blast radius overview. company background history –founded in 1996 in vancouver, canada –five...

BLAST RADIUS OVERVIEW

COMPANY BACKGROUND

• History– Founded in 1996 in Vancouver, Canada – Five offices with 210 employees– Private, 100% employee-owned

• Focus and practices – Sales, consumer service and marketing solutions– Practice areas: online branding, ecommerce, digital

marketing, CRM, content management – Retail and Consumer Goods vertical

• Consumer Electronics• Approach

– Diverse, passionate, and innovative team– Collaborative, lean, flexible, and modular process

INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE Consumer Electronics Retail Global Brands

FINANCES

• Profitable since inception in 1996• Double digit growth year over year

• Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies in 2001 and 2002• 2002 Adweek top 50: 41ST, 3rd fastest, organic growth• Strong base of repeat customers (70% of revenues)

Year Revenue Profit Y/Y growth

2000 15.4 1 350%

2001 19 1.5 27%

2002 22.5 1.2 15%

2003 (est) 27 2 23%

PRODUCTION DIVISION

Amsterdam 15 employees

Advisory Services

Creative Direction

User Experience

Design

Interface Development

Systems Analysis

Application Development

Managed Services

Project Management

Toronto 70 employees

Vancouver 60 employees

Summary

145 production resources globally

65 administative and client management resources globally

Dedicated resource model

Contractors at 5%, only in non-Key positions

ProjectManagement

ResourceManagement

Ap

plicatio

n D

evelop

men

t

System

s An

alysis

Qu

ality Assu

rance

User E

xperien

ce

Co

nte n

t St ra te g

y

Inte ra c tio

n A

rc hit ec tu

r e

Des ig

n

Managed Services

Interface D

evelop

men

t

Advisory Services

ProcessQuality

Management

TECHNICAL EXPERIENCE

OperatingSystems

ApplicationServers

ContentManagement

DatabaseServers

2002• Marketing Magazine: Digital Agency of the Year• Communication Arts 8: Nike Enjoy the Weather• Adweek’s Top 50 Interactive Agencies• Silver Award, iD Magazine: Nike iD• One Show Interactive Silver Pencil: Nintendo Game Cube• Cannes Cyber Lions Finalist - Brand Promotion: Nike Enjoy the Weather • CIPS E-Commerce Project of the Year: Sportchek.ca• Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies

2001• 50 Best Managed Companies in Canada• Gold Clio, Brand Building Site: Nike World Body• Communication Arts 7: Nike World Body• British Interactive Multimedia Association Finalist: Nike Lance Armstrong• Cannes Cyber Lions Finalist - Brand Promotion: Nike World Body• CIPS IT Project of the Year Finalist: Nintendo.com

2000• Gold Clio, Brand Building Site: Casio G-Shock• Silver Clio, Consumer-targeted Site: LEGO Media• Communication Arts 6: Nike Rugby

SELECTED AWARDS

BLAST RADIUS AMSTERDAM

BLAST RADIUS AMSTERDAM

• European HQ• Office opened in 2000

– Initially a sales office, added production resources in early 2002– Currently 20 people– Estimated to be 40 in H2– Mixture of North American + local resources

• Key Clients– Nike-Philips, Heineken, Nintendo of Europe, Electronic Arts

• Key Attributes– User experience (design + usability), digital marketing, content management

competencies– Lean, flexible team with resource support, process, infrastructure of larger

company– Staffed with 4 senior managers

• two are founders – Best user experience team in company

NINTENDO OF EUROPE Solution Highlights

• Consolidated multiple properties across Europe under a single, unified technical and management infrastructure

– Designed on ATG eBusiness Platform• Design and technical flexibility to accommodate multiple

countries and languages– 9 countries, 6 languages

• An online relationship marketing platform enables NOE to manage the creation, delivery and analysis of 1 to 1 marketing campaigns

• Customer loyalty program allows NOE to capture information on customer’s interests and purchasing habits

• Why is it our best site?– Traffic has tripled to 1.5 million visitors per month– Time spent on site has doubled– 250,000 registered users– Targeted email campaigns click through rate of

