Establishing an agile product development process (direct top consumer) for a natural body care product.

 

The Context.

Our client, a global leader in skincare, is being challenged by smaller startup brands that rely on all-natural ingredients and typically act as online pure plays. In addition to their product advantage and multi-channel sales approach, these companies often create an advantage in their communication, through highly authentic and purposeful storytelling. In the existing marketing operations of our client’s product development and launch procedure, these are typically slow, inflexible, and not suited for a ‘test and learn’ type of venture building.


The Ask.

Bloom Partners was asked to implement an agile prototyping and launch process to sharpen the product concept, identify relevant target groups and finally test the product acceptance in an online A/B testing of different propositions and price points.


The Approach.

After reviewing the initial concept, we decided to conduct a mix of more classic attitudinal online studies in a combination with testing digital prototypes.

1. Concept Review and Scoping for Agile Development:
In a first step we reviewed the existing product concept and gathered first qualitative feedback from 25 in-depth interviews and home visits. Based on these learnings we identified three potential core targets and optimized the value proposition, supported the debrief with the PL supplier and finally a creative agency.

2. Implementation of a Test and Learn Approach:
To speed up the go-to-market, we jointly developed a process to test the value proposition, imagery and a potential price point on a real website. Based on three different design directions that were tested with different versions of social media campaigns (attracting several thousand people to the offering) we were able to further sharpen the target group and the proposition.

3. Rollout Plan and Venture Building Support:
In a final step, the Bloom team ensured that the product owner on corporate side was able to do all the necessary launch preparations; From product registrations, finding the right 3PL, to brand registrations and setting up specialty online retailers as partners. Our startup experience helped to not miss out on a single task in the direct-to-consumer product launch, which was a totally new approach for the existing organization.

 

The Impact.

  • New digital services accelerated to launch within a 6-month period;
  • We established a new agile product development and go-to-market approach as a prototype for other new products to be developed;
  • Innovation and marketing team profited from new market research, testing and new agile methods in their daily work;
  • Visibility of new business model success was raised internally and externally;
  • A sense of urgency and commitment to digital transformation as a top priority was established in the company.