Stand out or die

Stand out or die: how to survive in an era of cutthroat competition?

“Stand out or die: How to survive in the era of cutthroat competition? is the title of a famous book by Steve Rivkin and Jack Trout. Although it was published 20 years ago, its title maxim is undoubtedly still very valid. Today, in the era of hundreds of thousands of advertisements, standing out is extremely important. Both for debuting companies and those that have existed on the market for a long time. Companies try to outdo each other with more and more sophisticated campaigns, but they very rarely reach for them modern technologies and use standard solutions—screens, large-format displays, roll-ups, flyers, and online banners. The situation seems even more complicated with COVID-19 raging all around. The number of customers in brick-and-mortar stores has dropped significantly. As a result, attracting attention to windows or specific products in store spaces has become even more difficult.

Stand out with new technology

Ledholo works like a magnet here capturing the attention of potential customers. It’s simply impossible to walk past holographic images suspended in space without noticing them. Another advantage is transparency, which allows customers to see inside the store. And this raises the question: Why is this the case? Why do images with a holographic effect attract so much attention? How does this influence purchasing decisions? First, let’s refer to concepts well-known in psychology freshness effect and priority effect. Referring to Wikipedia we read:

“The recency effect consists in a stronger impact of information that came last (the freshest) than that which appeared earlier. The recency effect contrasts with the primacy effect - the phenomenon of better remembering information received at the beginning. The recency effect is related to the issue of changing attitudes. Researchers were interested in which effect would prevail: the recency effect or the primacy effect. This issue is examined within the framework of persuasive influence and attitude change."

Due to the fact that Ledholo is not yet used in every store, salon or service point, the message in the form of a holographic image becomes both the first and the last encoded in the customer's mind.

Emotions and 3D holograms

During our observations and research However, we have discovered an effect that seems to be a much more important point of impact of holographic images. We're talking about emotions here. Discoveries in neuromarketing have challenged the notion that humans are rational and economic beings. By analyzing brain responses, researchers have observed that emotions play a huge role in the customer’s decision-making process. A holographic image suspended in space—straight out of a science fiction movie—surprises, intrigues, captures attention, and delights, thanks to which triggers emotions. We often hear, especially from people who see Ledholo live for the first time: “cool", "wow” and standard questions from the series “how it's working”? It is emotions—not objective analysis—that drive us to make quick purchasing decisions. This psychological mechanism, however, applies only to the near future. We’re most guided by emotions when we have little time to make a choice. Which store should we go into, which showroom should we choose, which product should we buy? We answer these questions for ourselves all the time based on how we feel in the moment. Research led by Michel Tuan Pham of Columbia Business School has shown that the younger we are, the more we succumb to our emotions when under time pressure. And although older people tend to be more analytical, even when they’re in a hurry, in rushed situations our reliance on our feelings increases—and with it, our desire to acquire something that resonates with us.

Stand out or die. In Ledholo we have already decided.

As a start-up related to holographic technology, we know its advantages very well. We are happy to have 100% satisfied customers so far. Our tool, often appearing as something alien and new, and at the same time fascinating, is entering the current space more and more widely. We are constantly thinking about improvements, changes and development. Gesture or voice control will allow us to enter a completely new level of communication. That's why we're getting back to work to be able to show off more news as soon as possible.