30%– Close loop

• 50% of those clicking on email have purchase game offline

Solution Highlights

• Global Corporate communications website with a unique user experience

– based upon corporate values and reputation, brand and stakeholder needs

• Site is localized and translated into Dutch and English

– Next phase of project will address 4-5 other languages, including Asian characters

• Blast Radius designed, configured and implemented Tridion Content Management system

• Technical architecture designed to share the functionality of the site across all Heineken subsidiaries

– reinforcing the corporate brand worldwide

HEINEKEN

PHILIPS

Solution Highlights

• A pre- and post sales initiative to support the new launch of the joint venture between Nike and Philips

• Supports the Nike and Philips brand in it’s positioning as an active sportswear device made for the serious athlete

• Site is localized and translated into 8 languages

– Roman and Asian character sets

• With keen attention to information design, brand and content strategy, Nike-Philips is an effective product support site

• Product features such as FAQ’s, 3d product imaging

PHILIPS REDESIGNSTRATEGIC APPROACH

Confidential and Proprietary © 2003 Blast Radius BV

consumerbrand

business objectives

experience

• Consumer Electronics Practice at Blast Radius

– Headed by Jason Oberfest, NY office

• Quarterly review of the industry, formalized in a report, shared with Marketing, Project Strategists, Client strategists, and Business developers

• 13 companies studied in the CE space: Bang & Olufsen, Harman, JVC, Kenwood, LG Electronics, Matsushita, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Thompson, Toshiba

MARKET TRENDS

• "In the CE business, product innovation, customer intimacy and strong brand and channel management are key success drivers“

• Major declines in net sales and profitability in 2001 and 2002, due to:– increasing commoditization of CE products and resulting price wars– the global economic slump

• Companies are looking for new technologies, which drive CE lifecycle– Product convergence is a major theme –add value to products while

making things easier, simpler for the consumer– Increased importance of product design, increased product range, richer

features– The line between traditional CE and IT is progressively blurring. Apple

iPod

• Building brand loyalty with consumer is more and more important:– Falling prices attract consumer segment heavily dependent on brand – As products become undifferentiated, brand image is critical

• Consumer intimacy, consumer intelligence– better understand consumer demand, both in number forecasting and

matching consumer tastes, cross selling based on convergence strategy

• Operational Excellence. Efficiencies in production and distribution, shortening order lead times

MARKET TRENDS

Both new products and value added features for existing products

Operational excellence

Innovative marketingcontextualizing products

in an experience

Both with retail partners and consumers to forecast

demand and cross sell

Build Premium Brand

Customer / Consumer Intimacy

Product and Design Innovation

Profitability

BUSINESS STRATEGY FOR PHILIPS CE and DAP

Requirements

Product Innovation

Position Philips as a leader in the CE/DAP space, through blueprints, awards, etc…

Introduce new products on the web site in a timely manner

Effective product catalogue navigation, comparison and guided sell, three issues that are critical to selling to the new audience of casual consumers

Present products in the context of convergence when applicable

Excellent consumer service, with product registration, warranty and updates

What is going to draw people to discover products on the site?

In the future: Philips.com as a hub for value-add services?

GOALS FOR SITE REDESIGN

Premium Brand

Requirements

Position Philips as a CE company focused on consumer experiences, differentiating Philips from the competition

Effectively demonstrate how technology enhances quality of life

Empower the consumer with tools to build a holistic experience, allowing Philips to cross-sell products

Visual design, content and Information Architecture need to be informed by the Philips brand


Consumer Intimacy

Requirements

Establish a clear value exchange for consumers to register and provide data to Philips, which in turn can target market consumers more effectively

Capture consumer tastes and feedback through consumer surveys, polls, etc…which inform product development

Establish a dialog with Philips consumers based upon value-added content, reinforcing the brand

Close the loop of campaigns through product registration. Use Philips.com to conduct, support, and assess the success of marketing initiatives, offline and online (events, sponsorship, product placement)


Dealer support

Requirements

Provide multiple venues to dealers

Resolve channel conflict?


