Localizing design deliverables with local insights

Challenge

China has become a promising market for children's footwear. This is due in part to people's growing purchasing ability and a significant baby boom.

Our client was represented by the product and design managers of a leading corporation specializing in the production and retail of sporting goods worldwide. In Europe, they have significant business results for children's footwear. However, sales are very low in China. Could design and the shopping experience be part of the problem?

According to our pre-research, the perceived cultural value provided by our client's product design combined with their retail experience is different enough to affect their sales performance. Therefore, we launched the project to gain insights not just in purchase and usage, but also in cultural value of the products. Cultural value influenced the underlying behavior of the consumers and helped to define key touch points to improve.


Process

We organized the research program into 3 sections; pre-research, workshops and shop-along. This allowed us to use multiple methods and perspectives to gain insight.

Visualizing and understanding the total 'life' and touch points leading up to the actual shopping and buying experience were very important. We used journey maps to organize all the details into a system to let designers, product managers and the marketing team clearly see the entire experience.


Outcomes

After research on consumer's culture, value, lifestyle, purchasing habits and usage, we defined the design points for Chinese kids and parents from 6 aspects: function, cleanliness, color, price, style, and size. Our client is using these for future product development. We are expecting they can reach new success thanks to CBi's help.