JOLIE WEBSTORE BY TRANSMERI – Customer insight and business design
Finding business growth with ethnographic methods
Finding business growth with ethnographic methods
JOLIE WEBSTORE BY TRANSMERI – Customer insight and business design
The business target
How can a beauty and wellbeing webstore win over new audiences?
Jolie, a natural cosmetics webstore owned by Transmeri, boasts a loyal customer base of natural cosmetics enthusiasts. However, they faced stiff competition in an increasingly competitive market. Natural and selective cosmetics have become readily available in supermarkets and discount stores. Additionally, prominent international companies have entered the Finnish market, making substantial marketing investments. How can Jolie establish a distinctive position and find new growth in this evolving market?
How can a beauty and wellbeing webstore win over new audiences?
Jolie, a cosmetics webstore owned by Transmeri, boasts a loyal customer base of natural cosmetics enthusiasts. However, they faced stiff competition in an increasingly competitive market. Natural and selective cosmetics have become readily available in supermarkets and discount stores. Additionally, prominent international companies have entered the Finnish market, making substantial marketing investments. How can Jolie establish a distinctive position and find new growth in this evolving market?
We realised that we must…
→ avoid the “everything for everyone” trap to steer clear of price competition, as there will always be competitors selling products at cutthroat prices
→ focus on customer commitment by creating a concept that is truly relevant and meaningful to customers
→ ensure brand alignment when expanding into new product categories
Business Design Process – Insight-driven Growth Strategy
Ethnographic Insights
Conducting in-depth ethnographic interviews within consumers’ homes to closely observe their well-being and beauty-related behaviours and gather valuable insights.
Concept & Business Development
Engaging in intensive workshops with the Transmeri team to design the business concept, followed by Kuudes’ work for further development.
Testing & Validation
Performing a quantitative validation round to test alternative webstore concepts and identify relevant customer segments for Jolie.
Iteration
Finalising the concept and creating a development roadmap through iterative processes to ensure its success.
“We are extremely satisfied with the project conducted with Kuudes. Throughout the entire project, there was a sense that they truly know their craft. Kuudes listened to our challenges and desires. They took us out of our comfort zone, courageously challenging us to think in new ways and gain insights from different perspectives. The discussions were grounded in facts.”
Susan Mero
Digital Lead, Transmeri
Ethnographic Insights
Utilising Ethnography for Business Development
Ethnographic methods offer valuable insights into customers’ latent needs by delving deep into their everyday lives. By immersing ourselves in customers’ natural environments, we gained a profound understanding of the role that beauty and wellbeing products play in their broader experiences. We discovered how they discuss their appearance, address health concerns, approach aging, and embrace holistic wellbeing. Moreover, we uncovered various pain points and explored a wide range of topics. Armed with these comprehensive findings, we painted a vivid picture for the Transmeri team, forming the foundation for our co-creation workshops.
Ethnographic Insights
Utilising Ethnography for Business Development
Ethnographic methods offer valuable insights into customers’ latent needs by delving deep into their everyday lives. By immersing ourselves in customers’ natural environments, we gained a profound understanding of the role that beauty and wellbeing products play in their broader experiences. We discovered how they discuss their appearance, address health concerns, approach aging, and embrace holistic wellbeing. Moreover, we uncovered various pain points and explored a wide range of topics. Armed with these comprehensive findings, we painted a vivid picture for the Transmeri team, forming the foundation for our co-creation workshops.
Use ethnography for business design when you want to…
Discover opportunities for growth built on solid ground.
With the ethnographic method, you gain valuable and comprehensive understanding of consumers’ visible and hidden needs, as well as pain points in their everyday life. This gives you the possibility to build sustainable growth.
Stand out from the competition and find a unique position.
Without deep insight into customer behaviour, it is difficult to build distinctive concepts that will differentiate you from the competition.
Explore behaviour behind the words – why don’t consumers act as they say they do.
For example, many claim to consider sustainability in their purchase decisions, but in reality, they don’t. Thus, we need to delve deeper into what consumers mean when they talk about sustainability and how it manifests in their everyday life.
New Business Concept
Concept Driven by Customer Needs
During the workshops, we developed a range of alternative concepts rooted in customer needs. Through a collaborative process, we carefully selected the most promising concepts for quantitative consumer testing. This validation phase allowed us to make informed business decisions and choose the most viable direction forward. Moreover, we successfully identified two key customer segments and defined their essential unique selling points. The work was carried out in early 2023.
As the end result, we defined:
Position
- Position in the market
- Differentiators
- Target groups
- Brand Persona
- Guidelines for marketing
Concept
- Customer promise
- Product portfolio development
- Customer loyalty
- Essential elements of the concept
Roadmap
- Roadmap for development
“Kuudes possesses a combination of strategic and creative expertise. Their findings were distilled into clear and cohesive entities. Kuudes consistently kept commercial objectives in focus, seamlessly integrating them with the creative work. The project progressed as planned, within the set timeline and budget. I highly recommend them for similar projects.”
Susan Mero
Digital Lead, Transmeri
For more information:
Petra Väänänen-Leimu
Team Lead, Insight & Strategy
petra.vaananen-leimu@kuudes.com
