Specialties

The brief

Showroom-like but more than a simple product display, the Infiniti Brand Experience Centre was envisioned as a temporary space for customer experience research and testing smart retail systems prior to their nationwide adoption. The Centre’s engaging, immersive customer experience would also help to boost brand preference and sales.

Insight

Applications of new retail technologies and big data would enable the Centre to demonstrate how ‘smart retail’ can develop effective communications with customers.

Solution

For the Pico team, a major part of the project was activating the interactivity and technological experience that lay at the core of the Centre. Visitors’ first contact with the Centre was via a Pico-designed H5 page which seamlessly combined pre-event invitation, on-site exhibition and after-sales services. Regardless of time or their location, visitors could then immerse themselves into ‘Daily driving’, ‘User digital communication’ and ‘Diversified brand’ experiences.

In the Centre’s interactive zones, Pico provided hardware and technical support for augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) experiences. Visitors engage with the AR through tablets and models, while additional brand details can be explored in a carefully constructed AR/MR journey. Elsewhere, interconnected touch and projection screens present product highlights as an interactive experience with rich audio and video elements. The facility also offers test drives and after-sale pickup services.

As installed by Pico, the facility’s facial recognition system was particularly sophisticated. Pico integrated resources from all parties involved to create a complete data chain for the client. The system scanned visitors’ faces upon entry, transmitting the data to a back-end database. Records of existing customers’ past consumption behaviour are then sent to salespersons, enabling the latter to tailor their services to individual needs. Other information such as customers’ names, products of interest, zones visited and time spent, and even estimated times to completing sales, is collected and compiled into big data to facilitate the sales process and future activities.

The database resulting from this integrated system of data collection, sales, test drives and after-sales service is the basis of a ‘one-stop’ shop which will eventually be a feature of all Infiniti showrooms in China. Based on records of past behaviour, showroom staff can immediately attend to the preferences of visitors and offer more convenient service.

Though intended for only two months of operation, the Centre looks very much like an Infiniti showroom – albeit an unusually stunning one. Pico built the facility’s gleaming white display stand, which sweeps from inside to the exterior through a transparent full-height glass panel. Overall, the look is modern Japanese minimalist, mixing icy white surfaces with the warmth of wood, with piano background music accentuating the elegance of the QX50 model on display.