Andrea Maldifassi - Brand awareness

INNOVATION DESIGN BUSINESS STRATEGY 2.3 Research Methodologies 2.3.1 Desk research 2.3.2 On field observation 2.3.2 On field observation 2.3.4 Online survey: qualitative and quantitative 2.3.5 Ethnographic research

How a company can increase brand awareness? How catch new market opportunities?

What are the new touchpoints where companies can talk and feel existing and potential customer? How communicate brands values, products, and brand?

2.3.6 Case Studies Methodology 2.4 Design tools 2.4.1 Personas definition 2.4.2 Touchpoints matrix 2.4.3 The experience prototype

CONNECTIVITY HAS ENABLED AN ENGAGED WORLD WHERE COMPANIES, USERS, AND STAKEHOL DERS CONNECT, INTERACT AND COOPERATE.

brand

aWarEnESS Design thinking is inherently a prototyping process. Once you spot a promising idea, you build it.

The changing nature of our environment requires us to change, to adapt, and to take any opportunity in order to innovate.

“There is no such thing as a single Chinese consumer”.

2015/2016

POLITECNICO DI MILANO, SCHOOL OF DESIGN, MASTER DEGREE IN PRODUCT SERVICE SYSTEM DESIGN

ANDREA MALDIFASSI 814686 Relatore: LUCA FOIS

A Product Service System to increase brand awareness: new touchpoints for Vibram products and brand in China

abstract

CONNECTIVITY HAS ENABLED AN ENGAGED WORLD WHERE COMPANIES, USERS, AND STAKEHOLDERS CONNECT, INTERACT AND COOPERATE. USERS DON’T WANT TO BUY JUST PRODUCTS OR SERVICES; THEY WANT COMPANIES TO PROVIDE THEM EXPERIENCES. B R A N D AWA R E N ES S

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The world is changing and continues to accelerate, even if we don’t want it to. No company operating in the free market can be successful in perpetuity by delivering the same products or services with the same marketing and the same approach. The changing nature of our environment requires us to change, to adapt, and to take any opportunity in order to innovate. Advances in technology are pushing everyone to a new life-model and mental perspective. The Internet with its social networks and mobile technology is turning the world into one big neighborhood. People connect with each other in an instantly and constantly way. Connectivity has enabled an engaged world where companies, users, and stakeholders connect, interact and cooperate.

While technology provides a lot of new tools and opportunities, people are still the same. They are looking for a personal connection; they need to feel engaged, emotionally and physically. Users don’t want to buy just products or services; they want companies to provide them experiences.

Few markets are as fast in changing as the new consumerdriven China. The “new” market of 1.3 plus billion people holds enormous potential for western companies that want to expand their horizons. But, clearly, the dynamics of China are unlike anything those companies have ever seen before, and it presents challenges as serious as its market is large.

ABSTRACT

AFTER YEARS, VIBRAM CHINA IS STILL PUSHING INTO THE MARKET WITHOUT REACHING THE SUCCESS HAD IN EUROPE AND USA; THIS IS WHERE DESIGN THINKING AND HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN APPROACH COME INTO PLAY.

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Vibram, the 79-year-old Italian company, is a worldwide leader in manufacturing and licensing the Vibram-branded rubber soles. The company, well know among the outdoor community, in 1998 began operating in China, matching the highest quality standards reached in Italy. In 2007 Vibram Technological Center has been established in Guangzhou with the dual mission of expanding the range of Vibram technologies and increase market opportunities.

After years, Vibram China is still pushing into the market without reaching the success had in Europe and USA; this is where Design Thinking and human-centered design approach come into play.

The paper analyzes how to raise brand awareness building a holistic strategy that goes through multiple touchpoints, physical and digital. The scope is to approach new customers and build a multi-way relationship, creating a new community of users around the brand that will communicate with each other providing and taking trustful and useful information. #iamvibram# is a multi-touchpoints campaign to put people at the centre of Vibram business and communication. The campaign aims to reach people in their everyday life end encourage them to share and communicate their passion to the big community of Vibram users. Is the first ever Vibram campaign build on multiple touchpoints with a dedicated website, store-in-store and on-field product exhibitors with a secondary function of social engagement, and the first ever Vibram Hub, a multifunctional space where Vibram will show the brand values and where stakeholders, community and potential users can interact and cooperate. #iamvibram# has the aim to grow awareness of the brand to a much larger audience which can create brand loyalty and advocates and not least a long-term increasing revenues.

ABSTRACT

INDEX

Abstract

2.3.2 On field observation

3.3 User engagement and User experience

Structure of the Study

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036

2.3.2 On field observation

3.4 Branding in the Digital Age

023

038

1.1 Background knowledge assumption

2.3.4 Online survey: qualitative and quantitative

3.5 Stores as a place of experience

006

023

1.2 Purpose and significance of the study

2.3.5 Ethnographic research

3.6 Image is everything: neuromarketing and subconscious decision

007

023

042

1.3 Contribution to the field

2.3.6 Case Studies Methodology

3.7 Digital, social and mobile in China

008

023

050

1.3.1 How design thinking builds value

2.4 Design tools

010

024

3.8 Customer journey: digital and physical touch points

1.3.2 Human-centered design: a creative approach to problem-solving

2.4.1 Personas definition

001 Chapter 1 Introduction

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011 Chapter 2 Background Research and Methodology

024 2.4.2 Touchpoints matrix

024

014

2.4.3 The experience prototype

2.1 Ingredient company: the case of Vibram

024

040

056 Chapter 4 Findings

058 4.1 PSSD Studio

058 4.2 Design & Business Management, HK Polytechnic University

Chapter 3 Review of the literature

058

026

4.3 Findings and Insights from Vibram

3.1 Brand awareness

060

028

4.4 Analysis

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3.2 Understanding of the Chinese customer and its behavior

061

2.3.1 Desk research

034

015 2.2 Intern at Vibram China

020 2.3 Research Methodologies

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4.4.1 Social Media Analysis

062

4.4.2 Online survey

6.5 Project definition

6.11 Purchase Path

066

094

131

4.4.3 Findings and insights from Vibram

6.6 Digital Platform

6.12 Touchpoints Matrix

067

096

133

4..4.4 Data gathering and analysis

6.6.1 Social Media Strategy

Chapter 7 Prototype

068

100

136

Chapter 5 Case studies

6.7 Product Exhibitor

7.1 Website

073

102

138

5.1 The North Face: holistic brand experience

6.7.1 On-field Exhibitor

7.2 On-field exhibitors

104

138

6.7.2 In-store Exhibitor

7.3 Location

106

139

6.8 Vibram Hub

7.4 Promotion

108

140

6.8.1 Interior Space

114

7.5 Feedbacks 141

6.8.2 Services Provided

Chapter 8 Conclusions

074 5.2 Intel: building relationships

076 5.3 Nike Plus: building community

078 Chapter 6 Project definition

081 6.1 Evidences from the research

084 6.2 Needs

087 6.3 Target

088 6.4 Personas definition

089

116

144

6.8.3 Activities

8.1 Next step

117

146

6.9 Visual identity

8.2 Comments

120

148

6.10 Positioning Matrix

Chapter 9 Bibliography

130

149 Aknowledgments

151

Structure of the Study

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The study goes on multiple steps for the development of a holistic humancentered campaign for Vibram to increase brand awareness in China. The thesis shows the process which the author has been going through while the different chapters identify the framework which guides the project till the implementation face.

The first part of the Introduction is an overview of the author background and the double Master Degree program at Tongji University. The following parts are about the significance of the study in which the author has stated the scientific questions and the rationale and comprehensive research background.

Chapter 2 introduces the company; the experience had in the PSSD course and the Internship done at the Vibram Tech Center in Guangzhou. While the first part is about the company and the findings, the second part analyzes the methodology and the research processes conducted by the author in the fulfillment of this thesis. The literature of review in the third chapter shows the diversification of the manners and topics analyzed for the research. Here the author clarifies the meaning of brand awareness and how it is seen by the Chinese customer and the importance of user experience and engagement in both digital and physical world. Follows an overview of the digital, social and mobile in China with data gathered by multiple agencies and analysis.

The literature closes with an understanding of neuroscience applied to marketing and a deeper analysis of the customer journey. In chapter 4 and 5, the methodologies showed previously are used by the author through a social media analysis, an online survey, an on-field observation and case study research that bring useful data and insight for the development of the project in the successive chapter. Chapter 6 is the active development of the project starting from the needs and identification of the target which proceeds with the definition of the personas used for the generation of the successive steps.

Prom point 6.4 has been explained the project definition. Here the author describes the many touchpoints developed: the digital platform, the web, and mobile; the product exhibitor which is located both in-store and out-door; the experiential space, defined activities, services provided and interior design; finally the brand identity that is applied into all the touchpoints of the project.

Chapter 7 is a focus on the prototyping done for a real test of the project in the market. It shows the outputs designed by the author and the results they generated in the one-day test. The last chapter focuses on the future steps, including the current situation of the collaboration with the company and the possible future implementation of the project for the potential launch in the market. At the end of the paper could be found the feedbacks from the people involved in the generation of the project and the appendix with the documents generated during the process.

ST R U CT U R E O F T H E ST U DY

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DESIGN TAKES INSPIRATION FROM REAL PEOPLE, WORKS WITHIN MARKETS AND TECHNOLOGICAL CONSTRAINTS, AND CONSIDERS EVERY PRODUCT TOUCHPOINT AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO SURPRISE, DELIGHT AND DELIVER BENEFITS TO USERS.

DESIGN THINKING IS INHERENTLY A PROTOTYPING PROCESS. ONCE YOU SPOT A PROMISING IDEA, YOU BUILD IT.

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u c t i o n 1.1 BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE ASSUMPTION 1.2 PURPOSE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 1.3 CONTRIBUTION TO THE FIELD 1.3.1 HOW DESIGN THINKING BUILDS VALUE 1.3.2 HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN: A CREATIVE APPROACH TO PROBLEM-SOLVING

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INTRODUCTION

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1.1 BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE ASSUMPTION

This thesis comes from every personal information, knowledge, curiosity, experience I have gotten in the last six years of the university career. Every decision I took leads me to this output that will be the last one as a student and the first one as professional. My background is characterized by two main paths, university studies, and working experiences, which have always been interacting along the way.

I graduated in Interior Design at Politecnico di Milano meanwhile I was working for a Milanese company as art director for events and communication. The physical space where we live and which we interact with has always been my greatest passion. However, after the bachelor, I felt the need to enlarge my knowledge and know-how.

As Luisa Collina was saying during the first lecture of the Master Course in Product Service System Design we need to be like a “T.” The T-shaped designer is a metaphor used to describe a person with deep vertical skills in a specialized area as well as broad but not necessarily very deep skills in other relevant areas. In the Master Course in PSSD, I have been able to expand

my knowledge and my skills, never forgetting my passion in designing physical spaces.

The best part of the experience I had is the multicultural environment which I have been facing every single day at university.

The master course in PSSD is the most coveted amount the students and the most international one. I spent a one-and-half year in contact and working with people from different nationalities and design fields. This experience enriched me a lot and pushed me to look forward to new and always challenging experiences.

All the great experiences I had in Milan worked as springboards for the next step: the participation in the Double Master Degree Program with the Tongji University. Since February 2015, I have been living in Shanghai. Here I discovered a new culture, a new way of looking at the things, a new way to communicate and study.

Tongji University has been the best stage to put me in and get familiar with Chinese culture and Chinese people. I met many students, and I get many Chinese friends along the way. Even though has been difficult to adapt and coexist with the new culture I have learned a lot, and I am so glad of it.

Numerous classes and studios characterized the first semester at the Design & Innovation College of the University. Among the topics and the subjects I faced, one, in particular, got my attention. The PSSD studio, taken by Professor Devide Fassi, It has been a collaboration with Vibram for the development of a new service in China.

POLITECNICO DI MILANO, SCHOOL OF DESIGN, MASTER DEGREE IN PRODUCT SERVICE SYSTEM DESIGN

“A product–service-system designer combines the ability to conceive, plan or coordinate the delivery of new integrated solutions, high in sustainability and value, with that of implementing innovations and managing interactions between the various stakeholders involved. - A productservice-system is a blend of products, communication strategies, services and spaces that are used in an integrated way to offer comprehensive, ethical solutions to complex demands. The center of the product-service-system is the people (users, suppliers, employees, or stakeholders in general who interact with all these multiple design components, which are part of the system as well.”

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1.2 PURPOSE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

In this paragraph, I will clarify the purpose of the study. This thesis, which will end with a product service system for Vibram, will show the guidelines to create a valuable system for companies that want to increase their value. The research and creative path I will go through will lead me to find new solutions for Vibram, to raise awareness of the brand and brand recognition among the audience.

How System Design approach can increase brand awareness and brand value of Vibram in China as well as in other countries?

This question lay the foundations for the development of the research, but as the question itself suggest there are many topics and arguments to consider. In this case, I need to diverge my research, asking myself other questions which will help me understand the overall context.

How can a company interpret new markets? In the specific, how Vibram can understand the Chinese customer and adapt a new strategy to it?

The area of research takes into consideration the two big topics: Globalization and Localization. How Vibram, an Italian manufacturing company, faces the Chinese market and how it has to localize its product to be recognized by Chinese customers. These questions will be answered thanks to the design research I will go through and which I will explain in the next chapter.

How a company can increase the brand awareness? How catch new market opportunities? What are the new touchpoints where Vibram can talk and feel existing and potential customer? How communicate Vibram values, products, and brand?

The many questions above take into account many topics and manners.

The research to answer to these questions will focus on Design Thinking and Strategic Design. The two disciplines give me the tools and methods that can be applied to have a holistic approach and build a system of interactions, spaces, services, and media.

Marketing has a significant role in the field. Neuroscience and Neuromarketing have a fundamental relation in the research background especially cause their connection to the user’s experiential involvement.

What is the role of the social media in creating awareness for a brand?

How Chinese social media influence the perception and the value of a brand?

