Cross Marketing Launches Virtual Store Environment

Tokyo-based Cross Marketing Group (CMG) has launched a service called Virtual Insight 360° View, which builds a panoramic virtual store space from images and videos of an actual store, to provide an environment for surveying and observing participating shoppers.

Cross, which is the owner of research agency Kadence, worked with visual communication software expert amana.inc to create a product offering 360° viewing - research participants can see up and down, left and right. Clients can use its 'virtual merchandise evaluation survey environment' to observe research participants anywhere in the world walking around a virtual store space, looking at products, and making choices; and Cross says there is 'no limit' to variables such as shelf layouts, package design or the design of research environments.

Yukihiko Okumura (pictured), Cross' Executive Manager of Marketing, says the 'totally new' service is 'a combination of market research and cutting-edge technologies, which is outside of the scope of ordinary market research', and adds: 'We are confident that we can offer our clients high cost performance as well as additional benefits. We will continue improving this service and strengthening our clients' problem solving abilities'.

Web site: http://en.cm-group.co.jp .