By Linda Permenter, Class of 2017
On January 26, the Marketing Fellows enjoyed a design
thinking workshop hosted by Frog Design
benefiting Shelfbucks. Frog Design is
a global design and strategy firm headquartered in San Francisco with offices
all over the world, including Austin. Frog boasts an impressive and diverse
list of clients like Nike, Intel and FEMA. Shelfbucks is an Austin-based
startup that has developed technology that allows shoppers to interact with
products, displays and store shelves from their smartphones. The in-store
personalized promotion platform benefits both the manufacturer and retailer
with increased sales and data collection.
The brilliant folks at Frog kicked off the class with a
brief presentation of their philosophy and process. They believe that
“experience is everything” and focus their creative design efforts on enhancing
the customer experience. In order to think creatively on demand, Frog recommends
lateral thinking over traditional linear thinking. Lateral thinking
involves thought exercises like: “remove an important attribute from an object
and consider a useful arrangement of the remaining components.”
Frog helped us exercise some creative thinking to address a
business challenge proposed by Shelfbucks CEO, Erik McMillan: develop impactful store experiences that
provide distinct benefits for the shopper and meet relevant needs for the
manufacturer and retailer. They designed and facilitated a workshop wherein
groups of 5 students considered the lifestyle and needs of a specific persona,
uncovered her motivations for a shopping occasion, and explored ways to improve
her in-store shopping experience with Shelfbucks technology. Whether it be a 63-year-old retired man with
high blood pressure on a fixed income or a 29-year-old married mother of two
with a part-time job and no spare time (actual personas provided by Frog), the
Marketing Fellows proposed innovative ways to successfully integrate Shelfbucks
into their shopping experience.
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