These are the questions that will drive me through the analysis of the Chinese social networks, the interaction between users and Vibram through the social platforms.

Last but not the least I will search for valuable case studies which can give me a general understanding on how innovative companies have already faced the problem. I will look for the most valuable brands in China, those with the biggest community behind and with the most engagement with their audience.

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INTRODUCTION

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1.3 CONTRIBUTION TO THE FIELD In the following lines, I will explain the reasons why of this thesis, and the original contribution this research can provide to the business world.

There is the idea that designers only make “facades”. Matthew Manos writes in his book “How to Give Half of Your Work Away.” He instead marks the point that “Designers can make facades, but we can also make much other stuff.

We can brand business, but we can also start business. We can package ideas, but we can also create products. We can design housing, but we can also build community.” (Matthew Manos, 2012) The role of designers has always been to “translate and communicate the value of a business idea to consumers” Ravi Sawhney write in his article The Role of Design in Business. (Ravi Sawhney, 2010). What I think is that the best designers can do far more—”designers can help companies connect and establish a dialogue with consumers”, thus enabling firms to innovate more efficiently. So designers must not only synthesize functionality and aesthetics, we must understand a consumer’s thought process and emotions to motivate behavior change.

This is what I have been learning during my three years studying in PSS Design and Design&Innovation. Design is a process of synthesizing insights into a tangible offering in a way that addresses the goals of the company and the desires of consumers. Many of the firms that can perform at this level were early in bringing design into their cultures.

Design is a fundamental part of creating an image and experience of quality, exclusivity, and tribal belonging. And yet the consumers who purchase these items often select them because they see a little bit of themselves (or whom they would like to be) on the shelf. Ravi Sawhney continues to say: “there is far more in common between design and business than may be readily apparent.”

(Ravi Sawhney, 2010). Great designers, like visionary business leaders, create value by exploring without limitation through the psyche and psychology of consumers. Product Service System Design approach can create new business opportunities and the pathways to manifest consumer needs, emotions, and aspirations.

By so doing, designers generate revenue and sustainable growth for business.

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“Thinking like a designer can transform the way you develop products services, processes and even strategy”

“Design is about giving people what they need whether or not they know they need it, but doing so in a way that makes them feel like they asked for it.”

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Ravi Sawhney Matthew Manos Tim Brown

“Designers can brand business, but we can also start business. We can package ideas, but we can also create products. We can design housing, but we can also build community.”

Roberto Verganti

”Designers can help companies connect and establish a dialogue with consumers.”

“There is far more in common between design and business than may be readily apparent.”

INTRODUCTION

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1.3.1 HOW DESIGN THINKING BUILDS VALUE

“Because it is pictorial, design describes the world in a way that’s not open to many interpretations. Designers, by making a film, scenario, or prototype, can help people emotionally experience the thing that the strategy seeks to describe” (Tim Brow, 2005) Tim Brow, a mentor for every design thinker, says in the publication “Strategy by design.” Unfortunately, many people continue to think of design in very narrow terms.

Industrial products and graphics are outcomes of the design process, but they do not begin to describe the boundaries of the design’s playing field.

“Organizations need to take design thinking seriously. We need to spend more time making people conscious of design thinking—not because design is wondrous or magical, but simply because by focusing on it, we’ll make it better. And that is an imperative for any business because design thinking is indisputably a catalyst for innovation productivity”. (Tim Brow, 2005).

Any real-world strategy starts with having fresh, original insights about the market and the customers. Those insights come only when a company observes directly what’s happening in its market. As Jane Fulton Suri, director of the human-factors group in IDEO, notes in her book “Thoughtless Acts?”, “Directly witnessing and experiencing aspects of behavior in the real world is a proven way of inspiring and informing [new] ideas. The insights that emerge from careful observation of people’s behavior . . . uncover all kinds of opportunities that were not previously evident”. (Jane Fulton Suri, 2005).

Companies cannot just stand in their shoes; they have to be able to stand in the shoes of others. “Empathy allows to have original insights about the world. It also enables to build better teams”. (Jane Fulton Suri, 2005). “We look for people who are so inquisitive about the world that they’re willing to try to do what you do.” Tim Brown introduces the concept of “T-shaped people”.

“They have a principal skill that describes the vertical leg of the T—they’re mechanical engineers or industrial designers. But they are so empathetic that they can branch out into other skills, such as anthropology, and do them as well. They are able to explore insights from many different perspectives and recognize patterns of behavior that point to a universal human need”.

“Design thinking is inherently a prototyping process. Once you spot a promising idea, you build it”. (Tim Brown, 2009).

Brown dedicates an entire chapter in his book Change by Design talking about the prototype process. The prototype is typically a drawing, model, or film that describes a product, system, or service. Designers build these models very quickly; they are rough, ready, and not at all elegant, but they work. The goal is not to create a close approximation of the finished product or process; the goal is to elicit feedback that helps designer work through the problem they’re trying to solve. In a sense, designers build to think.

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1.3.2 HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN: A CREATIVE APPROACH TO PROBLEM-SOLVING

Most companies today are still very product or category orientated, based entirely on what they have to say or sell; typically they are very features-orientated and competitor-obsessed as opposed to what the customer wants to find, learn, decide or buy. Marketers like Danyl Bosomworth are starting to understand the importance of being human-centered oriented.

Philip Kotler says in his book “Marketing 3.0” now is the time for “human-centric marketing.” He continues to say “Human-centric marketing is defined by brands that approach engaging their current and prospective customers via advertising and marketing tactics as whole human beings with hearts, minds, and spirits.” (Philip Kotler, 2011).

While technology continues to bring people and brands closer together, Kotler is also saying that there’s a cultural shift that’s making it happen, people increasingly want to be more connected.

Human-centric marketing is a good point to start but, is still limited. Why don’t have a much bigger and holistic human-centered approach in all of the steps of a project or business? Human-centered design is a creative approach to problem solving. It’s a process that starts with the people we are designing for and ends with new solutions that are tailor-made to suit their needs.

Design takes inspiration from real people, works within markets and technological constraints, and considers every product touchpoint as an opportunity to surprise, delight and deliver benefits to users.

Through my studying in Milan and Shanghai, I discovered the real possibility for companies is to apply Design Thinking Approach and Research to all steps of the business. The scope of this study is to show the benefits of applying design processes to a business and provide sensible proof that will support this vision.

C H A P. 1

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INTRODUCTION

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IDEO, 2011

BACKGROUND RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY 014

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2.1 INGREDIENT COMPANY: THE VIBRAM CASE

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B AC KG R O U N D

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Vitale Bramani with Carroarmato sole Italian Alps, 1936

V ibram is an Italian company that manufactures and licenses the Vibram-branded rubber sole for footwear. Vibram is an innovative company, well known among the outdoor and mountaineering community. In the last decade, it launched innovative products like FiveFingers and Furoshiki.

Up until the 1930s, mountain climbers had to put up with rather primitive hobnail climbing boots. The leather soles on these things were mighty slippery, so they pounded some hobnails into them or attached cleats, and that is what gave them grip on slick terrain. The first who came up with the alternative idea of lugged, rubber boot soles was Vitale Bramani, a member in good standing at the Italian Alpine Club.

During a climb in 1935, six of his companions died on a mountain, partly because of their dubious footwear, and partly because of a nasty blizzard. After working on the design following the tragedy, Bramani patented the first rubber lug sole. The first model was called the Carrarmato, meaning “tank tread” in Italian, due to its thick stamped footprint. Vibram still produces the Carrarmato to this day.

Vibram also had the backing of another famous Italian–Leopoldo Pirelli of Pirelli tires. Vibram’s produced soles in the same manner as Pirelli’s tires, Bramani’s rubber soles provided superb traction on a wide variety of surfaces, as well as being extremely durable.

Vitale’s idea was to create boot soles that were durable, abrasion-resistant, functional and safe

to use on a variety of surfaces, from hard-packed snow and forest floors to bare rock and loose scree slopes. After the initial release of his first lug sole, Bramani’s Vibram brand continued to grow. In 1945, their first production facility opened in Albizzate, Italy. The brand’s mountaineering legacy was rock solid in 1954 when an Italian team became the first to summit the mountain K2–all while wearing boots fitted with Vibram soles. As years passed, more varieties of Vibram soles were developed, some with the primary focus on superior traction and others with an emphasis on longevity and durability.

Vibram is still going strong, over 75 years after its inception. It is now seen as the industry standard in lugged boot soles and is used by over a thousand footwear manufacturers around the globe. From initial beginnings in the mountaineering field, Vibram soles can now be found on footwear used in heavy industry, the military, law enforcement, and in general outdoor and fashion styles. Today, Vibram has gone mainstream: well-known brands like North Face, Prada, New Balance and many others are now doing business with Vibram, and the brand has branched into areas outside the realm of outdoor pursuits.

Vitale Bramani, Italian Alps, 1935

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Today, there are a staggering number of Vibram sole variations, each catering to a different range of activities.

The sole composition is created based on specific performance needs: hardness, abrasion resistance, grip, elasticity, density, etc.

It is also recognized for their controversial FiveFingers minimalist shoes, which spread like wildfire in terms of popularity over the past couple of years. While the benefits of these minimalist-style shoes are highly disputed, what can not be argued is the quality and historical significance of Vibram soles. It is not hard to believe that their legendary rubber soles will remain on the bottom of our feet for years to come.

Vibram is based in Albizzate, Italy, with a headquarter which is the central location of all industrial design, technology, and product development activities. The company also has production factories in North America. Located in Concord, MA. the Vibram US headquarters is responsible for US sales, marketing and customer service in addition to the North American distribution of Vibram FiveFingers. Another division of the company is based in Guangzhou, China. The Vibram Technological Center is a platform of technical excellence. This research and development center broadens Vibram’s range of technology and strengthens its collaboration with other operators in the sector, building a network of qualified partners.

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VIBR AM.COM

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B AC KG R O U N D

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2.2 INTERN AT VIBRAM CHINA

The day the class presented the projects to the company, Matteo Crovetto and George Liu, director of the marketing department, asked for three students to have an internship in Vibram. They wanted to create a team of designers to develop the “Vibram Sole Factor� project. The opportunity to get in touch with a worldwide leading company was too big not to take advantage of. Giovanni Piemontese and Benedetta Bacialli, other two students, answered positively as well as me to the call of the company and so the design team was built. The team has been working from July to October in collaboration with the sales and marketing department and with the social media strategist. The design team has been working on the whole service system of the project while each of us had a particular field of interest. My focus, as an Interior Designer (my bachelor), Product Service System Designer (my master) and Event Designer (work-

ing experiences) was on the design of the retail space and physical experience, physical touch points of the whole service; relations with the suppliers and vendors.

In parallel to the Vibram Sole Factor project I have been working on other projects like Skap-Vibram Collaboration Marketing and Display Project, Vibram shop-in-shop in Shanghai Zhengda and TopSports, Vibram Products Display 2015/2016, Vibram booth at Kailas-Yangshuo Climbing Festival 2015, Vibram-CarminaCampus exhibition at the Beijing Design Week 2015.

More important than the projects I have been working on is fundamental to understand how the company works, the decision-making flow, the approach and the process of development of new projects.

These are all elements that I could get thanks to the three months experience in the company which I will explain in the following chapters.

The China Technological Center is a symbol of Vibram’s commitment to research and innovation. Empowered by a Performing Test Center, the Center has the dual mission of expanding the range of Vibram technologies and reinforcing cooperation with other companies such as Timberland, Nike ACG, and New Balance, among others.

2.3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES

ON FIELD OBSERVATION 2.3.1 One of the most important aspects of observation is to look at the people’s behaviors, attitude, actions and reactions to their normal status. Researchers observing people should be able not to interact with them, trying to be as anonymous as possible. My observation has begun since the first meeting I had with Vibram, during the course at the Design&Innovation College, in March 2015. My research on the field got the most insights from the four-month internship I had in the company. There, I could observe the company from an inner perspective.

I have been looking at their way of working, thinking, approaching the different problems and finishing solutions. The both-side observation, from the company point of view and the one from the user point of view lead me to understand better the need for both parts. Observation is the first step to get to know about users. Companies have to be able to get this first step, understand their users, their needs, who are the potential users and not less important, companies have to be able to look inside. Companies have to know their employees, their needs, and their visions; it is the first step which can align all the departments and the employees of the company.

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FACE-TO-FACE INTERVIEW 2.3.2 Face to face interview is one of the most qualitative research a designer could get from people.

A personal interview survey is a method that is utilized when a particular target population is involved. The purpose of conducting a personal interview survey is to explore the responses of the people to gather more and deeper information. This method is such powerful because of the numerous unpredictable insights can come out from the people.

However, this method takes much time and money. I could be able to apply this method to the one-year collaboration with Vibram, and so I could get many interviews and so much deeper information.

DESK RESEARCH 2.3.3 The desk research, also named secondary research, is a common research method that involves using information that others have gathered through primary studies.

Before starting the research, I will define the research topics while the thesis questions will help me to narrow down the findings. Part of the research is done analyzing the internal data of Vibram, previous marketing research, and user analysis done in the last years.

CASES STUDY METHODOLOGY 2.3.4 The qualitative case study methodology provides tools for researchers to study complex phenomena within their contexts. When the approach is applied correctly, it becomes a valuable method for health science research to develop a theory, evaluate programs, and develop interventions. Look at what has been done by other companies can help me understand what was working and what not. Understanding the reason businesses or products and services failed or succeeded in a defined environment or field. I’ll dedicate a chapter to the several case studies I have analyzed, how they have been applied in China and abroad.

ONLINE SURVEY

ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH 2.3.5 Ethnography is a highly broad area with a great variety of practitioners and methods.

However, the most common ethnographic approach is participant observation as a part of field research, as I explain in the first point.

The researcher becomes immersed in the culture as an active member and records extensive field notes.

Differently, from the first paragraph, this one wants to point to a different output.

