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Transforming the Workplace Experience with Data-Driven Brand Experience Strategy
Allsteel’s parent company, HNI, is one of the world's largest office furniture manufacturers in the contract business space. To elevate Allsteel’s brand experience and position for growth, they sought Bounteous’ digital transformation and brand strategy expertise to generate data-driven critical insights that would help them better understand their audience, identify brand opportunities, and drive business outcomes.
Business Issue
Allsteel needed to stand out amongst their competitors in the saturated furniture manufacturing industry, match their brand scale to their business scale, and understand their customers to drive focus.
In other words, they needed to move from a passive end of a value chain, to one that recognizes the role each stakeholder plays, and actively supports and enables these stakeholders with a cohesive brand and experience story throughout the journey.
Solution
A critical aspect of the project was understanding Allsteel’s brand, customers, competitors, and audience paths to purchase. This began with a qualitative discovery phase in order to better understand high-end workplace furnishings buyers and their journey throughout the product life cycle. Bounteous conducted in-depth interviews with Allsteel executives, customers, partners, and influencers in addition to a competitive audit and a client workshop. These exercises uncovered potential brand territories and a customer journey map.
We then conducted a quantitative study and analysis into the customer purchase process, motivations, influencers, and brand territories to validate the qualitative research. This research informed a segment targeting strategy, validated the journey map, and provided a direction for brand evolution.
Bounteous married many aspects of the Allsteel’s brand heritage, its DNA, with an elevated expectation from its Members, its stakeholder groups and its customers, to co-develop a brand strategy with Allsteel that is designed to both inspire its Members and stakeholders, and attract and retain their ideal customer. The brand strategy becomes the fountainhead from which all experience elements that the Allsteel brand delivers are uniquely and unapologetically Allsteel. Engaging Allsteel in the brand strategy process encouraged buy-in and instilled a deep understanding of their customer so they could activate meaningful experiences.
Outcomes
The brand strategy, segmentation, and journey map empower Allsteel to classify new and existing customers into market segments for future brand experience. Armed with the brand and experience strategy, Allsteel rolled out organizational training programs, launched the brand strategy to its national sales team, and opened a new, branded showroom and was met with massive success among the sales, architect, designer, and dealers communities. Additionally, the brand strategy includes an inspirational value proposition that positions Allsteel as the workplace manufacturer that’s Designed To Do More; embracing the future as well as opportunities to win on experience with their target audience.
Recognized by Forrester Research in a best practice report, How to Create Journey Map Deliverables That Accomplish Your Goals, Bounteous delivered a simple, chronological journey map that shows where pain points and opportunities exist throughout the customer’s buying journey.
Importantly, this work enabled Allsteel to put a stake in the ground for its brand, and how it wants its stakeholders to experience the Allsteel brand in a cohesive and differentiated manner through all of its touchpoints. The deliverables will serve as the anchoring points for brand and experience innovations for a long time to come.
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