Highlights:
Revised product messaging created significant interest
Creating a software box gives the impression of easy to use
The machine vision industry continues to rapidly develop and has many sub-segments defined by technology and application, but all with confusing claims. One segment is vision guidance for robots. Braintech has a truly unique technology called eVisionFactory, or eVF, that provides stationary robots with the ability to locate a freely-positioned workpiece using a single camera and adjust the operating parameters according to the workpiece’s location. Braintech was using "single camera 3D" to describe this key feature, but it wasn't driving the right message home to the target audience. The phrases focuses attention on the fact that a single camera is used, rather than the value provided by the underlying software that enables vision engineers to rapidly configure and use vision guidance for robotics.
We found through customer interviews that robots using vision guidance typically require custom programming to set up the robot to perform specific tasks. And the vision system components themselves require integration and programming for each unique application. Obviously, it becomes very expensive and time consuming to set up and reconfigure a complete manufacturing line using multiple robot stations – and it requires specialized knowledge.
Really, manufacturing and robot vision engineers were looking for a software platform to build their own solutions “on the fly” so that robots could easily be set-up and adapted for new tasks as required. So that's what we let them know Braintech has. The main positioning message was changed from the existing “single camera 3D” to “easily build 3D vision guidance applications” to focus prospective customers on the fact that it really is just a “point and click” software application they can use themselves to create robot vision applications in just a few hours. To reinforce the message we created software boxes to give the solution an “off the shelf” feel, and developed a product logo.
The new messaging was also used at the Robots and Vision Show on Braintech’s display booth and in an oversize explanatory brochure. With the new message, Braintech received four times the expected interest at the show. Comments from the competition (such as "You can't do this to us!") along with some serious discussions initiated with major manufacturers, showed that Braintech had hit the mark.