The ethnographic research I have done and still doing is about the Chinese culture. I immersed myself in this new culture since February 2015, and I could collect much information about Chinese people. The way of interacting with each other, with brands and products. The information gotten with this research method will guide me through all the step of the project development, influencing any decision taken.

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2.3.6 One of the most widely utilized survey methods, an online survey, is the systematic gathering of data from the target audience characterized by the invitation of the respondents and the completion of the questionnaire over the World Wide Web. It is one of the simplest ones to apply, and the one can get much data.

Whether it is marketing or scientific research, the online survey has been a faster way of collecting data from the respondents as compared to other survey methods such as paper-and-pencil method and personal interviews.

The online survey method could be both quantitative and qualitative. The survey questionnaire can be rapidly deployed and completed by the respondents and especially all data collected will be stored and digitally analyzed. This method has been a milestone in my research and development of the project. I will dedicate a chapter to this method, how I have applied it and the insights got.

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2.4 DESIGN TOOLS

024

PERSONAS DEFINITION

TOUCHPOINTS MATRIX

THE EXPERIENCE PROTOTYPE

2.4.1 Alan Cooper defines a persona as an archetypal character that is meant to represent a group of users in a role who share common goals, attitudes, and behaviors when interacting with a particular product or service. Personas are user models that are presented as accurate individual humans.

They are not actual people but are synthesized directly from observation of real people. I will use this method to define the costumers who will interact with the product service I will design. In this way, I will create empathy with the user and better understand their personalities trying to avoid stereotypes.

2.4.2 Conceived by Gianluca Brugnoli, the touchpoints matrix merges some features of the customer journey maps with some features of the system maps and is based on the use of personas. The basic idea is to provide a visual framework that enables designers to “connect the dots of the user experience” in order to see the different configurations, interfaces, contexts and results of the interaction with a particular product-service system.

Once this structure has been composed, I can put a specific persona inside and imagine his journey through the different touchpoints, connecting the related dots.

In this way, the matrix brings to a deeper comprehension of the interaction and facilitates a further development of the opportunities given by the system shifting the focus of the design activities to connections. “Design for connections: in the system scenario, design is mainly focused on finding the connections with the whole network, than in creating closed and self-sufficient systems, tools and services.

Connections are social and cultural assets, other than technical.” (Gianluca Brugnoli, 2009)

2.4.3 The experience prototype is a simulation of the service experience that foresees some of its performances through the use of the specific physical touchpoints involved. The experience prototype will allow me to show and test the solution designed through an active participation of the users.

This step of the process is, I could say, the most important one. I will put in the real world the idea developed and look at the interactions the users will have with the system. I will dedicate an entire chapter to this frame in which I will explain in detail the process applied and the results and insights taken.

025

THIS CHAPTER INVESTIGATES THE CHINESE CONTEXT, THE MARKET OPPORTUNITIES, THE ACTUAL TRENDS AND EVERYTHING CONCERNS THE TOPIC OF BRAND AWARENESS AND USER ENGAGEMENT.

Review of the Literature

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3.1 BRAND AWARENESS

“Brand awareness is the likelihood that consumers recognize the existence and availability of a company’s product or service. Creating brand awareness is one of the key steps in promoting a product.”

Investopedia

In today’s free market economy, brands compete with one another to dominate the market. They do this by either playing around with prices or improving the quality of their products. As competition becomes tougher, in order to remain in the market, brands need to take extra steps to keep customers interested. That is because people are always looking for the best company that fulfills their needs. Moreover, their most critical need, yet the one they are not always aware of, is the emotional need. “Customers will keep buying from you if they’re connected to your brand emotionally.” Gent Ukehajdaraj says in his article about brand awareness. (Gent Ukehajdaraj, 2015) What is a brand? We hear the word brand very often, but many people don’t know for sure what it means. According to David Ogilvy, one of the greatest marketer of all times, a brand is: “The intangible sum of a product’s attributes: its name, packaging, and price, its history, its reputation, and the way it’s advertised.”

But another definition that I like is the one that Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, introduced: “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room”. Kevin Lane Keller presents that brand awareness, together with its image, are the vectors that compose brand knowledge. He draws the conclusion that awareness has two dimensions, consisting of the depth of awareness levels (ease and speed of brand recall) and the width of awareness facets (specific situations when a person is able to remember certain brand characteristics). (Kevin Lane Keller, 2012)

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COMPANIES ENTERING OR BUILDING OUT THEIR PRESENCE IN CHINA NEED TO CREATE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES DIFFERENT FROM THOSE THEY HOLD IN THEIR HOME BASE.

“There is no such thing as a single Chinese consumer�.

McKinsey, 2015

3.2 UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHINESE CUSTOMER AND ITS BEHAVIOR

One size does not fit all. According to McKinsey’s Meet the Chinese Consumer of 2020 report, the majority are “value” consumers, with limited spending and low income.

Consumer spending is not only increasing, but it is also evolving. As income levels rise among the Chinese middle class, the mainstream segment is growing. Although brand awareness is on the rise, brand loyalty is not. “Chinese consumers believe value is associated more with brands than with price, largely because consumers believe branded products are safe, of higher quality, and more reliable.” (Frog, 2013) says Frog in an article called “Building Brands in China.” However, the fact that the market is opening up to new brands makes the consumer more experimental and not ready to stay with one brand.

Furthermore, the Chinese consumer is buying more big-name international brands. Frog’s survey of Chinese consumers found that 63.5% of participants prefer foreign brands.

Numerous other sources have shown that this is apparent mostly in the luxury goods sector, but in the main cities is manifested across other industries, such as ready-to-wear, nutrition, and household goods.

Chinese consumers feel it is their moral obligation to share with others their experiences with a product, purchase, or service. They are very actively involved in online community forums and discussions, and in return, use these sources to inform their decisions and brand preferences. Currently, more than 40% of Chinese online shoppers read and post product reviews online, according to a 2012 Boston Consulting Group study. The number of Chinese consumers contributing their opinions via social media is growing and offer much more consumer insight than in other areas of the world over the past couple of years. Despite its reach and usage, the Internet is not the dominant media channel. In addition to television, other media channels have become fertile playgrounds in China: point of sale, event marketing and below-the-line advertising are still welcome and effective outlets for brand communications. McKinsey found that 91% of Chinese consumers have been exposed to TV ads; 37% had been exposed to newspaper and magazine ads; 36% to in-store ads and displays; yet only 28% had been exposed to Internet ads.

“Many Chinese judge themselves and others by what they buy.” (McKinsey Quarterly, 2012). As the market matures, growth will come from consumers who buy more goods and services, do so more frequently, and purchase items that are pricier than the items they already own. This new mainstream consumer will have a significant influence on how products will be branded throughout China. In general, Frog has found that 80% of those surveyed like to buy products that are easy to use and are of high quality, even if they are more expensive. The Chinese consumer will expect better. No longer will they be content with a brand simply because it is big, foreign, or expensive. They will expect their brands to understand and meet their needs, both rationally and emotionally.

The research shows many crucial points. Any company has to take them into consideration in developing new strategies for the Chinese market. As well, I need to follow this information to build the future outputs of this study.

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MORE THAN

%

OF CHINESE ONLINE SHOPPERS READ AND POST PRODUCT REVIEWS ONLINE

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3.3 USER-ENGAGEMENT AND USER EXPERIENCE

“Customer experience, or CX, refers to the overall impression a customer gets from all of the experiences they have with a brand over time. In some contexts, CX may mean an individual customer experience, like a single purchase”.

Lauren Perkins, 2015

Lauren Perkins says in her book “The Community Management.” The best experiences are authentic, personable, and memorable. In the digital economy, monitoring and managing customer experience have become essential. It is all about building meaningful relationships with the customer. It includes taking the time to understand what a person goes through when deciding to purchase the business’s product or service. It is this understanding that builds a relationship. However, now, research shows that people do not just weed out their choices—they continue to add or subtract brands from the potential pool of options based on features and benefits and insights they get during an extended evaluation that is likely to include engagement with brands and other sources of information. After making a purchase, the customer will continue to engage in a relationship with the brand, one that may continue over social media and experiential sharing.

Digital tools have allowed today’s customer to be more engaged at every stage of the engagement process—awareness, discovery, attraction, interaction, purchase, use, and advocacy. With those days behind us, “marketing has become a bilateral dialogue, rooted in generating more interactions and engagement with customers” Lauren continue to say.

So, as the result of the user engagement through the many touch points, a brand provides a user experience. What companies have to do, and Vibram as well is to engage the users and provide them the best experience ever. In this way, customers become loyal to the brand and mostly, it becomes an advocate.

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3.4 BRANDING IN THE DIGITAL AGE

The relationship between customers and brands has transformed in recent years because of the digital revolution. According to an article by David Edelman in December 2010, Harvard Business Review titled “Branding in the Digital Age:

“You are spending your money in all the wrong places, people act differently when given the choices the Internet can provide in a way that wasn’t possible 15 years ago”.

David Edelman, 2010

“Today, consumers are promiscuous in their brand relationships: they connect with multiple brands—through new media channels beyond the manufacturer’s and the retailer’s control or even knowledge—and evaluate a shifting array of them, often expanding the pool before narrowing it. After purchase, these consumers may remain aggressively engaged, publicly promoting or assailing the products they’ve bought, collaborating in the brands’ development, and challenging and shaping their meaning. Consumers still want a clear brand promise and offerings they value. What has changed is when—at what touch points—they are most open to influence, and how you can interact with them at thosepoints”. (Devid Edelman, 2010). The increasing availability of digital touchpoints can have a significant impact on the customer experience and perception of the brand, requiring brands to pay close attention to the experience at every stage of the customer journey. The new goal of business is to form a connection with customers that transcends a single purchase, and brand embodies this mission.

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3.5 STORES AS PLACE OF EXPERIENCES

“Retail is dead!” At least, that is how Marc Andreessen sees it. The entrepreneur and tech investor says that all physical retail stores will die, succumbing eventually to the vast sea of online competition. According to Andreessen, there will be one way to shop for everything and that way will be e-commerce.

On the other hand, Doug Stephens says “I have been a vocal proponent of a somewhat different future; one that includes both virtual and physical stores.” In his book, The Retail Revival, Stephens pushes the attention on the fact that we often shop to fulfill other deeper needs as well – the need to disconnect, to socialize and to commune – and at times to simply be out in public. The physical human experience of shopping is in some ways far greater value than the goods that come along for the ride. While shopping is a means of acquiring the things we want and need, it is also a meaningful social activity that appeals to our deepest, human tendency to gather in tribes. (Doug Stephens, 2013).

Stores will increasingly become places that we visit, not simply to pick up mass produced articles, but also to “design and co-create” special things with the personal assistance of experts. Whether it is customizing a suit, building a one-of-a-kind notebook computer or designing the perfect bicycle, stores will be the point of collaboration and customization. These elements of customization will make for unique personal and physical experiences. Smart brands will have no choice but to, focus increasing amounts of attention on making their store spaces experiential brand starting points, with high production value.

“Stages where magic happens.” Stephens says in his speak The Future of Retail. The purpose of retail will no longer be to convert solely every customer into a buyer of goods but rather transform them into disciples of the brand itself. To begin a relationship – a dialogue that may play out in any number of buying channels; online, instore, mobile or elsewhere. It does not matter where purchases take place. “What matters is that the consumer falls in LOVE with the brand and shares that love with others.” The store maintains the potential to be that emotional center of gravity for the brand. (Doug Stephens, 2014).

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3.6 IMAGE IS EVERYTHING: NEUROMARKETING AND SUBCONSCIOUS DECISION

Recent research reveals, customers make brand purchase decisions based on the associations and feelings as opposed to the facts and stats. This conditioning can happen without knowing. Moreover, it is a tendency so strong that it can make customers purchase products that are actually inferior to the competition. To demonstrate this effect Melanie Dempsey of Ryerson University and Andrew A. Mitchell of the University of Toronto conducted a remarkable experiment that randomly presented several hypothetical brands with hundreds of images and words on a computer screen that were either negative or positive. After seeing a long series of the images and brands, participants were not able to recall which associations were connected to which brands – but they developed a preference for the brands that had been positively emotionally conditioned.

The researchers called it the “I like it, but I do not know why” effect. “On any given day a consumer is repeatedly exposed to brands that are paired with various images in one form or another -- from logos on the sides of buildings to televised commercials” (Melanie A. Dempsey and Andrew A. Mitchell, 2010) write the authors of the research study.

“Although the consumer may not be able to recall brand claims or even the brand name itself, the consumer might have been left with a positive feeling, one which he or she may not even be consciously aware.” In subsequent research, these participants were shown rational information to contradict the prior conditioning -- logical evidence that indicated that their brand preferences were, in fact, inferior. But they still choose the brands that they had been conditioned to like by pairing the brand with positive imagery. Even those participants that were highly motivated were unable to undo the prior conditioning.

Every day our decisions are being molded by our media environments. Some of these associations we may not remember, but they are busy influencing our purchases.

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3.6 IMAGE IS EVERYTHING

Photography is vital to a brand and its storytelling.

When surveyed on the importance of visual assets, marketers said photography, illustrations, infographics, and video are all “core to customer engagement.�

CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER COUNCIL “FROM CONTENT TO CREATIVITY: THE ROLE OF VISUAL MEDIA IN IMPACTFUL BRAND STORYTELLING” SAN JOSE, CALIF.ORNIA AUGUST 4, 2015

3.6 IMAGE IS EVERYTHING

“Customers continue to react in meaningful ways to visual media, marketing cannot afford to stand idly by and not include visuals in the content ROI agenda.”

CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER COUNCIL “FROM CONTENT TO CREATIVITY: THE ROLE OF VISUAL MEDIA IN IMPACTFUL BRAND STORYTELLING” SAN JOSE, CALIF.ORNIA AUGUST 4, 2015

3.6 IMAGE IS EVERYTHING

“The integration of imagery, when done correctly, can generate more leads, gain more visibility for your brand and create better communication and engagement with your customers.�

CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER COUNCIL “FROM CONTENT TO CREATIVITY: THE ROLE OF VISUAL MEDIA IN IMPACTFUL BRAND STORYTELLING” SAN JOSE, CALIF.ORNIA AUGUST 4, 2015

3.7 DIGITAL, SOCIAL AND MOBILE IN CHINA

Internet users

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In 2015, nearly 75% of all internet users in the world live in the top 20 countries. The remaining 25% is distributed among the other 178 countries, each representing less than 1% of total users. China, the country with most users, represents nearly 22% of total, and has more users than the next three countries combined (United States, India, and Brasil). Among the top 20 countries, India is the one with the lowest penetration: 19% and the highest yearly growth rate. At the opposite end of the range, United States, Germany, France, U.K., and Canada have the highest penetration: over 80% of population in these countries has an internet connection.

675 M

279 M U.S.A.

233 M

22%

CHINA

INDIA

118 M

of total internet users anly in China

BRASIL

1371 M CHINA POPULATION

49%

Internet users as a percentage of the total population 051

Figures represent the percentage of the total chinese population that paticipated in each activity ia mobile device in the most recent 30-day reporting period

REGULAR MOBILE ACTIVITIES

22% 20% 20% 20% 19%

Cheked the weather online using mobile device

Purchased a product online via mobile device

The world is changing, and it continues to accelerate.

Advances in technology have pushed everyone to a new life-model and mental perspective. The Internet, with its social networks and mobile technologies, is turning the world into one big neighborhood. People are connected to each other in an instantly and constantly way. Connectivity has enabled an engaged world. From open communication on social media to responsive customer service, the digital 052

Used a social networking service via mobile device

Chatted to someone via instant messenger or live chat tool on mobile

age enables to connect with the public. With a few clicks of the keyboard, companies can access a wealth of data on their customers’ reactions, habits, behaviors, needs, and desires. This information is vital to staying relevant in a sea of competitors. The research goes deeper. It analyzes the different social platforms, the user number, and the general usage. QQ, Tencent’s ever-popular instant messaging service, still claims the country’s top position regarding monthly active

Uploaded photos using a mobile device

users, and despite the vast majority of its users residing in China, it also claims the second-place spot in the worldwide rankings behind Facebook.

User numbers suggest that QZone still dominates when it comes to traditional ‘social networking’, but WeChat (or Weixin, as it is known in China) is quickly catching up, and is the platform that most users claim to use on a regular basis. It is interesting to note that Facebook, Google+ and Twitter all

Percentage of the total chinese internet users who claim to have used each platform in the past month WHECHAT

61%

WEIBO

54%

QZONE

54%

BAIDU

38%

RENREN

20%

GOOGLE+

17%

FACEBOOK

15%

TWITTER

14%

SOCIAL USE: USER REPORTED

261

91

%

82

%

79

%

M

WEIBO active users

DMR Stast.

May 24, 2016 Finalized Data We Are Social.

AUGUST 18, 2015 Finalized Data China Internet Watch.

December 16, 2014 Finalized Data Internet Live Stats.

July 1, 2014 Finalized Data

Active users via mobile on WEIBO

Users that shop online on WEIBO

appear on this list too; they may be officially ‘blocked’ by the Great Firewall, but GlobalWebIndex’s research suggest that a considerable number of China’s netizens are getting around these blocks to access non-Chinese social platforms.

It is evident that the platforms that dominate in China are markedly different to those that marketers are familiar with elsewhere. However, it is not just the platforms that are different; the ways that Chinese netizens use social

Users from 17 to 33 y.o. on WEIBO

channels are also markedly different, and companies need to adapt their approaches to China’s culture and society carefully. China’s netizens are already very comfortable buying things online, whether that is through their PCs or via their mobile devices. The next big opportunity is to understand how the dynamics of social referral work in China and use that to move from social engagement to social conversion.

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Customer

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journey

Purchasing Path, Doug Stephens, 2015

3.8 CUSTOMER JOURNEY: DIGITAL AND PHYSICAL TOUCH POINTS

The article of July 2015 on nice.com “Digital vs. Physical: Who Drives the Customer Experience?” opens: “Today’s consumers expect an effortless and personalized experience”. (Nevo Peretz, 2015). With the current focus on customer experience and the continuing gap between digital and human interactions, there’s a growing need to adopt a digital data driven approach, for a ‘digital transformation’ of the entire customer experience. Digital service providers create an effortless and tailored experience, which they are able to do because they understand deeply how people use their services; they know where they’re coming from, understand their intent, and generate meaningful insight about each of them. Digital service providers don’t hide the fact that they’re obsessed with customer data and work very hard to gain insights about customers and their behaviors.

Since the beginning of this thesis, I have been talking about how the digital era is changing everything but, the other hand, human interactions have the power to be exceptional in a way no digital interaction can. Nevo Peretz says in his article that “both digital and physical interactions can provide a satisfactory customer experience, but people’s experience requires addressing the comprehensive customer journey across digital and physical as one”. The journey forms the entire experience, from the moment the customers first engage with the brand, to when they purchase at the branch, call up for service or renew their program. To win in today’s customer-focused environment, Nevo Peretz keeps saying, business leaders need to transform their thinking for the digital age.

“Any customer-focused (I would prefer to say human-centered) organization must have the ability to adapt, taking an analytical approach to driving the customer experience across both the digital and physical worlds.” Of course, connecting digital interactions with human interactions and using a digital data driven approach to the physical world is not an easy task. Most human interactions are unstructured, making an analytics-based approach to understanding customers and designing their journey experience is much harder to implement. But “the technology for connecting and designing physical and digital experiences as one is already here”, and organizations that will move fast will be able to provide a superior customer experience and gain the most significant competitive advantage in today’s business world.

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“Both digital and physical interactions can provide a satisfactory customer experience, but people’s experience requires addressing the comprehensive customer journey across digital and physical as one”.

“Digital vs. Physical: Who Drives the Customer Experience?”

Nevo Peretz, 2015

take a breath and go deeper

CHAPTER 4 - FINDINGS

4 .1 TONGJI PSSD STUDIO

A

s always happens in design studios, a company, usually design-oriented, comes to us proposing a brief. My classmates and I had to design a new concept for the two most important projects the company was defining for the Chinese market.

The brief I have been working on during the course was “Vibram Sole Factor”. My team and I worked on the concept of bringing the service, already existing in Europe and the USA, in China. The Vibram Sole Factor is a service in which the first objective is to let consumers perceive the sole as a finished product, which characterizes the shoe and its performance, and therefore which can be replaced to improve them. With this purpose the company launched the service first in the USA and then in Italy with a hub where performance experts and designers are available to advise which Vibram sole best suits the needs of each customer. After the selection of the sole professional shoemakers in 24h can apply it to the shoes and give them back to the customer.

The challenge for the team was to understand how to apply this service to the Chinese market. The team has been studying the Chinese customers, media channels, physical and digital touch points that could work for this purpose. Following a design process, the team developed a final concept. The outputs consisted of a digital presentation, a video, and a prototype. The outputs were showing the overall system and the multiple interactions between the brand, the service, and the users. The five projects developed by the five international teams have been presented to the company in May 2015. At the presentation, done at the Design & Innovation College, were present Matteo Crovetto, General Manager of Vibram China, Massimo Randone, Academic Coordinator & Innovation System Advisor in Vibram and the President Marco Bramani with his family. The projects showed, got the interest of the Vibram representatives all at the point to ask for a presentation directly at the Chinese Centre, in Guangzhou.

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4.2 International Design & Business Management, HK Polytechnic University

Special thanks to Massimo Randone.

Thanks to this collaboration I have learned some methods, which I used for the development of the project.

The text in the next page is the introduction of Massimo Randone to the first lecture of the “Lifestyles, Cultures and Innovation” course at the International Design & Business Management (ID&BM), School of Design, at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The course started on the 2nd of November and ended up the 17th of December 2015 with a final delivery and presentation. In collaboration with Massimo, I could follow the progress of the teams and especially understand their research methodology.

The experience done is an essential step in the development of my research. During the years, I have learned many design tools and methods, which I could use in my projects. However, China is that kind of country in which there are rules and attitudes entirely different from those you (and I) know. Here everything has not to be adapted but interpreted. So my research too.

H K P O LY T E C H N I C UNIVERSITY

“With more than 30 years of unflagging growth, China has now been transformed into an influential economic power of the world. As the magnitude of the economy has grown so too has the size and wealth of the China’s middle class. After decades of ‘wealth’ pursuing, ‘wellness’ (physical and mental fitness) has now become one of the key concerns among the middle-class stratum in China. In recent years, consumers’ demand for products and/or service related to physical fitness and particularly sports activities has been growing steadily in China, and money and time invested in sports have been increased. Among the various forms of sport, outdoor sports in China have started to evolve as a mass leisure lifestyle from its ‘professional’ origin. Trail running, skiing, riding and water sports have grown and expanded from the minority to the larger public.

While more and more amateurs -- especially the elite class -- have been taking part in outdoor sport, it has now become a synonym of high-end fashion and contemporary lifestyle, hence undoubtedly popular in China. According to a recent report, though the growth rate of the outdoor market has been decelerating because of the recent economic slowdown in China, retail sales of outdoor industry is still growing around 11 to 12% per year. Rooms for market growth of outdoor sports are still immense. Vibram is now approaching you to explore the potential growth of the outdoor markets in mainland China. Playing a role as a ‘strategic innovation consultant’, you and your teammates will be invited to take up a specific design challenge from Vibram as follows: 1 - Analyze and describe a clear overview of the Outdoor-Sport and the latest development of related market segments in China.

2 - Design a creative and innovative marketing strategy: how to catch new market opportunity; which are new touch points where Vibram can talk and feel existing and potential customer; how to communicate Vibram values products and brand during strategic events in China; imagine new channels of showand-sell our product service and brand reputation.“

Findings from the course

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CHAPTER 4 - FINDINGS

75-year-old company that is a worldwide leader in its market. However, the world is changing, and the customers are changing as well. What was working ten or five years ago could not work nowadays. This point takes place, especially considering the Chinese branch of the company which has been founded just in 2007.

The main pain-point of the company is characterized by the less income of the Chinese market. But, this problem is the effect of a less effort in understanding the Chinese market and customer. Vibram China has not yet found its direction; part because of the decision-making flow, part because of the approach was taken. Working in contact with the marketing, and design department, I could identify hidden problems. Vibram, which is a product-driven-innovation company (and that is good), could not have longer a product-centered approach. The user is the new center of every product, service, system every company wants to develop.

4.3 FINDINGS AND INSIGHTS FROM VIBRAM

T

he following lines represent the reason I wanted to focus my thesis on Vibram, on the future and possible touch points to increase the awareness of the brand.

Companies of this level look great from the outside; this was my same thought about Vibram till entering into it. I could look at the company from inside and what you will read in the next lines is not a subjective understanding but a more scientific one. Of course, my understanding is related mostly to the Chinese branch which is the one I have been working on. Beside the different departments of the company, the decisions always come from Italy. The Italian headquarter is the only decision maker of all company. This process could work, but there are many points to consider when a decision made in Italy has to work both in the US and China.

Vibram has been great developing the brand identity. The yellow octagon is a powerful and meaningful element that will always be recognized as an element of quality, comfort, and performance.

However, the company didn’t find a powerful and strong format yet, regarding colors and materials, to use for the several touch points they develop every year (I am referring mainly to the physical touch points). There are not so many points to discuss if we talk about a

060

Vibram, which is a product-driveninnovation company (and that is good), could not have longer a productcentered approach. The user is the new center of every product, service, system every company wants to develop.

No less important, Vibram is a company, which is a leader in designing and manufacturing soles. As we know, the sole is “just” a component of a product-system that is the shoe. This is a big point to take into consideration. Most of the users recognize the brand of the shoe, but not the one of the sole.

Aware of this weakness the company has tried since the 90’ to break the market with remarkably innovative finished products. The afford put in the r&d department brought some radical innovations like Vibram Five Fingers in 2005, that had great success, and Furoshiki in 2014. Despite the success, the increasing value and brand image of the company, the main business is still characterized by the soles. The challenge of the company, as Marco Bramani sad in an informal conversation, is: “I would like to sell the sole as a finished product, directly to the costumer. I want people going into shops and ask for a Vibram sole.”

Finally, I could also get many insights from the design methods and tools used by the students of the HK Polytechnic. This point of view has been an essential element for defining my research method.

THE GOAL OF AN AUDIENCE ANALYSIS IS TO IDENTIFY THE EXPERIENCES THAT DRIVE CONNECTION WITH THE BRAND.

4.4 ANALYSIS The goal of an audience analysis is to identify the experiences that drive connection with the brand. Understanding the audience can help me tap into their needs and desires, which is an essential component of brand success. In this paragraph, I will show how I clearly understood the Vibram Audience and how I identified their needs. Then my job as a designer will become pivotal in the success of your company’s brand strategy. According to an article in the Harvard Business Review,1 failing to understand their target audience can lead to failure. Many of the reasons for failure listed in the article revolve around not having a clear understanding of the target audience and how to reach it. Even a great product won’t sell if the right people don’t know about it. Taking time to truly understand the audience can have a major impact on a company’s chances of success. The first, target audience, is most familiar from a business standpoint since most companies think about to whom they can sell. However, there are other audience sets that can have a major bearing on a company’s ability to grow and connect with people. Together, these groups comprise an audience mix, giving me a richer understanding of all the people who can influence the success of Vibram business.

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4 . 4 .1 SOCIAL MEDIA A N A LY S I S

Analysis done from April 8th, 2015 to February 8th, 2016

The Internet makes easy to track and collect data about companies’ fans, followers, website visitors, and much more. In fact, many web and social media tools have analytics built into their dashboards, including social media brand pages and email marketing tools. In this paragraph, I will take into consideration the Vibram online channels and the participation of the users. The analysis has been done in a range of ten months, from April 8th, 2015 till February 8th, 2016,

analyzing both the western and the Chinese social media channels of the company.

