Throughout the years, the marketing sectors has been using cutting edge technology to promote products. What appears to be a current and future trend, however, is AR technology. This is due to the fact that the possibilities of AR are near limitless. Be it through phone advertising or AR storefronts, it has been attracting more people into the advertised products. Not only does it create buzz around the brand, but also people are able to try their product, without having to wear or transfer it, reducing the number of returns, and saving staff precious time (Klavins, n.d.). Sometimes it may also come as a feature that could be marketed. Brands such as Hyundai (Anon., n.d.) have been using AR as a selling feature. Cars are able to present information about the car through AR, aiding the user in checking for engine issues in case the car breaks down.
The future of AR although not set in stone, looks quite promising. Devices such as smart glasses and smart contact lenses have a lot of untapped potential when it comes to marketing. If such devices keep on evolving, it would be easy to use them for marketing purposes. Showing people 3D graphics and giving them the ability to try on clothes or create their one house interior is going to lure a lot of potential clients. The question is, will people buy into such devices? It entirely depends on their cost and usability for other applications. If companies such as Google manage to overcome the many issues they currently face with the devices, marketing will finally have a new tool to work with (Anon., n.d.). In my personal opinion it may be closer than we think.
Very interesting blog! Within the marketing sector, AR is indeed a widely used and successful technology. For attracting new customers or informing current customers it is very useful, as you mentioned in the example with trying on clothes. Moreover, with AR it is possible to hold the attention of (potential) customers for a longer period of time and increase the effect of memory. Other possibilities that AR provides is to see how a product fits into an environment, take for example the application of CoolBlue with which you can already see the size of your future television.