Before the creation of a product, many leading companies chose to work with a 3D rendering freelancer to have a render of the potential product made. These renders are kept long after the product has been made in order to help paint a clear picture of what past renders of the product looked like. Even though old products can be easily saved, and new products mocked up, the most forward-thinking companies choose to get these renders done instead of or alongside mockups.
These renders are usually referred to as product visualization. To small businesses, this may seem like a waste of valuable resources, but product visualization has become an important business strategy. Despite its initial expense, product visualization can help companies grow.
That’s because there are far more uses for detailed 3D renders of a product no matter what the production stage is. Product visualization can prevent expensive mistakes, help attract new customers, and keep old customers coming back for more.
What Is Product Visualization Exactly?
Product visualization can be a 3D architectural visualization or a product. These renders make it so that the product can be looked at before it is created, during the process of creation and as a way of looking at the history of past products.
Renders have come a long way since the first computer-generated graphics became available, and high-quality renderings are indistinguishable from the real thing. This helps business owners in a variety of ways, giving them a crystal clear idea of what a potential product might look like, and the ability to make changes before the product is made—saving critical resources and money.
Before the advent of product visualization, customers often had to rely on their imagination to visualize what would eventually be built. These might have been supported by sketches and descriptions, but what came to mind sometimes wasn’t similar to what was actually built.
With 3D product renders, it’s possible to see exactly what designers have in mind, and to work out flaws or make changes in the beginning stages when changes are still relatively easy. It has changed the face of how design happens.
If you’re curious about how product visualization can help your business, here are 5 important ways product visualization can help you.
1) Improves Form and Function of Products
Quality design is the hallmark of a good product. Popular products are well-loved because they function the way they are supposed to, are ergonomic, user-friendly, and hopefully beautiful as well. During the creation process, it’s easy to nail some parts of the process while neglecting others.
Getting a visualization of your product can help you spy potentially embarrassing problems before they reach the production stage. While looking at hilarious product design fails is fun if you’re not the freelance product designer, it’s quite an eye-opener when you realize they could all be your product.
No company is immune to design fails, not even products sponsored by the government. In 1998, the Bureau for At-Risk Youth had to recall pencils meant to discourage drug use in children because a child pointed out that the message changed as you sharpened it. The first message read, “Too cool to do drugs” but after it was sharpened it read “Cool to do drugs” and finally “Do drugs.” This obviously gave a very different message than the one that was intended.
Even just a 2D CAD draft can work to help you imagine the design better, but 3D models can create vivid, lifelike images that are much easier to work with, and may even help with manufacturing later on.
2) Helps Generate New Leads
Gathering the money for a new startup is the hardest part of having a business. One way to gain interest from investors is to show the potential product at a trade show. No matter how cool your idea is, a sketch of it simply won’t convey the possibilities your new gadget has—but a detailed 3D replica might just do it.
3D product animation allows you to show the product from every possible angle, even if it isn’t quite ready for a physical replica yet, or you don’t have the funds to make a mock-up.
There is a glut of potential investment ventures these days. In order to stand out and get ahead, you need truly spectacular visuals that will give potential investors a clear idea of what is available.
New investors aren’t the only people you might get the attention of. New customers excited about the product may be eager to get on board and spread the news. These early customers are critical to the success of a new business, and if investors are hard to come by, can sometimes be the solution to a start-up through crowdsourcing.
3) Can Be Used as An Advertising Strategy
The process of getting new products out is a long one. In order to advertise the product, you need to have at least a mock-up made, sent to a studio, photographed, and hopefully not changed in any way until time for the product to be sold.
If the product is changed, the advertising campaign is useless, and the whole process has to begin again. Advertising can cost thousands or even millions of dollars and has to coincide with the launch of the product for the best reach. A delay could be disastrous for the launch of the product, even when you don’t consider the expense of replacing the advertising campaign.
With product visualization, hyper-realistic, photo-like renderings can be created in order to generate interest with potential customers before the product is finished. Even in the case of a completed product, using renders instead of the actual product can save time and money, since the product doesn’t have to be moved around.
This makes advertising much more cost-effective, and changes are simple if the product gets redesigned or if other things need to be changed to fit current customer dynamics. Being able to change at a moments notice is critical to staying ahead in a competitive world, and product visualization is a key part of that.
4) Can Help Draw Repeat Customers
In 2015, a photo of a dress swept the internet as millions of people argued a rather strange question—was the dress blue or yellow? While this lead to fascinating discussions among scientists about how people perceive color, you don’t necessarily want people to be confused about the color or texture of a product when it comes time to order your product.
Product visualization can help take the guesswork out of it by making an exact likeness of the product, in a way that can’t fail in terms of lighting or angle. If the product is of high quality, it doesn’t need to be presented in a way that obscures its good features, and a properly made rendering can help show its exact color without disappointing people who thought they were getting teal from a too light photo, and instead are getting an aquamarine.
Renderings can sometimes be used to unfairly show a product as more sturdy than it actually is, but they should never be used this way. A customer who buys once will quickly discover its flaws, and fail to buy again.
5) Can Help Create a Story for Your Product
Regardless of what sort of product it is, most products are aimed at a particular demographic of people. Whether it is a sippy cup aimed towards making lives easier for mothers, to a high tech gadget aimed toward businessmen on the go, the product is designed with someone specific in mind.
How you present your product will help make it clear who it is for. You wouldn’t surround a briefcase you’re hoping to sell with rustic images of cows and cornfields anymore than you would try to sell trendy clothes for teenagers with a backdrop of a retirement community.
Product visualization isn’t just about the product itself. You can make who it is for clear with the background as well. Setting up a sleek and modern background, a refreshing and natural background, or a professional setting can all help guide customers to who this product is aimed at.
Getting a new product off the ground, vamping up an old product, or simply trying to improve sales are all important parts of business. Product visualization is an important part of any business model, allowing you to increase sales, improve communication, and make complex changes to the appearance possible late in the game. No matter what your product is, having a high-quality render of your product done can be a critical part of the success of its story.
If you haven’t looked at how product visualization can help your company succeed, there has never been a better time than now. 3D product visualization is much more mainstream than it used to be, and getting a high-quality render is easy and readily available. Save time and money by incorporating this critical process into your product creation strategies. If you’re looking for help, contact us today for a free quote.