The analysis shows how the social media strategy applied

by Vibram in China is much less efficient then the Vibram US and Europe. It is easy to see how the “western” platform has improved during the time. Vibram China, with no a clear media strategy, has not been able to increase the number of followers, neither active nor passive. From the image we can see how the strategy used with Instagram

is much more efficient while the Weibo ones, which can offer quite similar tools, is unproductive. For the following analysis of the data collected, I will take into consideration the improvements done with the “western” (I call western social networks those that are blocked in China) social networks in relation to the Weibo profile of Vibram. The yellow columns in the image show the most relevant data.

The following lines point out the differences.

DEEP ANALYSIS OF THE OFFICIAL VIBRAM PROFILES ON THE MAIN SOCIAL PLATFORMS

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Followers Grow.

In ten months all the “western” social media profiles have had a relevant grow.

Youtube has been the best in growing, with +751% followers, while the biggest pool of followers is given by Google+ with 256’078 followers and a grow of +118%. Twitter and Instagram show a grow of +234% and +226%. Weibo, with its 16’437 followers, is the second most followed Vibram social network, however, its grow in ten months has been almost zero.

Presence grow.

With “presence” I mean the action of the company in its social media: the daily sharing of contents. The data showed in this column are not self-explaining and at a first look seems there is a 0% grow for all the social networks apart from Twitter and Google+. However, taking into consideration the previous data about the grow and combine them with the “presence” we can understand how Instagram, Youtube, and Facebook kept consistency

on the contents. The daily activity on these social networks and the consistency of their contents have led to a relevant grow in followers number. Weibo has the same data about the presence but this confirms that the contents are not interesting and engaging enough to led to a grow in followers. Different strategies are taken for the different social networks.

Each social platform has its own rules and specific tools which need to be taken in consideration to build the best possible social strategy

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FOLLOWERS Amount of followers for each platform

CONTENTS Content generation for each platform

INTERACTIONS Amount of interactions generated

Comparing data

FOLLOWERS

Likes Growth The Likes in social media marketing identify the interest and the engagement of the users with the content shared. In this column, we can have a better look at the results of the previous data.

We can see how there are improvements in almost all the social nektons while the number of “Likes” on Weibo contents is the same as ten months before. The highest grow is done by Instagram with +115% likes.

Content generation.

The mentions are done by the users every time they share a content adding the word “Vibram”. It is a link to the official

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Vibram profile that enables the company to check how many times has been mentioned and how engaged are the users. Considering the contents shared directly by Vibram and those shared by the users through the mentions we can calculate the amount of users that interact with the brand. With an average of 115 mentions per day, Instagram is the social network with the highest number of user interactions; furthermore, this number has to be multiplied per the average number of likes they take. As a result, there are 3450 user interactions, in forms of likes, every day only on Instagram.

However, none of the other

CONTENTS

social networks is even close to this number. Facebook, which has a powerful tool for the mentions, generate 120 interactions per day. Weibo, instead, generates no interactions among the users and, even if the “mention” tool is well developed, there are no shared contents from the big pool of followers.

The points above aim to clarify the data collected and to give a general understanding of the analysis done during the months I have been working on the research. In chapter 4.5 you can have a look at the deep analysis done on the data collected.

INTERACTIONS

SYNTHESIS, THE ACT OF EXTRACTING MEANINGFUL PATTERNS FROM MASSES OF RAW INFORMATION, IS A FUNDAMENTALLY CREATIVE ACT; THE DATA ARE JUST THAT–DATA–AND THE FACTS NEVER SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

“Change by Design” Tim Brown, 2015

Once upon a time, companies had to spend significant money on expensive research teams to conduct field-testing, survey data and focus groups to learn consumer opinions and behaviors.

These days, social media channels and analytic data sets provide this info in a more cost-effective way.

Layout of the online survey launched through social channels.

It has been developed with TypeForm.com

ONLINE SURVEY 4.4.2 ONLINE SURVEY

Once upon a time, companies had to spend significant money on expensive research teams to conduct field-testing, survey data and focus groups to learn consumer opinions and behaviors. These days, social media channels and analytic data sets provide this info in a more cost-effective way. As a second step, I had to get data about the awareness of the brand into the market. Understand how much the brand is known, for what it is known and a general understanding of the users. The research has been done with an online survey spread through social media as Facebook, Twitter, WeChat and other channels, trying to get as many answer as possible from a var066

iegate audience. Before even thinking of the questions, I wanted to ask I had to make a plan. I had to identify first my audience and second, identify the channels through which I could reach the specific audience. Once I made these first two steps I had to structure the survey and create a linear path to get as many valuable information as possible. As you can see from the document attached, the survey is named “The world at your feet” and was the first trial to give a name to the project.

The first three questions are about general information while the questions d. and e. has been useful to get information about the user behaviors.

Just after a first understanding of the user, I introduce the company. Here I provide some basic information that can help the user recognize the company and create a reference with the brand. The last part is about Vibram and the interaction between the company and the users, which product Vibram in known for, which use users do with Vibram products and so on.

When I have been planning the survey my focus was not so much on the individual questions I was asking, instead, it was on the interaction and connections between the different possible answers. Like in the touchpoints matrix my idea was to provide a framework that could enable me to “connect the dots” in order to see the different variables, insights, contexts and results of the multiple answers. The survey has worked not only as a quantitative research but mostly as a qualitative one, thanks to the insights you can see in the following paragraph. Once I have launched the Audience Survey, I felt the need to go deeper in understanding the already existing Vibram users. Because of the variegate catalog Vibram has many different kind of users, and each of them has valuable information the can help me in developing the project. I got in contact with numerous users and the outputs of the conversations lead me understanding better the connection these users have with the brand and its products.

CHAPTER 4 - FINDINGS

4.4.3 FINDINGS AND INSIGHTS FROM VIBRAM

T

he key word here is “observation.” This is different from interviews, surveys, and focus groups. Instead, this methodology gives insights from the way customers behave naturally, without knowing they are being watched. Although the direct experience in the company and the Vibram community, my “battlefield” observation has been Shanghai.

In this bustling megalopolis, everything is immersed in a continuous flow of evolution. While it is hard to keep the pace, it is also exciting to live the diversity that Shanghai offers. The framework and landscape of this city offer many possibility to apply an innovative concept of user experience, engagement, and interaction.

I moved into the city looking for every single place where I could find a Vibram user. Apart from the retail spots, like the Shanghai Zhengda Mall, my focus has been more on those locations where the Vibram users are using the products. This research leads me discovering many spot in the city where Vibram can be more present because of the pool of people, potential users, present in those places. A deep analysis has been done in a location that Vibram is interested in since a couple of months. I am talking about Xuhui Riverside Open Public Space, locally named Riverside Park, in Shanghai, West Bund. Since the first project developed during the design studio at Tongji I have

In this bustling megalopolis, everything is immersed in a continuous flow of evolution.

While it is hard to keep the pace, it is also exciting to live the diversity that Shanghai offers.

been observing how space is used and how the sports facilities located in the park increase the user engagement.

The observation continued also during the internship done in Guangzhou. In August, the company sends me in Shanghai to observe and make a research about the commercial spaces available along the park. Here companies can rent the spaces, provided by West Bund inc. and use them in the way they want. The two-days observation brought me many valuable insights about how these companies, already present in the area, manage and organize their space.

Adidas, worldwide known brand for sports apparel, since May 2015 is located in Xuhui Riverside Park with its new flagship store RunningBase. The space rent by the brand has not a commercial use but a more experience one. They show the new products and make monthly events only focalized on the running movement, which is increasing among the Chinese.

The physical engagement that Adidas provides to its users is a great example and an inspiration for Vibram, which aim to reach the same relevance in the sport and casual market in China.

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Launched February 2, 2016 and ended March 2, 2016.

395 Participants

129 ITALY

73 CHINA

26 U.S.A.

20 GER.

12 TUR.

9 BEL.

9 NL.

8 U.K.

D A T A G AT H E R I N G 4.4.4 DATA G AT H E R I N G A N D A N A LY S I S

At this stage of the process designers or marketers have to be careful in not being already oriented to a certain outcome or results. The more you are open to the unexpected the more it’s easy to find original connections and innovative ideas. The images in this chapter show roughly the analysis done of the data collected.

Online survey data analysis. First of all is important to give a general overview of the data collected, the number of the participants and their nationality. The survey has been submitted by 395 people, 129 Italians, 73 Chinese, 068

and more than twenty other nationalities. It has been spread through my own social media profiles and that is the reason why there are many Italians who submitted the survey. While Facebook, Instagram, and twitter have been the channels used for the international audience, WeChat has been the channel utilized to spread the survey to Chinese people.

The second step of the analysis has been to underline the main results.

Here I could see how the international audience is more focused on topics as “explore/adventure” and “photography/creativity” while the Chinese audience is focused more on “share/social” and “fashion/trendy”. As expected, the results about the social media network used by the audience are very different. Facebook and Instagram are the two most used social network by the international audience while WeChat and Weibo are the two most used by the Chinese audience. Surprisingly, the

<18

19-24

25-34

35-44

45-54

55-64

>65

9%

44%

37%

6%

3%

1%

1%

AGE - Total audience

Explore/adventure

Family/home

Photo/creativity

Indie/healthy

Family/home

Social/sharing

Indie/healthy

Fashion/style

Social/sharing

61%

47%

44%

40%

Photo/creativity

37%

46%

International Audience

Type of person - International audience

46%

Trakking

24%

Adventuring

Furoshiki

66% no

34% yes

WeChat

66%

35%

13%

Fitness

93% no

7% yes

Vibram F.F. Weibo

31%

30%

68% no

32% yes

48%

26%

29%

Trakking

Sport events

26%

They know Vibram Social network mostly used

29%

Climbing

Sponsor events QZone

46%

37%

Rubber sole Linkedin

Chinese Audience

40%

Vibram F.F.

Instagram

86%

42%

Type of person - Chinese audience

Facebook

87%

44%

Fitness

90% no

10% yes

59%

49%

46%

They have Vibram They know Vibram for...

They use Vibram products for...

ONLINE SURVEY F

M

66%

34%

GENDER - Total audience

data about the awareness of the brand are similar in both the cases even do the Vibram users are more among the international audience than the Chinese one. The data shows that the brand is mostly known thanks to the FiveFingers product in both cases, but there is a surprising evidence about the promotional events among the Chinese audience. To better analyze the data I had to go deeper in the understanding of the results and go further in connecting the dots to generate valuable insights. The image shows the comparison between the two reports generated by the survey. Here I started to connect the most interesting data with the aim to come up with insights and so innovative ideas.

There are two main insights coming from the analysis of the survey data: the topics the audience is interested in, and the social networks mostly used.

The first insight shows how different the two audiences are. In the first case,

the “explorer/adventure” orientation of the international target drives the choices taken by the company in their marketing and communication outcomes. Is evident that a similar strategy can not be applied to the Chinese market which is mostly oriented on the “fashion/trendy” and “share/social”.

This means that the strategy to apply in China has to be completely different from the one applied to the western markets.

The Second insight instead shows that the best social network is Weibo.

Even if WeChat is the most used social platform, Weibo has tools and features that can allow the company share interactive contents and so engage with the users. Weibo works like Facebook and allows the use of #hashtags which is the main characteristic of Instagram.

The similarities with the two mostly used “western” social networks evidence the potential that Weibo has for the company in the Chinese market.

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Social media data analysis. I have already shown the data collected about the social media channels of the company. Here I show the analysis done on the data and, most important, the connection of the dots which lead me on generating valuable and innovative insights.The data show that the most valuable tool for user engagement in social media is the #hashtag. We can notice that thanks to the big amount of interaction that Instagram generates. Furthermore, we can see that the most valuable and engaging contents are the pictures. They are easy to understand and, mostly, they are the most used by the social media users.

The analysis of Weibo evidences that the social network is not used as it should be. Is evident that the company has no a clear strategy that drives this social network. What comes up from the analysis is that the same strategy used for Instagram could be applied, with obvious differences, on Weibo.

The Chinese platform provides similar tools and the use of the #hashtag

is well developed among the users.

Also in this case the pictures are the most shared content as in the case of Facebook and Instagram. Another important insight coming from the social media data analysis is the difference between the different content shared by the company in the different social networks. The big amount of interaction generated by Instagram is due to the fact that the contents are shared directly by the community and that are strictly related to the everyday life os the users. The pictures shared on Instagram and Facebook have almost always the users as the central subject.

While on Weibo the content shared by the company are mostly related to commercial events or marketing initiatives. This evidences how social media users are mostly engaged by the community instead of the product or the brand in itself. There is a more valuable relationship in between the community than the brand/users and this is due to the transparency and the trust generate in the user/user relationship.

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CHAPTER 5 CASE STUDIES

The North Face case study analyzes and shows how a human-centered design approach can lead to a holistic brand experience, Intel iQ shows the importance of getting engaged with the users through always new and interesting contents, Nike+ instead is the best example of how building a community around the brand can generate brand awareness and loyalty and so increase the brand value.

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age Chinese consumers to escape the pressures of hectic city life by enjoying the freedom and renewal that comes with spending time outdoors.” (IDEO, 2015). The North Face brand’s new messaging links “old nature” and “new outdoors” through a combination of digital, retail, and interactive community channels. IDEO’s insights and creative brief provided the essential brand story for The North Face in China and informed the tagline of the company’s current marketing campaign, “Go wild”. Since ancient times, Chinese scholars, kings, and poets have found inspiration in nature as a means to rejuvenate and empower the soul. Today, as more people find less time to enjoy the benefits that lie just beyond China’s large cities, there is a tangible desire to return to the outdoors to refresh, reassess, and renew oneself. The North Face aims to help consumers do exactly that. One key to creating a compelling new brand vision for The North Face in China was the team’s human-centered design research into preferred Chinese ways to spend time outdoors.

