Lecture – Brief and Strategy
When a designer starts working with a new client, it’s crucial to give a quality briefing on the project. Each project is unique, and each requires an individual approach. I think a business has only two goals when coming to a designer — to save or make money. To save money — to optimize the employee’s work process in a way that will allow him to carry out a bigger workload, maintaining its quality, but at a specific time. To make money — to create a new/improve an old feature, that will affect the increase in users, and the income respectively. And my goal as a designer is to figure out what he wants to capitalize on and to save on.
A briefing is the first meeting with a client, during which the designer gets to know the client and his product. A client’s briefing — to find out as many requirements as possible for the project, estimation, and further work. I familiarize myself in detail with the client’s platform/app/website before the briefing to be able to ask appropriate questions during the meeting, based on 1) the client’s answers, 2) information, that I have been able to find on the project’s website/platform.
Effective briefing depends on the designer’s readiness for the meeting, as well as on general and clarifying questions. It is important to familiarize yourself with the project you will be working on in advance to gain a deeper understanding of the product. Do not forget to think through the flow of your meeting, clearly follow the goals that you have also defined in advance. Carefully study the information received after the meeting and be sure to document it.
According to Info Entrepreneurs, developing a marketing strategy is vital for any business. Without one, your efforts to attract customers are likely to be haphazard and inefficient. The focus of your strategy should be making sure that your products and services meet customer needs and developing long-term and profitable relationships with those customers. To achieve this, you will need to create a flexible strategy that can respond to changes in customer perceptions and demand. It may also help you identify whole new markets that you can successfully target.
One of the key elements of a successful marketing strategy is the acknowledgement that your existing and potential customers will fall into groups or segments, characterised by their “needs”. Identifying these groups and their needs through market research, and then addressing them more successfully than your competitors, should be the focus of your strategy.
You can then create a marketing strategy that makes the most of your strengths and matches them to the needs of the customers you want to target.
Once this has been completed, decide on the best marketing activity that will ensure your target market know about the products or services you offer, and why they meet their needs. This could be achieved through various forms of advertising, exhibitions, public relations initiatives, Internet activity and by creating an effective “point of sale” strategy if you rely on others to actually sell your products. Limit your activities to those methods you think will work best, avoiding spreading your budget too thinly.
A key element often overlooked is that of monitoring and evaluating how effective your strategy has been. This control element not only helps you see how the strategy is performing in practice, it can also help inform your future marketing strategy. A simple device is to ask each new customer how they heard about your business. Once you have decided on your marketing strategy, draw up a marketing plan to set out how you plan to execute and evaluate the success of that strategy. The plan should be constantly reviewed so it can respond quickly to changes in customer needs and attitudes in your industry, and in the broader economic climate.
Your strategy must take account of how your business’ strengths and weaknesses will affect your marketing. Begin your marketing strategy document with an honest and rigorous SWOT analysis, looking at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is a good idea to conduct some market research on your existing customers at this point, as it will help you to build a more honest picture of your reputation in the marketplace. Having done your analysis, you can then measure the potential effects each element may have on your marketing strategy.
With an understanding of your business’ internal strengths and weaknesses and the external opportunities and threats, you can develop a strategy that plays to your own strengths and matches them to the emerging opportunities. You can also identify your weaknesses and try to minimise them. The next step is to draw up a detailed marketing plan that sets out the specific actions to put that strategy into practice.
Before looking at new markets, think about how you can get the most out of your existing customer base – it’s usually more economical and quicker than finding new customers. Consider whether you can sell more to your existing customers or look at ways of improving the retention of key customers. Focus on the market. Your marketing strategy document should: analyse the different needs of different groups of customers; focus on a market niche where you can be the best; aim to put most of your efforts into the 20 per cent of customers who provide 80 per cent of profits.
Pitfalls to avoid: Making assumptions about what customers want; Ignoring the competition; Trying to compete on price alone; Relying on too few customers; Trying to grow too quickly; Becoming complacent about what you offer and failing to innovate.
Workshop Challenge
Project Brief
Brand insight & Technological innovation
It’s the first production model to represent Nissan’s new electrified brand identity, forging a path toward a new automotive era where electrification, optimized platform packaging and seamless vehicle AI technology will become standard.
Built on an all-new Alliance-developed EV platform, the Ariya is the ultimate expression of Nissan Intelligent Mobility, the company’s strategy to further improve the appeal of its vehicles and achieve the ultimate goal of a future with zero emissions and zero vehicle fatalities. Representing the three main pillars of Nissan Intelligent Mobility (Intelligent Power, Intelligent Drive and Intelligent Integration), the Ariya combines advanced electric-vehicle technology with a new level of seamless human-machine interface connectivity, offering an entirely new driving experience.
