body Scanner as a complement. These consumers may be willing to work to some degree with Body Scanner but are not going to use Body Scanner outputs as the sole determinant in the purchase decision. Thus the enterprises with which we are partnered are going to see multiple types of purchasing decisions. They too will likely view Body Scanner as a complement to existing marketing channels rather than a substitute.

Our partners are also as likely as consumers to have differing degrees of comfort with new technology -- clothing is not necessarily the most technologically-advanced industry. As a result, it is important that Body Scanner incorporate as part of its marketing program steps and methods to help overcome technological anxiety on the part of both our enterprise partners and consumers alike. The latter can be addressed with online video tutorials, but the former will require a more hands-on approach, with training staff.

The marketing process should also be shaped in part by consideration of the evaluative process of our potential strategic partners and/or customers. While Body Scanner may be appeal to consumers without delivering rational economic benefits -- utility traits such as "fun" and "informative" may be sufficient -- our enterprise partners are expected to make the purchase decision based on rational economic benefits. There are two elements that must be considered here, with respect to managerial implications. The first is that there are competing products and we need to prove that Body Scanner is superior to them.

While some companies like Guess have licensed technology from partners, other firms such as MimicMe.com and possibly Toshiba/Digital Fashion are players in the freestanding software market. We can only deliver superior results on the basis of either superior performance or superior pricing. From a managerial perspective, this translates to a decision to either operate as a differentiated producer or a cost leader; Body Scanner will operate as a differentiated producer.

The other major implication is that Body Scanner needs to communicate the benefits of its software in a way that its potential customers will understand. Research needs to be conducted with respect to the benefits that firms can expect to receive if they implement Body Scanner, so that the product can be priced appropriately. Firms will only buy Body Scanner if they feel that they can receive a strong return on investment. Therefore, Body Scanner needs to be able to quantify for its potential customers what those returns might be.

Body Scanner will thus be marketed to strategic partners based on personal sales. The sales people will also have training people to help explain the technology to the it staff at the clothing firms as well as the marketing staff. Personal sales relationships will need to be built. In addition, Body Scanner will need to invest heavily in R&D in order to maintain the technological superiority of the product, as it is expected that there will be a number of competing products entering the market and Body Scanner intends to pursue a differentiated strategy. For the parent company, the potential market is significant; Body Scanner should be test-marketed with one or two key partners prior to full scale release. It is expected that Body Scanner will be in full launch in time for the holiday shopping season.

Ethical Implications

There are two major types of ethical implications that can arise from Body Scanner software. The first is that consumers are going to have three-dimensional images of themselves loaded onto the Internet. Thus, security concerns are paramount as these images may be considered sensitive, especially if consumers are partially undressed for the pictures. It is necessary that Body Scanner protect its consumers and their images using all available measures. This is especially true it dealing with partners, since those images may need to be made available to the partners (or not, depending on how the system is designed). There are also security issues associated with customer data, which will also be gathered. Both the data and the images must be given high levels of protection in order to help consumers overcome the trust gap with respect to the virtual dummy concept and Body Scanner in particular.