IDEO also collaborated with the company on designs and prototypes for a new digital platform and an updated store-within-a-store merchandising display. The digital community aimed to attract newcomers and connect them with more experienced outdoors enthusiasts and clubs. The retail community space integrated this digital community with in-store shoppers and turned the ‘buy a product moment’ into a ‘join the outdoors moment’. The two integrated touchpoints created a holistic brand experience in China centered on nature and community. The company launched a video manifesto and a sharing photo app so users could document their journey into the wild. In three months, campaign manifesto and the documentary films when viral and generated twelve and half mission views and the mobile app received more than sixty-five thousand users generated photo content. The social channels followers grew like 48,3%, and more importantly, The North Face spring-summer-season-sells increase by 80%.

THE NORTH FACE:

HOLISTIC BRAND EXPERIENCE

The North Face is a major global supplier of innovative, technically advanced outdoor apparel, equipment, and footwear.

For more than 40 years, the company has joined forces with the world’s finest climbers, skiers, snowboarders, mountaineers, alpinists, and endurance athletes “to define the limits of what is humanly possible. After establishing the brand in Asia, The North Face wanted to expand its presence as a market leader in the region.

The company partnered with IDEO to develop ways that The North Face brand story could resonate more deeply with consumers in China. In the Western Hemisphere, The North Face® brand has long represented an active, sporty lifestyle that’s filled with challenges and adventures. But appreciating “the great outdoors” in China is less about extreme sports and more about convening with nature in a common, spiritual way. This human-centered design research insight led the team to identify new opportunities for The North Face to target better its messaging. One key opportunity: “Encour-

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The two integrated touchpoints created a holistic brand experience in China centered on nature and community.

This case study is a great example of how designcentered approach can be applied to generate valuable and innovative ideas. IDEO has designed a campaign that enables users interactions in a holistic way. Video content, mobile application, social platform, store-withina-store merchandising display, are the multiple touchpoints that the user can face in different time and spaces. They are all designed in an integrated way with each other to answer to the demand of the customer to be involved and connected to the brand. Furthermore, as I already mentioned, IDEO developed the campaign using a design process which allowed them to better understand the needs of the users and prototype solutions for the generation of trustful results. This case study is fundamental for the development of the project since it is applied in China as well and because the approach used for its development.

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C A S E S T U D I ES / 5.2

tel have evolved into acquisition and retention. “Retention is of the utmost importance,” Kintigh says.

Leveraging an audience, he says, opens up the doors for marketers at Intel to produce and distribute content in an entirely different way than in years past. Intel’s growth is built on strong relationships. “Intel is delivering more content-driven relationships, as opposed to just distributing content,” he says. “Because if you just wanted to distribute content, there are a lot of ways to just rack up those clicks and make performance metrics—those vanity metrics—go up and to the right. But if you want to do an excellent job that’s in line with the brand goals that Intel has then you have to build relationships.” Weinroth says that type of relationship isn’t possible with a one-time engagement.

“It’s only available through repeat engagement.” Intel’s plan is to continue to grow its content hub, iQ, to optimize the skills and knowledge of its employees for audience benefit, and to continually evolve the image of the company. Intel is a relatively older tech corporation, but content is proving to be the impetus that regularly updates customers’ perception of the brand. “We’re trying to communicate to a wider audience—and a younger audience— that Intel is powering all of these innovative things,” Kintigh says.

“It takes a long time to build an interactive content strategy and build an audience. But we recognize this isn’t a short race; it’s a marathon. IQ is always on, and it’s going to go on forever.”

INTEL:

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

For the past 40+ years, Intel has achieved an admirable marketing feat: Despite the fact that it doesn’t sell directly to consumers, it’s a brand that people know and associate with high-performance computing products and services.

Before the internet took off, Intel built its brand with high-profile TV campaigns and its ubiquitous “Intel Inside” branding.

But different times call for a different approach. In May 2012, the company launched Intel iQ, a content hub featuring technology-centered stories that highlight news, trends, and celebrities making waves in tech innovation. Stories range in topic—everything from why video gaming makes players smarter to mobile tech for the deaf, too, of course, the growing wearable tech movement. Luke Kintigh, Intel’s global content and media strategist, says the aim of Intel’s content marketing strategy is to target tech enthusiasts, create brand loyalty, and reassert the brand as a leader in innovation. With a constant focus on dedicated subscribers, the goals at In-

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“We want to leverage our existing audience, especially those who’ve engaged with posts.”

INTEL.COM

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“It takes a long time to build an interactive content strategy and build an audience.

But we recognize this isn’t a short race; it’s a marathon. IQ is always on, and it’s going to go on forever.”

As Vibram, also Intel is an ingredient company and that is the reason why this case study has a big relevance in the development of the project.

Ingredient companies always face difficulties in brand awareness but this is not the case of Intel, which has build a great campaign in the last years: Intel Inside.

However, this case is not about Intel Inside campaign but Intel iQ. With this project Intel aims to create always innovative and engaging content to enforce the relationship with the users. In the same why the project i am going to develop has to generate contents that have to attract old and new users and engage with them.

The contents are shared through a digital platform which is completely dedicated to this project and designed to be user-friendly.

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C A S E S T U D I ES / 5.3

the Nike FuelBand gives people a practical way to keep track of their workout progress. It allows them to keep up with other friends who have FuelBands via social media, and to share workout information with their buddies. On the one hand, this is marketing: people relaying the Nike brand message and forging consumer awareness. On the other hand, this is community building: fitness junkies connecting with one another and with Nike through a product.

NIKE PLUS:

BUILDING COMMUNITY

“Nike Plus has built a huge network of running enthusiasts globally to bring one set of customers together around a common interest through a branded motivational platform.”

In 2010, Nike kicked their digital marketing into high gear, with their Nike+ running app, which uses GPS technology to track users’ workout data. And it doesn’t just provide dry statistics. There are a number of little touches within the app that tells how Nike listened to feedback from athletes about how they train.

“Nike Plus has built a huge network of running enthusiasts globally to bring one set of customers together around a common interest through a branded motivational platform.”

(Nike, 2016) As a result, those involved engage with Nike every single time they go for a run. That creates a sense of brand loyalty that’s incredibly valuable for the company in the long term.

Even though creating a platform for runners did not immediately or directly drive sales for Nike, “it connected a group of running enthusiasts and kept them engaged with the Nike brand”. One can assume that this translated not only to sales in the long term but also into customer loyalty. For example,

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“it connected a group of running enthusiasts and kept them engaged with the Nike brand”

This is the case study that show us how a “simple” social platform can generate an incredible grow in terms of brand value and image.

Nike has been one of the first company that understand the value of the community.

With Nike+ they answered to a user need and at at the same time, through the community, they spread the brand amount million of people. In this case, Nike has seen the inner potential in creating a community in which users are at the centre of every interaction.

The study of this case led me to better understand the importance of creating a community of users around a specific manner. A social platform, with welldesigned User Experience and User Interface, could be the best tool to generate brand awareness among the Chinese market. The tree case studies will be so helpful for the development of the project, each of them with a characteristic which improves and increases the value of the brand.

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Things change, even if we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want them to. No company operating in the free market can be successful in perpetuity by delivering the same products with the same marketing and the same margins.

While it is easy and natural to crave consistency and avoid risk, the changing nature of life and our environment requires us to change, to adapt, and to take chances in order to survive.

Vibram is trying to build a flourishing market in China as the European and American one, but the results are late to arrive.

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Chapter 6 Project definition 081

C H A P. 6

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PROJECT DEFINITION

#IAM VIBRAM # 082

#IAM VIBRAM # 083

6.1 EVIDENCES FROM THE RESEARCH

T

he previous five chapters, from the “Introduction” to the “Case studies”, passing through the “Review of the literature” and the “Background research”, are the bases on which I will develop the project. Furthermore, the findings in chapter four provide me the evidences to support the design phase. Is time now to underline the most interesting and useful results coming from the research, so will be easier for the reader to understand the reason why of the design output.

Luck in Brand Awareness. As an “ingredient company,” Vibram face a luck in brand awareness among the markets. China, which is a relatively young market for the company, evidences the same problem as the other international market.

Chinese customers behave differently. The needs of the Chinese customer are totally different from the ones of the Europeans or Americans. The research evidences that Chinese consumers strongly believe in online products review and that they are willing to spend more for a branded product because safer and higher quality. Furthermore, the online survey shows that Chinese users recognize themselves as “social/sharing” and “fashion/trendy” people, which are characteristics totally different from the international users.

Social media as the main channel to deliver contents. With 659 million of active social media users China is the most social market in the world. Furthermore, mobile devices are the most used for the regular activities of the consumers. Among the activities, some are more relevant: purchase a product, use a social network service, upload photos.

Sina Weibo is the best channel. Both the “Social and mobile in China” report and the Online survey show the same results: Wechat is the most used platform, followed

by Weibo and QZone. However, the social media analysis done on the Vibram social media channels shows that the best platform to deliver contents is Weibo. It offers tools and features that can encourage a multi-way interaction between the users and the users with the brand.

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The importance of user engagement and user experience. Nowadays companies like Vibram can not just rely on the product or service they provide, they have to deliver an experience and, most important, find the way to engage with the customer.

Need to integrate physical and digital. The research on the last trends in marketing and user experience shows that is fundamental to integrate both physical and digital experience in the purchasing process. Retail stores, merchandising display, commercial and marketing events have to integrate both the experiences to the user.

The importance of being emotionally engaged. The studies in neuromarketing and subconscious decisions show that people get emotionally conditioned by positive images. Associate a positive and emotional image to a brand will influence the perception of the brand itself and the purchasing decision of the consumer.

Cover all the purchasing path. Researchers show that the purchasing path is not just a line that connects two dots. It is a complex system of factors which integrates digital and physical touchpoints, pre and post-purchase experiences, getting and giving information. To be relevant in the market and to deliver a much better experience, companies have to be present in every stage of this process, building multiple touchpoints that accompany the consumer during the entire process with a never-ending interaction with the brand, its products, and community.

Building community. People tend to aggregate and share same interests and passions. This is why communities are the best way to communicate to a certain target of people that have interests in a product or service. Nike+ deliver a great example of how brands can increase their value (in terms of brand image, brand loyalty, and revenues) thanks to an engaged community that could be self-sustaining.

The right locations. For a relatively young company in the Chinese market, as Vibram is, is important to be present with a branded physical store in first-tier cities like Shanghai. The study shows that the best locations for Vibram would be an area in which there are already the potential Vibram users. These areas are parks with sports facilities, areas focalized on extreme sports and adventures,spots of existing communities.

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PROJECT DEFINITION

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The project wants to develop a holistic strategy that goes through multiple touchpoints, physical and digital, with the scope to approach new customers and build a multi-way relationship. Creating a new community of users around the brand that will communicate with each other providing and taking trustful and useful information.

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6.2 NEEDS

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ibram China is doing a good job around the country. It sponsors many sports events, and It tries to be relevant in many of the manifestations taking place in the country and south-east area. What Vibram China is not doing is trying to look behind the next event, behind the next buyer. The brand needs a long term strategy that can build value and awareness in the market. This strategy will, then, lead the company in a future with more sales and, most important, with customer loyalty and engagement.

Is time for Vibram to shift from a product-centric approach to a customer-centric approach. The user needs to be at the centre of every decision the company makes. It is a fundamental and radical change for a company that has always been focalized on the product and its performances. I firmly believe this change has to be done even if seems to go far away from the company values. But any change scares and as the new customer is also changing companies have to adapt to the change. Vibram has a strong brand identity that has worked well in the last decades but now is time to change and build a new way to communicate with the customer. The shoes and soles have not to be any more at the center of every poster, communication, project; is time now to put at the centre the user expectation, the user vision and dream. Is time for Vibram to build a relationship not based only on the performances of the products but on the feeling those products can give to the user; where the product can bring them, what they can achieve thanks to it.

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6.3 TARGET

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he shift I am proposing will also change the direction of the company. The new audience will be much more variegated, from the sports enthusiast to the fashion influencer. The research done on the Chinese market lead me discovering new insights which I was not expecting. The online survey and the on-field observation lead me defining a new target which will be at the centre of my project. The primary customers Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m aiming to reach with the development of this project are mostly Chinese workers or students, with an average age of 18 to 40 years old.

Generally, they would work/study and live in first and second tire cities like Shanghai, and they are the new Chinese consumers that are willing to pay higher prices for a better quality product. These are users digitally engaged mostly through social networks that care about getting and providing information and review about goods and services.

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our are the main typologies of users that the project would address which I decided to translate into personas which better explain what are the main motivations and their relationship with the brand.

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GEORGE LIU URBAN PLANNER / SKATER SHANGHAI, 24 YEARS OLD

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eorge Liu moved to Shanghai for university study and since 5 years he lives with a friend. He works as an urban planner in a Shanghainese studio, and as soon as he can she goes skating around the city. As part of a skater community, he uses to go always in the same place. Every weekend he meets with his friends in Xuhui Park, West Bund. As every skater, George Liu focuses on having an original outfit, always comfortable and as much as high-catching.

He wears the same shoes as the other members of the community, and he always tries to customize them.

He has never heard about Vibram.

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XIAOY EN ARCHITECTURE - ART BLOGGER BEIJING, 29 YEARS OLD

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iaoYen is originally from Hongkong and moved to Beijing to work for a fashion magazine. She is an independent girl, and she is careful in having an healthy lifestyle. She is into the fashion world and because her job she is always connected to social networks to spread new articles and pictures about new fashion trends. She is an original girl, and she tries to look always trendy and fashion. Her job allows her to have a high-quality lifestyle, and she spends a lot of money for new and high-quality clothes and apparels. She met Vibram for the first time in an exhibition during the Beijing Design Week in which the company was the partner of a fashion brand.

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DANIEL MANAGER - RUNNER BOSNIA, (SHANGHAI FROM 2 YEARS) 32 YEARS OLD

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aniel lives in Shanghai for two years, and he is a sports enthusiast. Every day he goes running in some nearby park home and during the weekend he tries to go our of the city for some trekking to enjoy the outdoor.

Daniel is not so much into social networks, but since he lives in China, he start to use WeChat and Weibo to get in touch with his clients and colleagues.

