C1 - Internal use

Mind Mapping

By: Blanca Villa

Challenge & Selection:

As part of a marketing team that is involve in the innovation process of new products for a makeup  brand we have the challenge to recognize our consumer but also to have the ability to segment  them by specific target groups to effectively respond to their needs, taking into account that we  have a high channel distribution and sometimes manage and create new product for our portfolio  is difficult because we don’t have a clear overview of our specific consumer or persona for each  product.

To solve this and to have answers of the personas profiles that we might take into account in the  design process of new products and for our go to market strategy, I’ve selected the mind mapping  tool, that let us find patterns and insights through journey, ethnography profile, data and  visualization. For the exercise we made some focus group with customers that share some  socioeconomic characteristics and make some interviews based on a journey that was required  prior to the session, this to learn from each other experiences but also to have a process of  discover about their needs in terms of makeup products based on their routine, learn more about  what are they looking for in the makeup market and found out key elements to solve our market  boundaries  in  terms  of  correct  distribution  channel  and  portfolio  strategy.

Application

At the start we made a journey file that must be filled by our customers, in this sheet they were  asked to write their daily routine with the specific times of makeup and touch-ups (to know aspects  about long lasting products), after that we have some focus group sessions in which we interview  some customers to have a deep dive in their relation with the makeup but mainly to know where  they usually buy their products, what are the main attributes that they look for in a makeup brand  and identify what type of products and innovation they are considering relevant.

After this session, all the team get reunited and we start with the main exercise, it’s important to  bear in mind that in the exercise were involved not just people that is part of the development of  the products but also people of sales, finance and digital; Continuing with the application this were  the next steps:

1. In silence the team wrote down their main ideas of the interviews  2. They were required to put them into the board and to read all the ideas  3. As a previous exercise and based on our portfolio we define that we might take into

account three different personas that demand our product at the different price tier: low,  medium and high- as clusters.

4. Based on this information, the team wrote in sticky notes aspects that they consider

relevant for our portfolio in this price tiers taking into account our customers overview.

When we have all of this complete, we found that our customer for each tier of price is really  different even if they are all women that love makeup, the differeces are in terms of life style,  occupation, what they like, what they look for in a makeup brand and also we found out the most

C1 - Internal use

important aspect and is that we have to work in differentiate products for each persona, but also  in different distribution and communication ways to be more accretive and to have a closer  relationship with them.

We wrote the characterization we found out and some ideas of innovation products that we get  with the exercise and we will make it feedback anytime we interact with customers or we have  data of the market.

Insight and approach

The key learning that I have from this exercise is the diverse points of view that we got from each  person and how do they build up a structured characterization of the personas that we want to  reach with our products and brand, also it make us clear that even we make day by day the  development process, we have to get the capacity to make out an efficient portfolio, in which you  can find three similar products at a different price for one different customer in just one brand.

After all this learnings and insights, I consider that  for the next time I would take into account the  Personal Inventory tool to have a complementary analysis of how is the interaction of our  customer in the point of sale (physical or digital) and create a more robust design and  development product process, all based in our customers.

