*For reasons of confidentiality, I have modified names, colours, trademarks and anything else that could compromise the privacy terms.
CHALLENGE
How to encourage and help young people buy products they want?
The client is a leading provider of high performance software for operating complex customer loyalty programs. They asked us to create a product that would encourage a partnership with companies and help young people get involved with their business through an app that would also allow them to achieve their own personal goals.
We developed the idea of an ecosystem that would engage users in consumption to earn points and use them to buy their most popular products.
APPROACH
Reframing the problem
We defined a persona and reshaped their expectations as a business and consumer. Then we drew the storyboard of our user journey by highlighting and structuring their needs. Finally, we found that there was an opportunity for users to not only pursue their personal goal but also to achieve goals together with their friends. This would happen by creating a pot in which a particular group can contribute to a common goal by facilitating their achievement.
Young generations have high expectations of their needs. They also have a great influence on social media, sharing their achievements and desires. This knowledge should be used as an advantage for our product and influence user's behavior. The whole story was developed around this social impact and the gamification around it.
Business life-cycle
With a clear view of the problem, we illustrated a possible user journey of our persona. We plot all actionable points from a hypothetical scenario in which Paul (our Persona) uses the app through a journey of earning points after a purchase from a partner store. In selecting the pot he wants to see the points in, there are some repercussions that follow.
Main functionalities
The main action of the app is focused on finding the nearest location to earn points. Each partner will have their own page, monitored by a platform to display all products that are part of the point scheme.
SOLUTION
A gamified app
Client partners (stores and services) will promote their products on a platform presented to users in the mobile app, and these products have associated points and discounts accordingly. Users also could access the app to find nearby stores, products, rack up points in a pot or simply buying using their points to get a discount.
In the end, they can still accumulate points for their individual or group pots. The magic begins by highlighting the competition and allowing each user to contribute to a common pot, receiving notifications of updates, achievements and then sharing them on social networks.
LEARNINGS
Although this project has not taken off, I believe we have managed to find a product value proposition that would help young people achieve their goals simply and effectively.