Enhanced Experience

Personal Data

Consumer

Philips

Benefits to consumer: Personalized

recommendations Priority service online Rewards for multiple

purchases Access to unique content,

targeted promotions, and special products

Personalized consumer service

Benefits to Philips: Analyze consumer behavior

and needs Segment and target high-

value consumers Cross-sell and up-sell

products and services Strengthen consumer

relationships Obtain explicit feedback and

datacapture

CONSUMER CENTRICITY AND VALUE EXCHANGE

• The site needs to:– Generate demand and leads– Close the sale by providing the easiest fulfilment option– Service consumers

• Key requirements:– Leverage customer service as a marketing opportunity– Reconcile experience content with catalogue browsing – Avoid design which would be pure product and pure lifestyle– Establish relationship marketing based upon value exchange– Close the marketing loop

SITE REDESIGN RECOMMENDATIONS

PHILIPS EXPERIENCE APPROACH

consumerbrand

business objectives

experience

Articulated the brand using ideas that would inform the experience:

HumanCollaborationEnjoymentIntimacyQualityValueInsightInterconnectedInnovation

consumerbrand

business objectives

consumerbrand

business objectives

Brand

Realization of enhanced experience- not purely through lifestyle shots. Differentiator from competition

Philips products enable an enhancement of quality of life

Images, copy, IA, customer support, and connectedness of products to support enhanced experience, enhanced life

Products woven into the fabric of your life, its beyond a lifestyle accessory

These brand essentials, help form the foundation for the online experience

Next, we subdivided Philips broad consumer base by their main purchase influences:

1. General enthusiasts

Buy products once they are widely adopted and used

Heavily influenced by brand

Late adopters

2. Rabid technophiles

Researchers

Influenced by performance

Early adopters

consumerbrand

business objectives

The site should merge the consumer’s existing positive perception of shopping for consumer electronics with Philips’ mantra “Let’s make things better” in three ways:

Showing that the products themselves provide better experiences

Making your lifestyle better by helping you find the right interconnected products for your life

Making your online experience better. Enjoyable in fact …

Our Experience Vision: Enhance Quality of Life

Bringing it all together: User, Business Objectives and Brand

Understood consumer mindset and created an experience model that delivers Philips branded experience while fulfilling stated business objectives

USER EXPERIENCE MODEL

Linking the experience to consumer relationships:

By creating an enhanced enjoyable, valuable experience, Philips will make it easier and more desirable for people to provide information, leading to greater understanding of consumer.

This will, in turn lead to an ever more meaningful dialogue- an intimacy that delivers an enhanced life


The following scenarios and mockups illustrate how the experience works to achieve this vision.

Jan.

33, a young urban professional, is married and has a four-year old child

He wants to retire his old TV to another room, and buy a new one for the living room.

Like many people in this category, he enjoys shopping for consumer electronics

He falls into the late-adopter, mainstream consumer category who is strongly influenced by peers and brand.

Jan.

He has been talking to his friends and doing research about what’s out there, and is particularly interested in flat screen TVs now the price has come down.

He thinks 32” (a little bigger than the TV he has now) would be about right.

He’s seen an ad for a Philips flat screen TV along with the site url, so he goes to the site with anticipation.

Jan’s anticipation is enhanced when he sees aspirational imagery associated with owning Philips products.

The TV shown on the home page is the same one he saw in the ad.

Anticipation: Jan’s anticipation for the product is amplified by the site home page


His awareness of Philips as a premium consumer electronics and domestic aplliances brand is increased when he sees the array of products and their lifestyle benefits.

Value to Philips:

Product showcase and aspirational imagery increases brand awareness of Philips as a Premium CE/DAP brand and helps to generate demand.

Value to Jan:

Jan has found a site where he can truly enjoy indulging his natural inclination to shop and browse for CE/DAP products.


Validation: As a general enthusiast user, Jan needs to feel confident about Philips and his anticipated purchase

Jan feels allied with Philips when he sees that Philips is involved with events such as the US Open Snowboarding championship, something which he follows closely and respects.


