A Brand strategy project
Strategic Design | Branding | Design Research | Product-Service-Sysytem Design| Experience design
June-September'2015 | Team Poli.Design + Mercato Metropolitano (multidisciplinary backgrounds)
Master Graduation project Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
How might we identify and design discrete brand strategy guidelines for the brand, in order to stand apart from competitors and translate into a successful format on a global canvas, while creating synergy between overall ecosystem of the offerings ?
Background
In 2015, a Universal Exposition was hosted by Milan, Italy. Expo 2015 was held under the theme ‘Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life’. The whole designed experience revolved around the theme that embraces technology, innovation, culture, traditions and creativity and how they relate to food and diet. Around the time of Expo’15, many initiatives, ventures, movements were emerged with the same intentions and values. Mercato Metropolitano is one of such movements that started in Milan.
Mercato Metropolitano is a new born concept for a food market which aims at combining quality ingredients, local production and Italian delicacies with an urban, vibrant, international feel. The market has been opened in a huge open-air historic warehouse closed to Navigli neighborhood of Milan and features deli corners, farmer’s market with fresh products and more.
We, Politecnico International master students in Strategic design worked with MM during one of the master workshop to conceive consistent brand identity for different target markets globally. The project then continued as an internship project.
Scope of the project
Main objective was to design brand strategy guidelines for Mercato Metropolitano in order to export authentic Italian food style and experience to overseas market.
Creating synergy between overall ecosystem of offerings which involves relationship with brand, communication and marketing, interactions, engagement within all factors like (People, formats, channels and engaging Product Service System offerings)
As a team member, I mainly worked on Innovative offerings strategies part of the manual which includes projects that add value and make the difference with established food halls and markets of MM. These variety of new innovative offerings and formats were to be designed in reference with different areas under MM such as (food court/retail/food cart/cooking school and so on).
Also, the other part of scope of the project was about provision of PSS offering templates where a balanced integration and value exchange between Italian, local, and other countries' food experiences in MM setup (physical + digital).
Understanding context, trends, people
It is an innovative retail concept dreamed by true artisans,a local food market with an international reach, offering the best Italian and local food specialties and unique social experiences to its customers, having always people, social responsibility and environmental sustainability as top of mind. The brand believes in conveying its values in every action : from selling to cooking, from packaging to display, the venue is a retreat for urban people conscious about the role of human interactions and food culture in promoting sustainable ways of living.
*All pictures are taken by Sara Montali at Mercato Metropolitano, Milan, Italy.
The space consists now of a covered food-hall, an open air farmers’ market, street-food stalls, a local products retail store, a kitchen school with laboratory, vegetable gardens and a cinema. Everyday it hosts events, gigs and workshops, providing visitors with an all-round, highly immersive experience. Current innovative offerings are spread mainly in five areas such as Food,Education, Entertainment, Social and Web.
Research and Strategic analysis
As a part of research, we carried out assessment of the brand equity with the application of traditional models (Abell, Keller's, SWOT), qualitative research tools-like empathizing and immersion with all stakeholders, customer journey mapping, archetypes, service blueprints, etc. The research was about current situation analysis, both Internal and External. The major outcomes of these research have been included in the brand manual, to serve as a guideline for both management and potential investors.
1. Market Archetypes: Global market study
We tried to study clusters of markets(global) with characteristics of a similar commercial environment,route to market, consumer and customer types, required capabilities understanding emerging trends related to food and retail in different markets in world.
Also, we tried to investigate potential markets on a global scale, with a survey of all solutions adopted by relevant competitors with regard to their innovative offerings; which was then followed with blue ocean analysis in order to recognize gaps where MM could position themselves.
This part of research was mainly done by referring experts interviews, articles, trend reports by recognized research organizations.
2. Customer Archetypes :Understanding Customer
Taking in consideration the importance of the customers in the system of MM the next step was to define what kind of people could be the most accurate to research about.
As a part of the design methodology, we decided to build customer archetypes. With archetypes, we could understand from a better point of view of consumers’ trend at the global level, the range of different needs involved in all the process faced by different people with different lifestyles, geographies and so on.
During on-field research, different types of customer profiles of varied age groups were identified. By studying behaviors and preferences of customers in the context, we tried to understand customer’s flow and behavior in the space which helped in getting first hand experience of the process which was the guiding factor for better understanding of users and mindset and psychology behind the decisions and interaction at each touch-points.
Key Success Factors
With reference to the research and analysis done in initial phase, some of the critical success factors were highlighted as part of insight set. Being a brand reference manual, we realized that it is important to focus on the possible key success factors for the brand and the company; which would be helpful for the organization, investors and other important stakeholders.
" These are those few factors that must go well to ensure success for an organization, and therefore, they represent that area of the enterprise, that must be given special and continual attention to bring high performance. include issues vital to an organization’s current operating activities and to its future success."
(ref. Internet)
The adjacent graphic is one of the initial sets of key success factors. Later, many revisions happened and sets of existing and future success factors were finalized as part of manual.
Definition and Scenario Mapping
We identified a set of needs and constraints related to brand, customers and markets on global level; the next phase began with definitions, scenario mapping and conceptualization. One of the design objective for this project was to come up with a strategic approach for the development of novel product/service that offers unique attributes. We applied Scenario mapping technique at this stage of the project. The resulting scenarios, given by the intersection of these axes, were titled with a short,suggestive terms and suitable analogies , as hints for the ideation of the concepts.
Innovative Offering Proposals
As all the sections of the brand manual (i.e. Brand Identity, Communications & Physical evidences, Formats and Innovative offerings) were designed with a the same brand language; also the strategy guidelines in each of them were designed keeping the point in mind that all of them go hand-in-hand. Majorly formats and offering section were like a couple in a friends group; so it was important to design novel offerings in sync with different MM formats.
Innovative offerings is the section which includes proposals/projects that make the difference with established food halls and markets of MM.
The proposed concepts include products, services, systems and combinations of them all, that could help building brand image in different ways. Also it has :
- Detailing of each offering(like Purpose, function,system and structure) and highlights of feasible and flexible yet replicable strategies and guidelines for each offering templates.
- Customer and stakeholders in the system and direct and indirect relationships and interactions between them in each offering system.
As further steps, it was very important to define selection matrix and criteria for each proposal. Also assessment of each concept with respect to the feasibility, implementation and resource management and so on; that will complement the business model of MM.
We did an extensive analysis and assessment of each proposal and the detailed outcomes have been added to the manual for further references. The graphic below depicts a summary of it :
Current Project Status
After first venue in Milan (IT), the company opened up the second branch in Turin (IT) and the third branch in London(UK) with a new, fresh, more homogeneous format that harmonized perfectly with a very different urban contexts. They are also pilotingand testing new proposals.
Copyrights as per agreement between Poli.Design (MDS'16) and Mercato Metropolitano