The future of the electric vehicle is now
The Nissan Ariya crossover marks a new era for electric vehicles, promising an incredibly powerful and smooth ride thanks to the full strength of Nissan Intelligent Mobility delivered by the latest assistance technologies designed to support, respond and respect the driver’s intentions. A sleek, sexy, seamless design inspired by Timeless Japanese Futurism gives all occupants a welcome, personal impression that aims to surpass expectations.
Key Features:
· Nissan’s most advanced all-wheel control technology, e-4ORCE. The “e” in e-4ORCE stands for Nissan’s 100% electric motor drive system. “4ORCE” (pronounced force) refers to the vehicle’s physical power and energy, with “4” representing all-wheel control.
· Driver assistance technology (e-Pedal) – allows the driver to launch, accelerate and decelerate using only the accelerator pedal.
· ProPILOT 2.0 advanced driver assistance – The system’s seven cameras, five millimeter-wave radars and 12 ultrasonic sonar sensors detect lane markers and objects around the vehicle, allowing hands-off single-lane driving along a predefined route, keeping with the flow of traffic.
· Nissan Safety Shield, which includes Intelligent Around View Monitor, Intelligent Forward Collision Warning, Intelligent Emergency Braking, and Rear Automatic Emergency Braking technology.
· In-vehicle commands are executed by a hybrid voice recognition system based on natural-language understanding, allowing for normal, conversational sentences.
· The first Nissan model with firmware updates over the air, called Remote Software Upgrade.
Business Objectives:
To be the first in the Kingdom of Bahrain to launch a fully electric vehicle (SUV).
To be the first to provide a full after-sales support for the electric vehicle. To be the top-of-mind brand in the kingdom of Bahrain to provide the most innovative vehicle technologies.
Category & Target Audience Review:
The Nissan Ariya’s all-electric drivetrain is an example of seamless integration of advanced EV technology. It takes the excitement and potential of zero-emission mobility to the next level by integrating excellent power delivery, charging capabilities and extended range. With four core models offered, including two-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive versions, the Ariya meets the driving needs of a wide range of customers. Whether the two- or all-wheel-drive model, the power and performance of the Ariya will bring excitement back to the daily commute and urge drivers to explore further.
The Ariya embodies Nissan’s philosophy of designing vehicles around the driver, making them both intuitive and exciting. This includes equipping it with the latest in connectivity, including a new human-machine interface and firmware updates over the air. Nissan’s intelligent personal assistance technology features a hybrid voice recognition system with advanced natural language understanding technology to handle in-vehicle assistance without the driver taking their eyes off the road. The Ariya also includes Amazon Alexa to help customers simplify and organize their lives. Alexa can play music, place calls, listen to audiobooks, control smart home devices and more, with just your voice. The two systems work hand in hand to provide a seamless, tailored user experience, whether during a daily commute or a weekend trip.
The target audience are mid to high-income class, ranging from male and female who are interested in technological innovation, being one of the first to own such an innovative and luxurious product in the kingdom. For urban commuters and first time EV owners looking for quality and style in their next-generation EV. Also, for the people who are consciously aware of the environment and want to use a vehicle with zero-omission.
Project Scope & Design Strategy:
To engage the local audience and showcase the various technological features of the car, the campaign launch has to include a two-weeks roadshow activation across the kingdom at strategic locations and in-mall activations. The audience needs to experience the innovative features that shall be launched for the first-time via test drives. The launch will also include a press conference, outdoor billboards, and online paid ads with online registrations for the various test drive locations.
The campaign launch will take place around mid to end of 2021. The estimated sale price will be starting from $47.5K.
The allocated budget for this project will be around $80K.
Competitive Research
The Nissan Ariya’s competitors include the following:
1. Model Y Tesla
2. Jaguar I- Pace
3. Kona Electric – Hyundai
Creative Agencies of Competing Projects:
Tesla Motors has no advertising, no ad agency, no CMO, no dealer network. Elon Musk does all the storytelling and marketing is done via word of mouth.
The Hyundai brand is handled by Innocean Worldwide with its headquarters in Dubai for the middle east.
http://www.innocean.com/ww-en/network/19
The Jaguar brand is handled by Spark44.
Three competing projects:
Model Y Tesla: https://www.tesla.com/en_ae/modely
Kona Electric – Hyundai: https://hyundai-uae.com/en/find-a-car/kona-electric/highlights.php
Omar Mal,
October 27, 2020
Omar Mal 