challenge / opportunity
Understanding different user needs and objectives in purchasing journeys across Cars, Motorcycles, All Terrain and Marine. Designing and developing for flexibility by creating a pattern library and components for efficiency, consistency and speed to market.
Client
Suzuki
Format
Multichannel
Solution
Immersion into the customer’s world in all four product environments, online and in physical retail contexts. Creating a Proof of Concept (PoC) for all four product divisions to gain stakeholder alignment and buy-in. Owning the digital delivery of the experience including defining the technical solution. The strategy, design and delivery of an end-to-end customer experience across Suzuki’s product lines.
Outcomes
37% increase in automotive test-drive requests 48% year-on-year increase in motorcycle website leads "Never have I had so many positive comments about how fantastic our new website looks and works. The end product is beyond our expectations." -Katie Palmer, Suzuki
Overview
Establishing a strategic proposition: Suzuki’s digital offering had grown organically over many years, resulting in a collection of digital experiences which didn’t adequately meet customer buying and decision-making behaviours. Simply refreshing the visual design layer wasn’t going to solve the problems this raised. We worked with Suzuki to define their strategic proposition for digital sales journeys. This anchored all the design work. We focused on the need to connect customer experience across all digital touchpoints and make an elegant transition to real-world dealership experiences. Using a variety of research methods, we identified features that would help customers understand their choices and make informed, confident purchase decisions. For example, there was a distinction between bike buyers' need for rich visuals and 360º viewing, and car buyers' requirements for specific discoverable information such as the comparative size of vehicles. Sketching wireframes allowed to quickly test design solutions to customer problems. We noticed that distinguishing how big a vehicle is in relation to another vehicle was an important early factor in understanding the Suzuki range. These kinds of differentiating insights across user groups occurred throughout our design research process and fed into our visual design direction for each product line. We took a component-based approach to designing and developing these digital experiences. We created six basic styles of page, consolidating Suzuki’s current offering by 75%. The benefit to this approach became clear when assessing the technical feasibility of the project. Our designs were to be deployed to a shared CMS, highlighting the need for shared templates and modules. This also demonstrated the value of defining consistent patterns to be used and reapplied across the brands. We prioritised a smooth and easy transition from digital to physical easy when designing and developing elements of the journey. For example, the ‘Send to Dealer’ button keeps prospective customers invested in the purchasing journey as well as strengthening their identification with the brand. We designed tools for dealers such as special in-dealership configurators which connect the digital and physical experience. To make a purchase decision, most customers need time with the vehicle in a dealership; the digital tools we created maximise the value of this time for both dealer and customer.