He knows Vibram because he purchased a pair of trekking shoes which have a Vibram sole. He is happy about the shoes but doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know so much about the brand and the different products.

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LINGLOU PROFESSOR - MOTHER HONGKONG, 38 YEARS OLD.

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ingLou is a Professor of sustainable design at the HK Polytechnic. She lives with her husband and her sun, Mark. Even if she is very busy with the family and the students, she uses to take some time for herself to practice yoga. Doing exercises, is a way to keep healthy and to relax from the everyday routine. She uses to go to the gym with her friends. Besides, she is very careful about what she buys, from the food to the apparel. She takes into consideration the opinion of her friends about any decision she takes and, furthermore, she goes on the web to read about customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; reviews about those products she wants to buy. She knows Vibram because a friend of her uses to practice yoga with Vibram Five Finger shoes.

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6.5 PROJECT DEFINITION

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iamvibram# is a multi-touchpoints campaign to put people at the centre of Vibram business and communication. The campaign aims to reach people in their everyday life end encourage them to share and communicate their passion to the big community of Vibram users. Is the first ever Vibram campaign build on multiple touch points with a dedicated website, store-in-store and on-field product exhibitors with a secondary function of social engagement and the first ever Vibram Hub, a multifunctional space where Vibram will show the brand values and where stakeholders, community and potential users can interact and cooperate. #iamvibram# has the aim to grow awareness of the brand to a much larger audience which can create brand loyalty and advocates and not least a long-term increasing revenues. The campaign pushes people to share their relationship with the brand with the scope to build a double-way interaction and a trustful pear-to-pear communication.

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6.6 DIGITAL PLATFORM

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he digital platform, working both on web and mobile, is the core of the community. Here the Vibram users can interact with each other providing and getting information about Vibram products and how these (products) are used to achieve the challenges of everyday life. The platform works as a showcase of the selected users pictures showing activities and passions which are driven

by Vibram products and services. While there will be already Vibram’s users posting pictures and descriptions of their activities and passions, there will be the new potential user that can look at the contents and have more trustful information. The user can go through the gallery and look at every content or can filter the pictures and select the #hashtag more promising for its interests.

The categories, or #hashtags, are based on the range of the customers Vibram covers with its products. Because the concept of the entire campaign is to put the user at the centre of everything the #hashtags are not based on the products, instead are based on the users. This concept translates the old Vibram approach of “running shoes” to the new one #I AM RUNNING#. This translation changes the feeling between the company and the users and creates a more emotional and emphatic communication.

From the Vibram-product selection, like “outdoor”, “athletic”, “minimal”, “industrial”, “motorbike”, “lifestyle”, the campaign moves to a more emphatic #I AM FASHION#, #I AM EXPLORING#, #I AM TRAINING#, #I AM EXTREME# and as mentioned before #I AM RUNNING#. Furthermore, the platform lets the users interact with each other, adding “likes” and comments which put them in direct connection, creating discussion and understanding around the brand. The platform also provides a direct link for posting pictures directly on the Vibram social networks like Weibo, WeChat and Instagram. The link is generated by a QRcode, which is the most used tool to connect users with the online sites in China.

The platform is divided into different sections, from the already mentioned “gallery” and “sharing” to the information about the #iamvibram# campaign and the Vibram company. “About #VIBRAM# Campaign” section is structured in three sub-parts which describe the three different touchpoints of the campaign, the social platform, the on-site installations and the Vibram Hub. It provides to the users information like the locations, the activities and the value of the campaign.

A section will introduce the company with few lines to describe the essential information and a link to the official website of the company. The last section is about the brand’s social channels.

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6.6.1 SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

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s anticipated in the previous paragraph the platform has a direct link to the social media channels of the company. The platform itself is built by the users through their engagement with the Vibram channels. Weibo has the leading role in the functioning of the social machine. Vibramâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s channel on Weibo, as seen in the social media analysis, is the most followed among the Chinese Vibram profiles and, for this reason, is the essential starting point for the social media strategy. Weibo offers the right tools to develop the project in integration with the platform designed.

Users can access the social network and post any different kind of content and share it with friends and the millions Weibo users. The post can be re-posted by any other user and the popularity raise as much as the post get â&#x20AC;&#x153;likesâ&#x20AC;? and comments. The most useful tools for the project that Weibo offers are the #hashtag# and the @at features. In this way, anybody can create contents and share them adding #vibram# and @vibram so the contents will be visualized on the newsfeed of those interested in the topic or the official Vibram newsfeed. Furthermore, the #hashtag# let the company check the amount of shared contents and the interactions generated under #iamvibram#.

The #iamvibram# campaign pushes people on sharing their pictures on the social network creating a double-way interaction between the users and the company and the users with each other. The content generated will be crowdsourced, and so, the idea of empathy and transparency will be the storytelling that will create the emotional connection with the brand.

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6.7 PRODUCT EXHIBITOR

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he installations are products exhibitor including a display for digital engagement. As the categories showed on the digital platform, every exhibitor will show one product, related to a specific #hashtag (category).

The user facing the exhibitor will have a look at the product and mostly important to the category the product belongs to. Furthermore, the user interested in knowing more about the product, #hashtag, can interact with the digital display which will show the photo gallery of that related #hashtag through the platform previously explained.

In this way, the user could not only have the product information and specifies but also the community feedbacks and information about that category. He/she could look at the other users reviews about the Vibram product.

The products showed will not be just the finished goods like Vibram Five Fingers and Furoshiki but mostly the Vibram-partner shoes which, from previous research, are more attractive and known by the not-Vibram users. The Vibram-partner shoes that will be displayed will be so the most known among the Chinese people, like North Face, New Balance, Merrell from international brands, and Skap, Under Armour and others from Chinese brands. The exhibitors are of two kinds: one kind will be located in-store while the other will be located outdoor, where a big audience could see it and interact with it.

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6.7.1 PRODUCT EXHIBITOR ON-FILED EXHIBITOR

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he most important factor of the on-field installation is about the areas it will be located. For the first test of the campaign has been decided to restrict the research area in Shanghai, where there is the most mixed audience could be found in China. The criteria that identify the locations come from a mix of variables. They take into consideration the amount of people present in the area, the amount of people interested in a particular manner or activity (running community, climbing community, art and creative community, yoga enthusiasts, etc.), the visibility of the products, time-lasting of the interaction that can happen between the installation and the user. Taking into consideration the criteria and the research previously done the place selected is Xuhui Riverside Park-West Bund, which is an extraordinary example of urban space organized with sports facilities like a running path, basketball field, skate park, climbing wall and so on.

An extremely opposite location is instead the M50 Art District. It is the place where artists, creative or every kind, artisans use to meet to share their interests. Apart from the art galleries the district is characterized by many daily and nightly events which attract many people from different backgrounds and communities. It is the right place where the campaign will push on the casual, lifestyle, and customized products that Vibram offers. There are many other areas in the city with these characteristic, and so the physical structures will be located in the most valuable ones for the company.

The on-field exhibitor is a temporary structure that will last in a particular location for a limited ranch of time. For the time the structure is located in the place there will be other engaging activities tailored for that particular area. The on-field interventions aim to engage the users in a funny and exciting way so their involvement can be much more physically and emotionally valuable.

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6.7.2 IN-STORE EXHIBITOR

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he existing format for the SIS provides a physical interaction through the installation of different surface for a real-feeling test like grass, wood, rocks.

This happens not only for the Five Fingers but also for other products inside the partner-brands retails. Instead, the #iamvibram# product exhibitor integrates the digital interaction into the already existing shop-in-shop of the brand inside the many partner multi-brands. Furthermore, Vibram enforces the partnership with the brands building a customized in-store exhibitor that can increase the retail experience. As the categories define the exhibitor according to the location they are in, the SIS will be tailored for the particular store. The Vibram SIS in Timberland is dedicated to the high quality products made out the brands collaboration as well as the social platform filters the contents showing only the Timberland products powered by Vibram soles shared by the community. The concept of tailoring the SIS will be applied so to any of the Vibram partners that want to collaborate.

The campaign has the aim of being everywhere a Vibram product. is Every time a user gets in touch with Vibram products he/she has the way to get in contact with the community behind and interact with it through the digital platform.

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6.8 VIBRAM HUB

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he Vibram Hub is a new format for the company. It has been developed taking into consideration the new trends in retail and space experience, with a high consideration of the user engagement and experience.

The hub is a place to visit, not simply to purchase a product, but also to â&#x20AC;&#x153;design and co-createâ&#x20AC;? special things with the personal assistance of experts. The hub is the point of collaboration and customization where the physical interaction happens and where the user can get an emotional connection with the brand. The experience will provide consumers with previews of the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s innovation within a demonstration that bridges physical retail, online commerce, and digital engagement. The hub is located in Shanghai, In Xuhui Riverside Park and it take place in a double-concrete-volume already present alongside the park. #iamvibram# hub is where the already and potential Vibram users are; where they go for a run or to do yoga, enjoy the sun or training to climb. The center is a facility where runners can rent a locker, chill and discuss with the experts.

The hub hosts regular running events, catalyzed on the barefoot movement.

Visitors can even rent Vibram products for a run or to climb. The center hosts the new branded Sole Factor service, with monthly activities in which the expert cobblers visit the hub to deliver already made customization and to receive the new orders to bring at the VTC in Guangzhou. The service will not just provide the customization of the shoes but also a regular teaching session for local cobblers that want to know more about the brand and get a certificate to become official Vibram cobbler. The digitally-based community can find here the physical interaction with the brand. Users can get in contact with each other and share their passions and interests. Users can try the products, test them and get any information and finally purchase the product through the e-commerce. Furthermore, the hub is the flagship store where Vibram release the new products and show them to the public.

The format of the new space changes completely the direction that the company has now. No more multi-material for the indoor testing but clean and branded environment with a strong visual communication. The Vibram Hub is the first of his kind for the brand. Once the success is established the company could expand the format and build more hub not only in China but also in America and Europe.

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he Hub take place in an existing space located along Xuhui Riverside Park.

The are many free volumes that the West Bund company manage and rent to companies that want to put there their retails and stores. The free spaces selected for the Vibram Hub are two simple iron boxes, one bigger than the other. As you can see from the images, the two volumes are internally connected, there is one big entrance, and both the smaller faces are made of glass for a direct visibility of the interior space.

The double-volume space offers a first public area accessible by the visitors where they can meet and interact with the Vibram experts. In the area there are three main elements: the area with the interactive screens that let the visitors access to the social platform and to the official website, where they can directly purchase the products; the wall is a showcase of the categories defined in the project; finally, the products showcase with detailed information about the sole and its performances. The public area is equipped with furniture to let visitors relax and chill being n contact with the community. The private area could be defined as an office where Vibram can meet clients and stakeholders; here they can have a private meeting and business conversations.

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6.8.2 VIBRAM HUB: SERVICES PROVIDED

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he Vibram Hub is the location where the company serves its audience, from the users to any of the stakeholders. The services provided to the users are many and with different values. The main service delivered is the Sole Factor; the company makes available an internal professional cobbler that repair and customize shoes using branded rubber soles that best suite the desire of the customers.

Visitors can even rent Vibram running shoes for a fair price and go running just outdoor the store. The experts in the store provide a technical support and face-to-face conversation with the users to answer at any doubt or interest. Furthermore, because of the high-tech approach of the company at any level of the production process, the Vibram Hub offers a baropodometric examination to the visitors and suggest the best solution to solve any possible problem. Not least, the hub is a facility where runners, climbers and any other sportive can rent a locker to deposit valuables.

From the other side, the services provided to stakeholders are business related.

The hub is the Vibram branch in Shanghai where business collaborations can be discussed and take into consideration. The center is also used to launch and show the new releases and the innovations the company will design in the future. The Sole Factor, anticipated in the previous paragraph, works not only for the final costumers but also for professional cobblers and shoemakers. The Vibram Hub provides courses for teaching and licensing professionals to build a network of Official Vibram experts in the city.

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hanks to the Vibram Hub the company can design and generate many events and activities to increase the presence in the city. Sponsored sports events like races and festivals can be organized on a monthly basis direct in the Xuhui Riverside that offers any sport facility. Furthermore, the centre can be the location where the company can exhibit its brand during well know events like the Shanghai Fashion Week or the Shanghai Design Week. The many experts Vibram partners with can provide lectures on any topic related to the company.

The proposal of the new concept comes from the analysis of worldwideleader case studies and the comparison with the existing Vibram retails. The analysis shows how this change is possible and the reasonS way Vibram should apply it, to continue to be a technology-and-design-driven leading company.

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he campaign builds its values on the emotional relationship that can happen in between the user and the brand. No more the product is at the centre of the communication but, instead, is the user that takes its place as first and last component of the all system.

With #iamvibram#, the concept is translated into a visual identity that keeps the photographic style already in use by the company but with a different aim. Now people are at the centre of the image. People who are facing their challenges, people in their everyday life, people running to the sunset and people achieving the highest mountain.

With these changes Vibram does not sell just performances and quality but emotions and dreams, those that guide people to their everyday life and challenges. Vibram is the company that shows to the people that everything is possible; any obstacle or difficulty can be overcome, and Vibram is there helping those people to achieve the success. #iamvibram# a simple multi-meaning line. The brand introduces itself to its audience while the users who share the some values and interests can recognize themselves into the brand.

The #hashtags are the links to the social world behind the name. The double #hashtag is the reference to the Chinese social network Weibo, which builds “arguments” (pages) that anybody can see and interact with. To keep the Vibram identity, the logo is a simple logotype that uses the same brand colors, white and dark gray, with the accent on “vibram” in “yellow Vibram”. The categories, #hashtags, instead are created by the community. They are keywords that define the specific activity or passion that the users want to share. The categories are never-ending stories built by the people on and with the #iamvibram# campaign.

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#IAMEXTREME#

No more the product is at the centre of the communication but, instead, is the user that takes its place as first and last component of the all system.

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#IAMURBAN#

Now people are at the centre of the image. People who are facing their challenges, people in their everyday life with their passions and interests.

