Creating impact with target audience through Visualisation

Organization and Challenge

I head a business unit for a company based in India, and among the 4 major segments of the primary  business of the organization, my business is a services unit while the other 3 units are product based.  The organization and its brands are well known for their wedding products and deliverables, and  have earned a Trust Badge with its huge member base of Indians across the globe. Within my  business unit, however, there is a looming challenge of luring the potential member for a  subscription given that the deliverables are intangible and the results are not guaranteed; the  services are customized and every member commitment has a different SLA. That said, it is also  challenging to support with references since there is no apple-to-apple comparison. My business’  target audience is the HNI community (High Net-worth Individuals) with Indian origin. Given the  difficult Covid-19 period, and the new normal that we are adapting to, I believe this is a good  opportunity to relook at our approach to our potential members and how we explain about the  value of our services.

Selection

I applied the 4-Whats of Design Thinking in combination with the Golden Circle concept from “Start  with Why” by Simon Sinek; and used the Journey Mapping tool to understand the need and  expectation of the potential and prospect members. The Journey Mapping exercise revealed some  very fine aspects of the expectations of the member, more specifically from the perspective of  culture, heritage and social systems. This gave me the idea to use yet another strong tool of design  thinking to help the potential members understand how our services will help them in fulfilling their  need and also meet their expectation. I chose Visualisation. This tool, I learnt, will help me convert  the intangible and unperceivable solutions into a tangible and concrete reality for my potential  members. And how do I plan to do this?

Modus Operandi (Approach & Application)

I worked with a task force from my direct team, I chose 3 members from diverse culture and  different age groups and a healthy gender mix; this ensured that the thoughts are more likely to  cover the greater majority of my target audience. We worked with some base documents collected  through surveys using basic concepts of mind-mapping tool; and hired an external graphic designer  for the subject matter expertise. We used images to depict an Indian bride-to-be and groom-to-be to  help our potential members understand the journey of a member through the lens of our services  and solutions. The visualisation project comprised of graphical presentation of the process through  animated bride-groom images, supported by appropriate background scores, ensuring a regional  touch to cater to different communities and a well-balanced social-economic-cultural  representation. This is now made available in formats of ppt, pdf and video, with small byte size  versions as well. These can be shared with the potential members during a solutions conversation  (ppt/pdf) and/or, shared over mails (ppt/pdf) after a meeting as a follow-up sales tool and/or,  shared through watsapp messages (pdf/video) as a top-of-the-recall method. Further this can also be  used for digital marketing campaigns (video) and as part of other marketing kits.

Insight & Impact

The initial buy-in of the visual communication was very promising and healthy. The customer  response survey showed that 65% of the potential members found it useful and understood the  value deliverables by the brand (compared to 45% in the survey before sharing the visual  communication). The feedback from the dry-run gave some further insights into cultural and social  sensitivity to some aspects of the services and the visualisation of the same. Basis this learning and  observations, the visualisation project was re-run to incorporate the changes and produce a more  communicating version. This approach led to the survey results rising to a 76% from the earlier 65%.  The continuous effort will be towards taking this closer to a 90-95% survey results.

The improved acceptance and higher levels of communication through visualisation is now going to  let us improve our sales conversions of the potential members, help them relate their needs and  expectations to our services and also communicate our solutions’ value to their life and this specific  journey with us.


Creating impact with target audience through Visualisation Organization and Challenge I head a business unit for a company based in India , and among the 4 major segments of the primary business of the organization , my business is a services unit while the other 3 units are product based . The organization and its brands are well known for their wedding products and deliverables , and have earned a Trust Badge with its huge member base of Indians across the globe . Within my business unit , however , there is a looming challenge of luring the potential member for a subscription given that the deliverables are intangible and the results are not guaranteed ; the services are customized and every member commitment has a different SLA . That said , it is also challenging to support with references since there is no apple - to - apple comparison . My business ’ target audience is the HNI community ( High Net - worth Individuals ) with Indian origin . Given the difficult Covid-19 period , and the new normal that we are adapting to , I believe this is a good opportunity to relook at our approach to our potential members and how we explain about the value of our services . Selection I applied the 4 - Whats of Design Thinking in combination with the Golden Circle concept from “ Start with Why ” by Simon Sinek ; and used the Journey Mapping tool to understand the need and expectation of the potential and prospect members . The Journey Mapping exercise revealed some very fine aspects of the expectations of the member , more specifically from the perspective of culture , heritage and social systems . This gave me the idea to use yet another strong tool of design thinking to help the potential members understand how our services will help them in fulfilling their need and also meet their expectation . I chose Visualisation . This tool , I learnt , will help me convert the intangible and unperceivable solutions into a tangible and concrete reality for my potential members . And how do I plan to do this ? Modus Operandi ( Approach & Application ) I worked with a task force from my direct team , I chose 3 members from diverse culture and different age groups and a healthy gender mix ; this ensured that the thoughts are more likely to cover the greater majority of my target audience . We worked with some base documents collected through surveys using basic concepts of mind - mapping tool ; and hired an external graphic designer for the subject matter expertise . We used images to depict an Indian bride - to - be and groom - to - be to help our potential members understand the journey of a member through the lens of our services and solutions . The visualisation project comprised of graphical presentation of the process through animated bride - groom images , supported by appropriate background scores , ensuring a regional touch to cater to different communities and a well - balanced social - economic - cultural representation . This is now made available in formats of ppt , pdf and video , with small byte size versions as well . These can be shared with the potential members during a solutions conversation ( ppt / pdf ) and/or , shared over mails ( ppt / pdf ) after a meeting as a follow - up sales tool and/or , shared through watsapp messages ( pdf / video ) as a top - of - the - recall method . Further this can also be used for digital marketing campaigns ( video ) and as part of other marketing kits . Insight & Impact The initial buy - in of the visual communication was very promising and healthy . The customer response survey showed that 65 % of the potential members found it useful and understood the value deliverables by the brand ( compared to 45 % in the survey before sharing the visual communication ) . The feedback from the dry - run gave some further insights into cultural and social sensitivity to some aspects of the services and the visualisation of the same . Basis this learning and observations , the visualisation project was re - run to incorporate the changes and produce a more communicating version . This approach led to the survey results rising to a 76 % from the earlier 65 % . The continuous effort will be towards taking this closer to a 90 - 95 % survey results . The improved acceptance and higher levels of communication through visualisation is now going to let us improve our sales conversions of the potential members , help them relate their needs and expectations to our services and also communicate our solutions ’ value to their life and this specific journey with us .