360 Degree Interactive Rotation of 3d Rendered Images
A great visual tool for showcasing products in a visually appealing way is the use of 360 degree interactive objects. The ability for the viewer to grab your product and spin it around is one more great visual marketing tool that can help demonstrate a complex product or assembly in 4 dimensions. This technology can be made to run in any browser environment. For the most compatibility, using html5 is the best option. The examples below are in html5 and can run on most internet browsers, as well as on android and iPhones, Ipads, etc. without the need for a plugin.
Example 1 – Interactive Spin of a Product Rendering
Example 2 – Interactive Spin of an Entire Rendered Wall Assembly
Example 3 – A 3d Interactive Model Inside a PDF Data Sheet
Just about every product manufacturer uses pdf files for their submittals and for product data sheets
Adobe Acrobat is installed on most computers
3d Interactive models can be embedded right in a pdf
Just some food for thought, if you’d like to have the nicest product data sheets in your industry or showcase your products on your web site with more flair, let’s talk!
When you break down the act of bringing a building product to the marketplace, you end up with a pretty simple equation.
The What = what the product is that you are selling
The How = how the product works, what it does, how it is used
The Why = why would someone choose this product?
Formula for bringing a building product to market = What + How + Why
It’s where the technical stuff and the marketing fluff come together
The What & the How
These are the technical details regarding your product. What is it made of? What does it look like? What sizes, shapes and variations is it available in? This information takes shape in the form of suggested cad details, written guide specifications, datasheets, installation instructions and many other technical forms. These materials are created through many different means depending on the culture, size and organization of a company.
Large corporations generally have a whole technical staff working on these things in conjunction with engineers and product designers, all in-house. Smaller companies sometimes have one person who is an expert on all the technical aspects of the products and tends to be a one person army tackling technical drawings,cad and technical writing duties. Others outsource the creation of these technical services to a company like mine to do some or all of their technical materials. While I enjoy doing these cad and bim drawings and basic technical illustrations and brochures, what gets me excited is combining these utilitarian materials with creative spark and marketing flair.
In my experience, working for companies of all shapes, sizes and cultures, is that they all suffer from a division between the technical aspects of their products ( the what and how) and the marketing aspects of their offerings ( the why). The technical materials, drawings and supporting information is always dry, boring and creatively uninspired.
The Why
Marketing, the way I see it, is taking a step back from the nuts and bolts of your products and taking a larger picture view of how take this carefully engineered and designed widget from the warehouse to the marketplace. It is a 20,000 foot view of your business, using old media, new media, advertising, glossy brochures and strategic planning to accomplish your business goals.
Marketing, like technical services, is done very differently from company to company. I have worked for companies who don’t have a marketing person at all. Some have an entire marketing staff and others hire out to marketing firms that specialize in construction marketing.
In all cases the challenges needs and strategies are largely the same. These are the need for a clear marketing message and a long term marketing plan along with the need to provide technical information about how this product is actually used.
In all cases a magical thing happens when these 2 disciplines are combined into 1 clear strategy if you draw 2 circles one representing marketing and the other technical services you arrive at the sweet spot of building product marketing. This is the place that I call “technical marketing”
Here is a recipe to arrive at the technical marketing sweet spot:
1. Make your marketing materials more technical
2 Make your technical materials more markety (definitely not a word)
3. Take 1 and 2 and stir
4. Take the results and run it through a sifter until you have removed all unnecessary elements that do not support your message or give too much un-needed information.
What you will end up with is simple effective Technical Marketing that will speak to architect and contractors with resonance
An example of this in action :
Example – BlokFlash by Mortar Net
Technical plus Marketing = resonance
This usually successful product is use for concrete block walls to allow water to escape safely. It solves a clear problem in the marketplace. This 1 drawing below communicates the technical aspects of how the product is used in a technically accurate and visually appealing way that communicates the what, how and the why all at onc. It does this in a way that speaks to architects as well as contractors and tradesmen alike and is equally suited to use in advertisements, brochures and suggested details.
Example in the form of an animation showing the how, what and why of a product :
Have you had frustration in bridging this gap between marketing and technical services? Let me know what you think . .
Building Product Marketing Step One – Present Your Products with Pride
Architects are your customers and they are visual people. They create visual experiences and they have spent most of their lives drawing things and viewing drawings done by others. If your drawings were done in 1995, they are going to know it immediately and they will certainly not have a wow experience viewing your products. More importantly, they will get the feeling that you do not take pride in your products. Their enthusiasm for your products cannot exceed yours, so if you do not show them a polished image of your product, you won’t sell them very well.
Architects, like many other business professionals work on a linear, time based fee structure. When you get down to it, they are exchanging time for money. Since they are largely responsible for deciding what products will be used on a project, in some ways they are professional shoppers.
Distilled down into it’s simplest form, in the context of marketing building products you have a very visual person for whom time is of the essence shopping for your products. If the time required for the brain to make a positive visual impression is only a tenth of a second, why not make sure that when that architect sees your product, they see the most beautiful image possible?
