SITUATION: BEAUTY & CARE Landscape
Mass market beauty products don’t have the allure of ‘prestige’ luxury brands.
What can a mass manufacturer (Unilever) learn from competitor UX strategies?
June 2015. Mixed-Methods. I led a team of 5 others in the following:
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Consumer Segmentation Survey
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Qualitative Journey Sessions & Navigation Tracking
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Task analysis & Competitor SWOT
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In-Store Shopalongs
BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
"How can a 'mass' beauty product adopt best practices from the 'prestige' category?
What is the 'mass' experience for these brands and retailers as compared to the 'prestige' experience?
PROBLEM
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Differentiation between 'Prestige' and 'Mass' brands is getting continuously difficult as efforts 'equalize'.
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Life-stage developments shift Personal Care & Beauty priorities in expected, yet sudden ways.
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Higher cost of 'Prestige' goods makes online shipping model work better for the luxury / niche category.
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Distribution barriers exist when trying to purchase 'Prestige' Beauty products online.
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Despite booming ecommerce usage, retail outlets and in-store drivers are still flourishing.
TASK
Scope & execute on a series of research initiatives that answer and clarify the below:
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Understand how evolving paradigms are impacting the need for innovation in the retail landscape.
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Leverage life-stage developments to impact shopping behavior & journey acuity.
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Influence touch-points for successful engagement & confident purchase.
Quantitative Survey: 400 Respondents
Remote Navigation Testing: 120 Participants | 60 Desktop, 60 Mobile
Remote Navigation Testing
30 Desktop, 30 Mobile
Remote Navigation Testing
30 Desktop, 30 Mobile
Ethnographic / Mobile Video
40 participants
A total of 22 retailers and 38 brands discussed when including the Discovery & In-Store phases.
ACTION
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Nine online remote studies
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Five shop-along studies - five retailers.
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4 Individual segment reports
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(Prestige retailer, Prestige brands, etc.
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One Meta-analysis report of all testing.
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610 Total participants;
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Think-Out Loud qualitative + quantitative.
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THE TEAM
Aaron Ackerman
Lead Research Manager
Erica Lee
Sourcing Director
Jessica Upchurch
Researcher
Stuart Fosee
Sourcing Associate
Ashley Anderson
Researcher
Carl Van Ostrand
Sales Liaison
MY RESPONSIBILITIES
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Client liaison
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Script design & approvals
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Recruitment QA protocols
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Quantitative Analysis
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½ of all raw video watching
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Analysis delegation
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Analysis reviews
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Video editing / Highlight reels
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Report creation
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Lead report debriefs
Extensive, mass-scale qualitative sentiment repository for index & analysis.
The work in this project was pre-scoped as a 6-Month effort.
July 2014
Receive CMI Brief
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August 2014
Finalized Proposal
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September 2014
Launched 'Open-Ended Drivers' study
(Awareness & Discovery)
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October 2014
Initial 'Drivers' Report Delivered
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November 2014
Launched Retailer.com segments
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December 2014
Launched Brand.com segments
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January 2015
Launched In-Store Shop-alongs
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January 2015
Retailer Reports Delivered
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January 2015
Launch Brand Segments
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February 2015
Brand Report Delivered
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February 2015
Meta Analysis Begins
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March 1 2015
Meta Analysis Delivered
IMPACT
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Unilever Brand site redesigns, aesthetic tear-downs, & brand messaging changes.
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Menu structure standardization across multiple Unilever sites.
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Established UX standards for Product Detail Pages (Larger images, 360 images, Review forms, etc.).
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Executive buy-in on emphasis of Educational material & learning as a brand loyalty strategy.
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Worked with Shopper Marketing and Content Dept. to develop action plan at the retailer account level.
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Millennial learnings to aide specific teams to help localize brand strategies.
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In-Store signage and shelving arrangement leverage for key brick & mortar allies.