Sees that Philips is innovating with iPronto

Surfing editorial information around the site, he also investigates Organic Displays - a new flexible monitor technolgy

He knows if Philips is innovating this much, his Philips monitor will use the very latest technology.

Curious and interested in knowing more from Philips, Jan signs up for one of Philips targeted newsletters: Home Entertainment


Value to Philips: Value exchange made. A new Prospect acquired. Potential to contact further for marketing or further prospect qualification purposes.

Value to Jan: Jan now feels that his decision to choose Philips is validated because Philips innovates and has hip partners he identifies with.


Remembering his real purpose, Jan uses the product finder to refine his choice in a TV.

It turns out that a Plasma TV the right choice for him.


Value to Philips:

The consumer is matched to the right product, reducing support time and inceasing consumer satisfaction

Value to Jan:

Jan is now supremely confident in his decision to choose Philips products because the product-finder has helped him ensure that he’s found the right product for him.


Jan enters the product page, and sees all the information he needs.

He also sees he will be well supported by Philips

Configuration: Cross-sell products through interconnectivity and interoperability

He’s not sure what “Plasma” is, or why he needs it so he looks at the helpful definition


Most intriguing is the idea that he can configure other Philips products plus the TV to go along with his lifestyle. In fact, a recommended configuration is shown, with an option to change it.

When he is done he saves his 'configured' set of products. He would be prompted to log in if he wasn’t already.


Value to Jan:His life has been enhanced now he understands how to create his own home theatre to watch movies with his family, and board sports on his own.

Value to Philips:Jan is now a qualified prospect with potential to be cross-sold other items. Philips has more data about Jan’s product preferences


After Jan’s configurator is saved, he gets a coupon to be redeemed after purchase of product

He finds retail location near him using the retail locator

Motivation: Incent users to purchase

Value to Jan:Coupon is added value to Jan

Value to Philips: The coupon is added incentive for Jan to purchase.

The site supports the retailer base via the retail locator.

Motivation: Incent users to purchase

Jan purchases his TV at his favorite retailer

He takes it home, opens the product and finds registration card with registration incentives (warranty, VISA incentive and welcome package incentive)

Conversion: User goes to a retailer to purchase

There is a call to action on the registration card, asking Jan to go back to the site and register his product to receive the registration incentives.

Jan also notices new features on the home page.

Registration: Retail channel links back to web for product registration

There is a call to action on the registration card, asking Jan to go back to the site and register his product to receive the registration incentives.

Jan also notices new features on the home page and uses the pulldown menu to browse more products.


Value to Philips: The promise of an activiated warrantee and welcome package help to orient Jan to his Philips TV and makes him feel like a valued consumer.

Value to Jan: Encourages Jan to go back to the site and browse. Philips now knows they have been successful. They have acquired another owner.


Providing editorial and lifestyle content right in the newsletter helps engender the feeling of getting a valuable ‘magazine’ through email, rather than a promotion. The newsletter brings news of Philips great innovations right to the consumer

Jan forwards the newsletter to a friend who is looking for home audio equipment.

Retention: Ongoing content and information of value encourages advocacy and moves user into Anticipatory loop

Jan is encouraged to then go back to the site to take another look at the items he saved to his configurator, and to look at some of the cross-promoted products


Value to Philips:

The newsletter provides Philips with an ongoing method of communicating with their consumers.

Valuable content and information helps to turn owners into advocates.

Value to Jan:

Jan gets a thrill each month when he sees the latest ‘issue’ in his inbox, and feels he is better informed than his friends.

He forwards the newsletter to them every so often to show that he’s ‘in the know’.


