4. Building a digital experience to support decision-making
Source: Photographee - unknown photographer
How might we help customers choose their ideal paint, guiding and teaching them about technical and more relevant drivers than price?
Client: BASF (Suvinil Brand) - Brazil - 2019
Role: Lead Design Consultant (service provider)
CONTEXT
BASF, the largest chemical producer globally, owns Suvinil, the leading paint brand in Brazil. With a brand value growth of 36% in 2018, it wanted to remain "Top of Mind." Nonetheless, its competitors were challenging this predominance. In a market with a large volume of SKUs, decision-making becomes technical, and customers end up choosing a product based on price. Even with higher cost-effectiveness, customers considered Suvinil to be expensive.
Furthermore, sellers are the leading influencers in the buying process, even for customers with technical knowledge. They often suggest only a few SKUs to clients, encouraging their decision-making to depend on price. Due to these factors, Suvinil struggled to maintain its position, despite its superior quality.
Source: Unsplash - Daniel Chekalov
CHALLENGE
Considering that the decision-making occurs mainly at the point of sale, how can we educate customers and reduce sellers' influence? Both customers and sellers must feel engaged with the solution. And, it must help them to bond with the brand, guide them through the decision-making process, and help them choose the ideal product, weighing factors other than price–increasing up-sell.
Key Questions
How to educate customers to consider different technical paint factors according to their needs?
How to strengthen the bond between customers and Suvinil, the BASF Brazilian brand for paints?
How to build a digital guided journey for helping customers to choose the right paint as a competitive differentiator?
How to increase customers' Average Ticket through storytelling and interaction flow in the platform when choosing the ideal product?
How to ensure that sellers can also use the tool by empowering them in the sales pitch and correct product indication?
The landing page. ★ I designed the whole application
GOALS
As the Design Lead, my main goal was to enhance customers’ decision-making autonomy without the seller’s influence and increase the average amount spent by considering factors other than price. For this, the focus was to:
1. Educate the consumer
Guide sellers and customers to find the best paint for their needs by comparing the relevance of all technical factors.
2. Be flexible
Design a flexible digital platform that can function as a web app, kiosk, or point-of-sale system.
3. Reduce seller influence
Extend consumers' autonomy to make decisions without the help of a seller.
4. Increase bond
With transparency and consumer empowerment, design a digital tool that educates customers about different paints' characteristics while helping them select the right one for their specific needs. By doing that, I aimed to broaden the emotional bond with the brand since competitors do not provide the same information.
★ MY ROLE
Sole Product Designer and Strategist
Conducted design research.
Built concept prototype.
Implemented user tests.
Designed the final product, ensuring ease of use for different user profiles.
Interfaced with ethnographic researcher focused on Persona definition.
Design Process Diagram
I started the project by leading a workshop with Suvinil's Product and Marketing leadership to define the personas and journeys and align vision.
From the workshops and customer interviews, I defined the user journeys, highlighting each persona's decision-making process and how we could influence them.
Due to the high level of technical information, I built and tested the black&white wireframes with 24 clients to validate only the information architecture.
Besides customers, I also tested the tool with 14 sellers to guarantee that it was helpful for them. (Image blurred due to technical issues)
DELIVERABLES
Despite Suvinil's initial desire for an application that only helps customers choose a product, I recognized the opportunity to connect it to other services offered by the brand. It included serving customers in the early stage of the journey by helping them get inspiration for decorating without professional help. Additionally, it assisted them in finding a painter and other services and products from partners. The intention was to ensure that the customers got the correct information without feeling it was a sales pitch.
Insights discovered on the user journeys
The app must provide inspiration and information about paint, technology, and decoration, influencing decision-making.
It must help the customers choose the product before and at the point-of-sale, educating them about the different paint attributes for their needs.
It should be an after-sales hub, with tips about usual mistakes and indicating proper maintenance.
It also should serve painters, sellers, and architects.
It must be flexible for working as a website or at points-of-sale kiosks.
Content screens - clients can discover inspiration depending on their motivations - change style, find new paints, DIY, or maintenance. Image 1, contains the home screen with blog posts to inspire customers. Image 2 and 3 are the posting page with details of the paint on the wall.
★ I designed all the solutions, from the UX/UI to developers' hand-off.
Insights discovered on conversion
The paint attributes must appear in an order that increases average ticket sales.
Through a simple, intuitive questionnaire flow, the solution must educate customers about the paint technology without overloading them with technical terms.
If customers try to buy products from another brand, they do not find the same clarity and transparency of information.
The solution is a hub where Suvinil becomes the storyteller about painting instead of depending on sellers or other influencers.
Sellers could engage with the platform to help identify the ideal product for customers.
The solution connects to other Suvinil services such as the blog, e-commerce, and painters-for-hire offering, ensuring an integrated/upgraded hub.
Ideal paint flow - with five questions, customers discover their ideal paint and learn about paint attributes. In the end, they also find similar options, with clear information about the qualities they are trading. Image 1. shows when customers start the journey by explaining how they will use the paint. Images 2 and 3 show the result after the four steps flow.
Commercial Impact
The solution was designed to improve the average ticket in paint category purchases. On the user testing, customers rated the solution as 4.8/5, and all of them selected a paint with a higher price that better attended their needs. It showed the potential success of better trade-ups motivated by awareness.
Innovation Relevance
We digitalized a process previously only offline in-store to easily educate customers about the technical factors to consider when buying paint. The tool was the first online to offline profiling tool created by the Suvinil brand, pioneering digital tools in the communication and sale of the paint category in Brazilian retail.
After-sales flow - customers can find more information about the product and get tips from painters on painting and maintenance. Images 1, 2 and 3 show more details about the paint attributes and tips when clients click on the see more.
Impact on Myself
I was responsible for the digital workstream at a larger Category Management Process project. It helped me to build confidence as a designer. I wanted to explore my User Interface skills and create solutions for retail. Gladly, I guided the Trade Marketing team on building a praised digital solution for the first time.
Relevant Links
Suvinil website: www.suvinil.com.br
