Continental is a global tires manufacturer for passenger cars and other vehicles. It’s a leading brand in tire sales in Poland. They approached us with a need to conduct strategic workshops, which goal was to develop a list of key directions and activities for further brand development.
During the Service Design process led by Socjomania, we developed new business solutions and an entirely new direction for brand development. Thanks to them, we also discovered a new way of workshopping and methodology for strategic development and innovation that truly helps the organization grow.
The final list of activities and strategic directions for Continental brand turned out to be extremely valuable for clients and our business in general. I was immediately assigned for implementation to dedicated teams.
General Director of Continental Poland, Dariusz Wójcik
The key objectives of the project were to:
The process proposed by our consultant was developed using the Design Thinking method and consisted of three phases.
Preparation phase – this stage focused on specifying target groups and defining types of clients. In order to do so, the Socjomania team combined several different methods of obtaining information about customers. The main inspiration was the process of 12 phases of netnography, which includes traditional research (interviews, observations) with the support of digital data.
While searching for data on the Internet (desk research) and during workshop meetings with the team, we defined the so-called proto persona. The second perspective was internal talks with the Continental team, during which we made the first validation of customer types. The third perspective was to survey Continental customers during the organized event. After those three phases, we were able to finally validate the proto persona. 76 participants who completed an online survey took part in the study.
During the event, we conducted six in-depth interviews with representatives of specific customer groups and employees. The fourth stage was an internal workshop, during which we summed up key conclusions, problems, and created customer personas. As a result, we defined four personas.
Ideation phase – during the two-day workshop meeting with the Continental team, we developed the profiles of people taking into account their behavior, problems, doubts, barriers, and motivations. Additionally, we analyzed their paths and how the Continental brand responds to their needs. The client’s team divided into project groups and developed a list of activities and directions of brand development.
We mapped all ideas on the prioritization matrix and then divided them into four areas: marketing and communication, new services, sales support, and optimization. For each idea, we developed a brief Business Model Canvas, which took into account the value for the client, revenue potential, and the resources required to implement it. At this stage, we used the Double Diamond model, which is crucial for the design thinking methodology.
Delivery and evaluation phase – the final stage was a meeting with Continental’s management board, marketing, and sales, during which we prioritized ideas from the business point of view for the company. The company selected ten ideas and appointed teams responsible for their implementation. In addition, we worked on how those ideas can evolve further and how we can measure their success.
We developed a new, comprehensive approach to the process of creating new solutions for the following years for the brand. The research and evaluation stage were particularly crucial, as they gave the client a much-needed insight into its key target groups. With the gathered knowledge, we were able to choose new, data-based directions for brand development. In the end, 10 ideas were selected for implementation.
One of the most crucial factors in the project’s success was the involvement of the Continental’s management board and the rest of the company. Over the course of the project, we were able to achieve much more than what we initially planned and influenced a change in the organizational culture. With our assistance, the client implemented a new platform for conversation, sharing experience, and exchanging data between clients and employees.