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#IAMRUNNER#

Everything is possible; any obstacle or difficulty can be overcome, and Vibram is there helping those people to achieve the success.

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#IAMEXPLORER#

With these changes Vibram does not sell just performances and quality but emotions and dreams, those that guide people to their everyday life and challenges.

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The Matrix shows a picture of Vibram market position compared with other International Brands. The project aims to move the company to a more userexperience approach.

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6.11 PURCHASE PATH

The Map shows a picture of the Purchase path through the multiple touchpoints of the company.

It is a representation of the never-ending loop created by the users.

The purchase path, or purchasing funnel, is a consumer focused marketing model which illustrates the theoretical customer journey towards the purchase of a product or service.

In 1898, E. St. Elmo Lewis developed a model which mapped a theoretical customer journey from the moment a brand or product attracted consumer attention to the point of action or purchase. St. Elmo Lewisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; idea is often referred to as the AIDA-model, an acronym which stands for Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action.

The purchase path is a model which describes the theoretical customer journey from the moment of ďŹ rst contact with the brand to the ultimate goal of a purchase.

This model is important when marketing the brand business as it provides a method of understanding and tracking the behaviour of an average customer throughout the sales process.

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6.12 Touchpoints Matrix

The Matrix shows the interactions that can happen in between the coustomer-journey and the multiple touchpoints of the system

Conceived by Gianluca Brugnoli -teacher at Politecnico di Milano and designer at Frog Design- the touchpoints matrix merges some features of the customer journey maps with some features of the system maps and is based on the use of personas.

The basic idea is to provide a visual framework that enables designers to “connect the dots of the user experience” in order to see the different configurations, interfaces, contexts and results of the interaction with a particular product-service system. Once this structure has been composed, I can put a specific persona inside and imagine his journey through the different touchpoints, connecting the related dots. In this way, the matrix brings to a deeper comprehension of the interaction and facilitates a further development of the opportunities given by the system shifting the focus of the design activities to connections.

“Design for connections: in the system scenario, design is mainly focused on finding the connections with the whole network, than in creating closed and self-sufficient systems, tools and services. Connections are social and cultural assets, other than technical.” (Gianluca Brugnoli, 2009)

Design thinking is inherently a prototyping precess.

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Taking into consideration the many touchpoints developed in the project I took some of them for a real-life testing to understand if and how the project works. I decided so to prototype the website and the on-field exhibitor in order to highlight the potential of a multi-touchpoints interaction. The prototyping face has been developed in official collaboration with Vibram China and has been a first test for the future development.

7.1 Website. The website is a real platform under the domino vibramcampaign.com and has been developed in direct collaboration with the company.

Has mentioned before the website is a social platform where the Vibram community can interact with the brand and with other users. It is a showcase of the pictures, shared by the users, which shows the real-life activities and challenges of the extraordinary everyday life. The website also contains the company description and a direct link to the official Chinese website.

7.2 On-site exhibitors. The on-field exhibitors have been designed in a more simple and light way, compared to the original design, in order to have a more flexible prototyping session. The ex138

Chapter 7 PROTOTYPE Sunday, March 20th, 2016, from 11:00 am to 05:00 pm Xuhui Riverside Park, Shanghai.

hibitor has been used for displaying a collection of shoes samples provided by the company; each pair for each of the category exhibited. Every exhibitor was showing a QRcode linked to the website so people could see the photo gallery related to the category and get information from the community.

7.3 Location. There could be no better place then the Xuhui Riverside Park for the first prototype of the campaign. It is the place that Vibram is taking into consideration for a future project so, has been important to see how this place fits the company expectations.

The prototype took place on Sunday, March 20th, 2016, from 11:00 am to 05:00 pm, close to the main access to the park and in front of the climbing wall. The timetable and the location have been defined because of the most affluence of people.

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7.4 Promotion. Because of the validity of the prototype the company supported me not only providing the samples to exhibit but also a communication support promoting the event on the official Weibo channel. The communication has been spread through other social channels and, to increase the participation, I agree with the company and the Vibram flagship store on Tmall for distributing coupons for purchasing Vibram Five Fingers with a 20% discount.

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7.5 Feedback and findings. The exhibition registered a good affluence with a mixed audience, young people and elderly, sportive and families. More than 150 people interacted with the products and the exhibitors while just 30% of them scanned the QRcode to access to the website.

The exhibitors that took more attention by the audience has been the #iamrunning# and the #iamtraining# ones. More than 100 pictures have been taken by the users while just few of them have been published on the social channels.

There two main pain points coming from the prototype: most of the communication used for the prototype was in English, and this decreased the chances to interact with the biggest part

of the audience. Not by chance the target mostly engaged has been the one identified in the project definition: Chinese and international migrant workers or students, with an average age among 18 to 40 years old. When users see a QRcode, they get interested, but the attitude is to scan it through the WeChat application. It means that the website is opened with the WeChatweb-view, and it creates bugs on visualizing it. The attitude is something which is impossible to change so the best way to solve the problem is to develop a website that is adaptable to the WeChat-web-view.

The overall prototyping session has been recorded by pictures taken by myself.

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150 people interacted 30% access to the website >100 pics takes Identified target

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Future is all about details.

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8 CONCLUSIONS

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he paper aims to show the creative process I went through for the development of a valuable project to increase the Vibram brand awareness among the Chinese users with a focus on the city of Shanghai. From the first chapter to the end I went through many steps describing the primary goals to achieve, the methodology used, the actual situation of the company in China and abroad. I have done a deep analysis of the usage of the social network for the user engagement and a focused understanding of the Chinese target to which the project is designed for.

In the supporting of this thesis development has been listed, described and analyzed several cases study for a better understanding of the market background. The project has been developed in close collaboration with Vibram China which gave a significant support for the development of the prototyping phase described in chapter 8.

All the data for this study have been taken from direct experiences and valuable sources.

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s service system designer my role has been to research the Chinese market and have a deep understanding of the company, its products, the service provided and the users. I spent more than six months searching and analyzing possible e future development for the Vibram brand in China. I put myself into the Chinese culture and habits to better understand needs and behaviors which are totally different from those of mine and any other country in the world. I have learned the way Chinese people communicate with each other and with the brands, the devices that use and the way they get engaged and involved in brand experiences. However, my direct experience could not be enough to answer the many scientific questions I generate for the development of the thesis. So, I had to diverge the study and the research to many other fields like Marketing, Community Management, Social Media Strategy, Neuroscience, Branding. These topics, together with my knowledge about Design Processes, Humancentered Design, and Space Experience Design, lead me developing a new concept of user brand experience for the Chinese market which can lead Vibram to increase awareness and hopefully, brand image and revenues.

The project developed goes deeper in the generation of the service and the system of touchpoint to create, for delivering a better user experience, however, the many outputs designed are advanced prototypes which require further work and technicalities.

The service system developed takes place with the three outcomes that are the digital platform, the product exhibitors, and the Vibram Hub. Each of them has been prototyped during the development of this thesis in order to generate valuable results and information which can help the company to define better the future implementation of the project.

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8.1 NEXT STEP

T

he collaboration with Vibram started in March 2015 and now is stronger than ever. The effort put in the development of this thesis will be taken into consideration by the company for a real implementation of the project.

Considering the outputs of the study, Vibram needs to work on further developments and intests in taylored solutions.

The digital platform which has been prototyped in the process has to be modified and designed considering the results that were taken. Among the several steps to go through some are more important than others: first of all the website has to be translated in Mandarin, the coding has to be done by and expert while my expertise could just be applied to the development of the UX and the UI. The implementation of the digital platform is actually the easiest among the design outputs developer in the thesis.

The product exhibitor is another output of the project. As the website also this one has been developed and prototyped in the real word to get results about the efficiency and the user engagement generated. As has been possible to see in chapter 8 the prototype had a good success and provided many data and information to the company, so it can be improved and launched on the market. Also in this case the company has to do further researches to understand which are the best outdoor and indoor places around China to put these exhibitors. As anticipated the prototype of the exhibitor had the aim of understanding the user interaction more than the product in itself. Now that the user experience has been tested is time to develop a physical and more detailed prototypes of the product. We need to define the shape, the material and the device for the digital interaction which will be integrated into the structure of the exhibitor.

B R A N D AWA R E N ES S

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LUGLIO 2016

T

he most complex output of the project is for sure the Vibram Hub. It is not just a space for commercial use, it is a hub of interaction in which the company can face the customers, the stakeholders and any other comment of the system developed. Since almost one year Vibram China is working on the development of a new center which could be mostly at the use of the customers. The Vibram Hub, based in Xuhui Riverside Public Open Space in Shanghai is the solution they were waiting for, however, there are many things to be solved and verified. First of all is about badgering and timing: a project of this size requires big investments and months to be defined and developed.

The project has been developed in close collaboration with the marketing department of Vibram China and the paper you are reading has been presented to the Vibram China General Manager Matteo Crovetto. The company is enthusiast about the outcomes and is looking forward to having a meeting with me for further discussions.

Furthermore, the project has been taken by Massimo Randone, the Academic Coordinator & Innovation System Advisor in Vibram, and presented to the Italian headquartered.

The feedbacks from the Italian team were positive and as soon as I will go back in Italy I will have a meeting with the managers for a complete presentation of the project and a detailed conversation on the outputs of the thesis.

C H A P. 8

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CONCLUSIONS

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8.2 COMMENTS

A

ndrea has been a brilliant intern for a few months in our Vibram Tech center in Guangzhou. this thesis clearly demonstrate the deep understanding of both China dynamics and Vibram culture.

Vibram HUB is a dream we have to talk more directly with our customer base in order to increase market penetration and services to people.”

Matteo Crovetto, General Manager, Vibram China

A

ndrea Maldifassi thesis is an excellent example of the Vibram University program which goal is produce cross-fertilisation between company needs and academic researches. Thanks to Maldifassi research and connected with some other university courses in China and Hong Kong, Vibram communication and marketing strategy gets more targeted information defining its own next steps”.

Massimo Randone, University Coordinator & Innovation System Advisor, Vibram

V

ery creative and effective O2O brand awareness building solution, with high quality execution; well understood Vibram brand and consumenrs needs. Able to discover and develop attractive content and event based on brand’s core product and communication needs.

Through the project, Andrea shows good project management skill and communication skill.”

George Liu, Marketing Director, Vibram China

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[38] Olivier; Use Wechat and Weibo to penetrate the Chinese markethttp://marketingtochina. com/use-wechat-and-weibo-to-penetrate-thechinese-m arket/ (March 6, 2015) [39] Rodrigo Caula, Designboom; NIKE bridges physical space and digital experiences with NIKElab http://www.designboom.com/ design/nike-presents-nikelab-06-12-2014/ (June 12, 2014)

[34] Austin Bryant; When Rubber Met the Road: The History of Vibram Soles http://www. heddels.com/2015/01/rubber-met-roadhistory-vibram-soles/ (January 12, 2015)

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[41] Yujun Wu; HOW TO USE HASHTAGS ON WEIBO http://blog.kawo.com/ post/110058769493 (February 4, 2015)

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[37] Jessica Gioglio; Cant Miss Campaign: Your Year with Nike+ https://flipboard. com/@andreamaldi2jnt/thesisreferences-aobvke00y/can%E2%80%9 9t-miss-campaign%3A-your-yearwith-nike%2B/a-0kEMHZkIRTGY0dVz_NfdA% 3Aa%3A5513919880173074437%2Fconvinceandconvert.com (March 17, 2015)

[43] Adidas; ADIDAS UNITE WITH FOOT LOCKER FOR ‘SHOP-IN-SHOP’ http:// retail-innovation.com/adidas-interactivescreens-in-foot-locker-stores/ (September 16, 2014) [44] Jeremiah Owyang; Breakdown: Lego’s “Digital Box”, an Augmented Reality Kiosk http://www.web-strategist.com/ blog/2009/11/16/video-augmented-realityat-lego-stor e-digital-box/ (November 16th, 2009)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

M

y first sincere thanks go to my academic tutors, Professor Wu Duan from Tongji University and Professor Luca Fois from Politecnico di Milano. They both have been supporting me during my thesis research and writing, offering me advice and experience.

I want to thank all the teaching staff of both universities for their commitment and for all the precious information received during these three years of PSSD, as well as my fellow master candidates with which I shared this exciting and testing path.

Furthermore, a thank is due to the administrative staff that has always been present and supported me along the steps of this experience, from my application to the graduation day.

A great thank goes to the people who helped me during the development of this work. Matteo Crovetto for its official support from Vibram, George Liu for helping me in the development of the prototype and many other things, Massimo Randone for its academic support and supervision. In addition, I am grateful to each of the people met in Vibram who have been professionals and close friends.

The biggest thank goes to my family, all.

To my brother, my mother and my father.

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INNOVATION DESIGN BUSINESS STRATEGY 2.3 Research Methodologies 2.3.1 Desk research 2.3.2 On field observation 2.3.2 On field observation 2.3.4 Online survey: qualitative and quantitative 2.3.5 Ethnographic research

How a company can increase brand awareness? How catch new market opportunities?

What are the new touchpoints where companies can talk and feel existing and potential customer? How communicate brands values, products, and brand?

2.3.6 Case Studies Methodology 2.4 Design tools 2.4.1 Personas definition 2.4.2 Touchpoints matrix 2.4.3 The experience prototype

CONNECTIVITY HAS ENABLED AN ENGAGED WORLD WHERE COMPANIES, USERS, AND STAKEHOL DERS CONNECT, INTERACT AND COOPERATE.

brand

aWarEnESS Design thinking is inherently a prototyping process. Once you spot a promising idea, you build it.

The changing nature of our environment requires us to change, to adapt, and to take any opportunity in order to innovate.

“There is no such thing as a single Chinese consumer”.

2015/2016

POLITECNICO DI MILANO, SCHOOL OF DESIGN, MASTER DEGREE IN PRODUCT SERVICE SYSTEM DESIGN

ANDREA MALDIFASSI 814686 Relatore: LUCA FOIS