Before you start reading, researching and developing a thousand new ways to market your building products, take a step back and make sure the actualy drawings and details you show architects are making a positive impression. If they are not impressive, all the marketing speak and glossy brochures are going to be wasted.
The importance of first impressions in interpersonal interactions is something that we experience every day. The time honored adage “you never get a second chance to make a first impression” comes to mind. Countless research articles conclude that it takes just a tenth of a second for us to judge someone and make our first impression. Our brain circuitry performs a feat termed the “Amygdala Hijack” in which some direct inputs from our senses bypass our rational neo-cortex and responses to stimuli can begin before they are actually registered into consciousness. What does this have to do with building products? Through the use of high quality photo-realistic 3d renderings, products can make a great first impression in all technical and marketing materials online and offline.
The Power of 3d Renderings & Visual Impressions
I am far from a psychologist, but I believe that this same phenomenon holds true when we first see anything, whether it is another person, a web site, a car or even a building product. To grasp the importance of the visual appearance of a product, one does not have to look very hard. The visual experience of an Apple product is a huge part of their company’s meteoric success. Any time you see their product, whether you see it on their web site, in an advertisement or in one of their stores, the visual impression is consistently beautiful. Anyone who has had the experience of unboxing a new iphone or ipad knows that the first impression begins with the packaging. It is said that there is a room somewhere at Apple where people do nothing but design the packaging for their products. They are first impression specialists whose aim is simply to control the first impression of the product and make it exceed expectations. Do you have a first impression specialist for your products?
Does a Product Have Body Language?
In “Body Language: 7 Easy Lessons to Master the Silent Language”, James Borg states that human communication consists of 93 percent body language and non-verbal cues, while only 7% of communication consists of words themselves. A lot of time, energy and emphasis in social media marketing has been placed on the power of words. The blog has become an integral part of personal expression and the personalization and expression of a brand. While this is all great progress, let us not forget the other 93% of communication at our disposal. Can we exponentially increase our target market’s opinion of our product by improving the visual impression a product makes? Are marketers spending enough time on the visual representations of products even if they are not the most glamorous looking products?
3d rendering example of a water heater
Through the eyes of an Architect
Architects are visual people. I think at this point we all know that a consumer is going to decide after about 50 milliseconds whether to buy something from a web site based on it’s appearance. Building products need to make a great first impression on architects the same way. They should be presented in the best possible way using 3d renderings whenever a potential customer views your marketing materials, whether in print or online. There are many factors that can make or break your business success, some of which you control and some you do not. Visual Marketing is about knowing the difference and taking control of the visual impressions your product makes through the entire sales, marketing and technical support customer experience. 3d renderings, 3d animations and 3d details are all fundamental opportunities to make a positive impression.
Photography is not the only option
Every building product is different, some are very photogenic and easy to capture with professional photography – Yes, I said professional. A $2000 camera is nice, but it does not guarantee success. I am always amazed at what a real professional architectural or product photographer can do to make a building or a product look it’s best. Photography, however, is not the only option. 3d rendering has evolved over the last decade, and it is here to stay. So much so, that kickstarter.com has banned people from using 3d renderings to raise money for a business idea. While I find this ridiculous, it does show how powerful this medium has become in simulating reality using high end graphics. Below are some examples of 3d product renderings.
3d Renderings can do more than photography can
3d Photo Realistic Renderings can do things photography just cannot do
Most products used in the construction process are never seen once the building is completed. They are the unsung heroes. The workhorses of the building products industry, the unassuming defensive player, the drummer of the band. They’re not always the sexiest looking products, but they contain within themselves an inherent beauty of function. When something is manufactured to perform a function well, it’s form follows that function. It may not be beautiful in the traditional sense, but in a larger more deep and meaningful sense. These supporting cast members can be shown using 3d renderings in ways that photography just cannot capture. A wall can be cut open to show all the elements that make it work, and this can be done in stunning photographic detail using 3d renderings
Are your products making a great first impression?
Construction materials are not always the most glamorous of products, let’s face it, no matter how much pride, energy, research and development one puts into a concrete expansion anchor, not many of your customers are going to have an emotional experience looking at a metal anchor on your website. It’s just something they need to fasten that chunk of stone to another chunk of concrete that will be buried inside a wall. It is likely that the project architect or spec writer who chose that product will ever actually ever see it in person. Therefore, you don’t need to use images of your products to sell to them right?
YOUR PRODUCTS ARE BEAUTIFUL
“Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works” Steve Jobs.
When you show your products in your promotional materials, your installation instructions, your suggested details, the main goal is to show that the product is designed well. It will perform it’s function properly. The beauty of a functional object, which most construction products are, lies in it’s ability to perform. I see any well designed object as being intrinsically beautiful. If you don’t realize this, stop and look again at your products and see the beauty in them. If you show your customers ads, drawings, illustrations that draw attention to the beauty of the design – you just created an emotional connection leaving a positive impression.
