Success Story
How Cherry uses virtual showrooms to drive sales and strengthen their brand
Cherry is a globally active manufacturer of high-end switches for mechanical keyboards and computer input devices. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, their business focuses on mechanical keyboard switches for gaming keyboards and peripherals used in a variety of settings – mainly for office & industry equipment, cybersecurity protection, telematics solutions for healthcare practices as well as gaming. Since their foundation in 1953, Cherry stands for premium quality products designed and developed specifically for the needs of its customers. As of March 31, 2021, the Group has more than 500 employees (FTE) in production facilities and offices in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan), Austria and the United States.
Making products tangible for customers
Enterprises all over the globe are always on the lookout for new ways to get their message out to their audiences, and in saturated markets one soon finds that even the best products rarely promote themselves. Striving to find innovative ways to market their brands and products, Cherry aimed to enhance their portfolio by utilizing state-of-the-art technology to engage customers. As a diverse brand with solutions for fundamentally different industries, Cherry faced the challenge of presenting their entire product range in one coherent project that still felt natural and tangible for viewers. Wanting to avoid abstract explanatory text in order to familiarize consumers with their products, Cherry was aiming for an interactive and “closer to the action” approach to directly visualize the use and benefits of the different Cherry products.
Promoting the brand with a comprehensive virtual showroom
To achieve such a feat, they found Virtual Reality as an immersive technology to be the best choice. Since the necessary know-how for creating virtual reality solutions was lacking internally, VRdirect was chosen as a reliable partner responsible for development and implementation. In addition to the fast and efficient solution and the capability to combine 3D models and real environments, the choice fell on VRdirect primarily because the user-friendly VRdirect platform also allows continuous and independent support of the solution through Cherry. Seamless integration into the company’s marketing and sales effort is achieved through the publication on Cherry’s marketing website and the inclusion of external links in the solution. The Virtual Reality solution thus becomes an integral part of the sales funnel. Rolf Unterberger, CEO of Cherry, is particularly enthusiastic about the innovative potential of the new solution:
„VRdirect enabled us to present our product portfolio in a virtual and interactive environment, showcasing real use-case scenarios that are usually inaccessible to clients. This state-of-the-art technology represents and compliments Cherry’s innovative and advanced philosophy in a perfect way.”
Rolf Unterberger
CEO / Cherry
In close collaboration with Cherry, VRdirect developed a comprehensive virtual showroom that combines every product department of Cherry in a shared environment. By visualizing products in real-life application scenarios, viewers get a clear and concise picture of how Cherry products can help them in their everyday lives. The high degree of immersion conveys the company’s advertising messages in a lasting way. Via the VRdirect platform, Cherry’s showroom is not only available on their website, but also on all VR-ready devices, smartphones and web browsers in general.
Powerful tool for Sales & Marketing
The constant availability on a multitude of devices combined with the possibility of updating their solution in real-time allows Cherry employees to apply it numerous ways. Sales representatives and marketing specialists are now able to give customers and prospects immediate access to the virtual showroom, instantly increasing the tangibility of products and application scenarios for interested users without artificial barriers regarding necessary equipment. By offering customers a more efficient and comprehensive overview over products, Cherry employees actively save time and money, freeing up resources throughout the entire sales department.
The implementation of innovative technology like Virtual Reality leads to a clearer distinction from competitors, further improving brand awareness and perception. The preparation of necessary materials for the solution led to a close internal collaboration between Cherry’s sub-departments resulting in a better overview over their product portfolio, which in turn facilitated departmental consistency and enabled the definition of a more concise target group and USPs. The VRdirect platform allows for instant publication worldwide, making the showroom applicable for a large target audience.
Great foundation for Cherry’s Virtual Reality ecosystem
The launch of Cherry’s virtual showroom concludes the company’s first major Virtual Reality project. With it, Cherry laid the foundation for the successful implementation of immersive technology in everyday business. With the easy-to-use VRdirect platform, departments are now able to independently maintain and enhance their solution with no need for development skills. For the future, Cherry is also looking into expanding the use of Virtual Reality for individual departments, where products and features will be displayed in more detail and in a more target-group-oriented way.
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Nestlé began integrating Virtual Reality into the company early on, for instance to improve employee safety through flexible learning. A current example is the Girona
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Ensuring the safety and health of their employees is an important and ever-present matter for companies worldwide. Immersive technology like Virtual Reality elevates the learning effect for employees, helping them to grasp the training content faster as well as to apply them more confidently. Siemens has acknowledged exactly this and successfully implements Virtual Reality to train its employees.