PROJECT APPROACH

Typical Blast Radius Production ProcessPRE-PROJECT PLANNING PRE-PRODUCTION PRODUCTION DEPLOYMENT

Project Strategist

Business Development

Client Strategist

Project Manager

Mock-ups

BRD

UED

IDD

FRD

TAD

Test Plan

DELIVERABLES

Application Development

Integration

Quality Assurance

Testing

Managed Services

Site Launch

BRD – Business Requirements DocumentUED – User Experience DocumentIDD – Interaction Design DocumentFRD – Functional Requirements DocumentTAD – Technical Architecture Document

• Project Manager• Creative Director• Interaction Architect• Content Strategist• Technical Architect

• Creative Director• Art Director• Interaction Architect• Content Strategist• Technical Architect• Systems Analyst• QA Analyst

• Creative Director• Art Director• Interaction Architect• Content Strategist• Designer• Production Lead• Interface Developer

• Technical Architect• Systems Analyst• Application Developer• Database Modeler• QA Analyst

• QA Analyst• Technical Architect• Deployment Engineer

User Acceptance

TestingInterface

Development

Training

TYPICAL PROCESS

Blast/Philips Planning ApproachApr 21 (5 days)

Research Workshop Analysis

Apr 28 (3 days) May 5 (15 days)

Prioritization

Scope

UE Concept

Infrastructure

Quality Checkpoint

ExecutionFeature Set

Segmentation

Value Prop.

Infrastructure

Feasibility

Task Analysis

Information Architecture

User Experience

Mockups

Concept Testing

Quality Checkpoint

If Blast Radius is selected

to continue with the Project

Execution phase, our

internal process will be

modified to work in

accordance with Philips.

PHILIPS REDESIGN PROCESS

• Requirements– Assess, understand, and document the high-level requirements needed to

meet business objectives

• Segmentation– Analyze consumer profiles and create segmentation groups

• Value proposition– Develop compelling value propositions for each segmentation group

• Infrastructure implications– Assess any infrastructure implications based on high-level feature set

definition

• Blast Radius team members– Creative Director, Client Strategist, Systems Analyst, Project Coordinator

RESEARCH PHASE – 5 DAYS

WORKSHOP PHASE- 3 DAYS

• Identification and prioritization of features and functionality

– Prioritize the high-level feature set

– Quality Checkpoint- Assess feature set against business and technical requirements

• UE concept creation

– Define the user experience concept

• Scope definition

– Refine features into initial project scope

• Infrastructure implications

– Further assess infrastructure implications based on scope definition and user experience concept

• Deliverable

– Needs analysis report

• Blast Radius team members

– Creative Director, Client Strategist, Systems Analyst, Project Coordinator

ANALYSIS PHASE- 15 DAYS

• Feasibility assessment– Determine which features can and cannot be implemented

based on any business, legal, technical, or budgetary constraints.

– Quality Checkpoint: review feasibility report in detail• Deliverable

– Feasibility Report• Task analysis

– Conduct detailed documentation of the feature set – Create a high-level implementation planning assessment

• User experience document– Develop the desired user interactions with the site– Develop scenarios for concept testing

• Information architecture– Develop the visual roadmap and site structure

ANALYSIS PHASE CONT…

• Mock-ups– Develop 2 sets of mock-ups representing 2 different approaches– Include main mock-up and significant subset mock-up– Quality Checkpoint- review mock-ups against creative and technical requirements

• Deliverable– Mock-ups

• Concept testing (2 days included in budget)– Walkthroughs of mock-ups using scenarios with key project stakeholders– 1 full day for each set of mocks– Use scenarios to ensure that the site will meet business requirements, consumer

segmentation is accurate and the IA meets UE requirements– Quality Checkpoint- review and validate results from concept testing– NOTE: We would also recommend prototyping and focus group testing (5 days, not

included in budget)

• Deliverable

– Concept Test Report

• Blast Radius team members

– Creative Director, Interaction Architect, Senior Designer, Client Strategist, Systems Analyst, Project Coordinator

Q/A


CURRENT SITE – SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS

• For site analysis, refer to the User Experience Evaluation Overview

• Need for a User Experience mapped to business objectives and the brand

• Value exchange required to capture customer data

• Closed loop• Better treatment of

languages• Highlight key partnerships to

add to sense of “premium brand”

– Nike, Benetton• Consistent with offline

branding initiatives

Thank you


blast radius overview. company background history –founded in 1996 in vancouver, canada –five...

Documents

nike id

content management retail

modular process slide

year finalist

client management resources

best user experience

nike world body cips

year communication arts