5 Ways Augmented Reality Can Level Up Your Food & Beverage Business.

By Assemblr Blog on 28-April-2021. To visit original blog, click here.

Technology turns out to be the game-changer for your food & beverage business – not only as a gimmick, but also as a helpful tool. Interestingly, one research in 2017 finds out that 73% of diners agree that restaurant technology can improve their customer experience. So, probably it's now your time to incorporate technology for your F&B business. While there are many advancing technologies out there that you can pick, you might want to try using augmented reality.    

But the question is this: Why? Why augmented reality? 

Say no more! In this article, we will break down 5 ways how augmented reality can boost up your restaurants or food & beverage industry. Check this out! 

1. Create popped-up AR menu  

Ever seen those food displays? Yup, we know... Those super realistic and mouth-watering visuals. But what if you can escalate this whole experience with augmented reality?  

People can scan your menu and view the visualization of the menu, coming alive in front of them.  

Not only that it's entertaining (and tempting for your customers as well!), you can also educate your customers with the nutrition and the ingredients of the menu.  

Bareburger, a burger chain based on New York was one of the first restaurants to incorporate AR on their food menu using Snapchat. Take a look below!  

Another option you can try is to go paperless. Instead of providing a full menu book, you can simplify it into one QR barcode or customized image, displayed on each table.  

Then, ask your customers to scan it with their phones, so they can see the menu popped up. Aside from being super convenient, your customers will also be entertained as well. It's a whole new experience!  

2. Insert interactive AR on product packaging  

As people process visual information 60.000 times faster than text, it is no doubt that product packaging with engaging visuals will win more customers.  

So, what kind of visuals can we use? Augmented reality to the rescue!  

You can inject AR into your packaging, and customers can obtain interactive information in one scan away. Take an example from Jack Daniel's, the renowned and top-selling American whiskey in the world.  

The company wants to share the journey of how they make the whiskey, as well as the story behind the founder, Mr. Jack Daniel.  To realize their idea, the brand created Jack Daniel's AR Experience, an AR app available to download on Play Store and App Store.

People can simply go to the app and scan the bottle to take a closer look about the stories through an AR popped-up book. 30 days after it's launched, there are over 30.000 iOS and Android users who watched the Jack Stories!  

3. Boost up customer experience  

People don't only buy food or drinks. They also expect great service and experience. Hence, it's no doubt that customer experience is one of the factors that plays a great role.

To elevate your customer experience, gamifying your restaurant brand could be one of the things. AR games, to be exact. How does it correlate?  

With an AR-enabled game, people can engage with your brand, enjoy the experiences, and by the end of the game, you can reward them with discounts as well.  

People just have to scan the markers provided to immerse themselves in fun AR games, and they can win various discounts and freebies. It's proven to elevate the customer experience!  Chipotle, a fast casual restaurant in the United States, also adapted AR to boost up their customer experience.  

Photo: Chipotle Scarecrow (App Store)    

They developed an app, called The Scarecrow to educate yet entertain their customers about how they obtain their ingredients. And the good news is, people also get incentives once they complete the levels!  

4. Build viral marketing campaign  

Creating a viral marketing is a big obstacle for every brand to tackle. You need a big, wild, and fresh idea to make it happen.  

To visualize your idea, sometimes images or videos may not be enough. You need more tools with bigger capacities. And that's when augmented reality can help you.  

Knowing that fact, Burger King Brazil built a viral marketing campaign, entitled Burn That Ad. All people can participate by pointing their phone camera towards the print, coupon, and billboard ads of Burger King's competitors.  

Then, an augmented reality flame will "burn" the ads, and people can get a free Whopper in return. This particular ad not only attracts more customers, but also reaffirm the humorous brand identity of Burger King.  

And the result? This campaign became the Grand Prix of WAVE Festival 2019 for its mobile category, and won other awards too in Cannes Lions and Clio Awards. Impressive, right?  

5. Train your new employees  

These days, augmented reality has become a tool that is powerful and helpful in the industry, especially to conduct staff training.  

With AR, employees can train in a safer, cheaper, and more effective way. It's also promising in practicing soft skills, such as empathy and teamwork.  

If you think there's no augmented reality tool designed specifically for the F&B staff training, you're wrong. A research study once used an AR tool called ServAR to analyse the usability and impact of the app for standard food servings. 

Photo: International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity    

The idea came from the fact that how struggling it is to estimate standard serve sizes precisely and consistently. And in conclusion, the study confirmed that AR is effective to help trainees overcome the process.  

Besides, AR headsets can also help technicians in repairing or maintaining products, so they can disassemble and reassemble products virtually.  

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