Service Design & Marketing Strategy
Creating Outstandingly Cohesive Experiences
An international footwear and accessories company in Singapore approached us, aiming to find a way to stand out from their competitors that offer similar products for comparable prices. The project took 3 months for completion, resulting in a successful delivery of a service excellence and marketing strategy, powered by a unified brand identity.
Role
Service Designer & Project Lead
Responsibilities
User Research / Service & Marketing Strategy Design / Training Design & Delivery
Deliverables
Service strategy and key principles of service delivery / Customer Personas / Customer Archetype /
Staff behaviour guidelines / Service & Marketing Training / Brand Core / Brand and marketing strategy guidelines / Brand communications guidelines
Year & Duration
2023 / 3 months
Project challenge / objective
The challenge was clear: How do you shine in a crowded market with similar offerings? The objective was profound: Develop a robust brand and marketing strategy, infused with a customer-centric service culture. Why? Because in a sea of similarities, differentiation through a delightful customer experience that’s cohesive and consistent across all touch points is the key to capturing hearts and wallets.
Solution
To tackle the inconsistency haunting our client's customer journey, we dove deep into the essence of their business philosophy. By distilling and articulating their core values, we crafted a brand identity that spoke not only to customers but also provided a guiding light for employees. This became the anchor for our comprehensive service framework and marketing guidelines, ensuring every touchpoint echoed the brand's unique voice. Subsequently, a gamified, captivating service training was designed and delivered to ensure the staff is well equipped to embody the newly articulated brand identity and recognise the unique need of varying customer personas that they come across every day.
Outcome
The result? Multiple parameters on how to measure the success of this project have been implemented and shall be reviewed on quarterly basis to evaluate whether the company stands out from the competition, while creating a magnetic pull for customers. Some of the paramters / KPIs used will be:
- Revenue increase
- Customer satisfaction
- Time customer stays in a store (physical & digital)
A glimpse of the process
Research
In-depth mixed mode research to gain multi-perspective understanding of the brand-marketing and service delivery.
Key Activities
Store Observations
To gather first hand insight and identify areas for service improvement.Audit of Existing Materials
To assess and evaluate the existing marketing and service materials for consistency, relevance, and alignment..Internal Interviews
To understand the current marketing and brand challenges to identity opportunities for change.Frontline staff interviews
To identify pain points and gaps in delivering service excellence.Session with the CEO
To engage in a focused discussion for the strategic direction in marketing
Strategy
The brand strategy was developed through workshops with the team to test & validate emerging ideas and strategy directions.
Key Activities
Internal Ideation Sessions
To generate ideas and design the strategy for brand marketing and service training.Sessions with the company’s team
To gather feedback and inputs from the Pazzion team to align their perspectives with the evolving marketing and brand strategy.Brand Core & Ideal Customer
To outline the core values and the detailed profile of the ideal customer as a guide for brand strategy.
Guidelines & Training
A comprehensive set of guidelines and manuals for the employees to deliver consistent and coherent customer experience were developed.
Key Outcomes
Marketing Manual & Workbook for Training
To generate ideas and design the strategy for brand marketing and service training.Sessions with the company’s team
To gather feedback and inputs from the Pazzion team to align their perspectives with the evolving marketing and brand strategy.Brand Core & Ideal Customer
To outline the core values and the detailed profile of the ideal customer as a guide for brand strategy.
Research
The journey began with keen observers navigating the aisles of our client’s stores. Store observations became a portal into the customer's world, uncovering insights and illuminating areas ripe for service enhancement. Simultaneously, a meticulous audit of existing marketing materials unfolded, evaluating their consistency, relevance, and alignment.
Eight internal interviews with key stakeholders provided a measurements into the company's marketing challenges. Meanwhile, frontline staff shared their stories in eight more interviews, revealing the pain points and gaps that hindered the delivery of service excellence. A pivotal session with the CEO set the strategic compass, aligning the vision for marketing with the company's overarching goals.
Strategy
As the research findings unfurled, internal ideation sessions became the crucible for creative sparks. Ideas ignited, birthing the strategy that would shape company’s brand and service training. Team engagement sessions transformed feedback into building blocks, aligning perspectives with the evolving marketing and brand strategy.
Brand Core & Ideal Customer Workshops emerged as crucial touchpoints. Here, the core values of the company were sewed into the collective consciousness, while the ideal customer profile provided a roadmap for brand strategy. It was a collaborative effort to define not just what brand had to offer but what it really stood for.
Guidelines & Training
With the strategy in hand, the Guidelines Design stage began. A Service Manual & Training Tools and a Marketing Manual & Workbook for Training, a Marketing Canvas & Tools, and thoughtfully crafted physical artifacts for stores and offices formed the tangible embodiment of the brand and service excellence framework.
The final stitch of this transformative craftsmanship was the Train the Trainer sessions. Empowering the Operations Head and Retail Managers, these sessions handed over the baton of knowledge. They were the crafters of the shoes, entrusted to disseminate the newfound wisdom to every staff member, ensuring the pattern of excellence reverberated throughout the organisation.
