Brand Strategy for Allbirds
Team:
Saumya Goel, Samaksh Jain, Devasya Sharma, Jinanshi Shah, Rishi Shankar, Shefali Dhar, Riya Rana
Allbirds, an eco-friendly footwear and apparel brand was started in 2016 by Tim Brown and Joey Zwillinger with a motive of selling shoes made of renewable material to lessen the impact of carbon footprint on the industry.
Timeline
10 weeks
Year
2022
Problem Statement
How might we use their ‘neutral’ market position as a foundation for normalizing sustainability in the market?
Solution
Proposal for a Sustainability focused aggregator store: ALLBRANDS co. op.
After careful scrutiny and discussion we looked at a potential prototype: A multi-brand retail aggregation model led by Allbirds - creating a unique destination for sustainable consumer brands in various segments.
Process
1.1 Overview
Initial research and overview about Allbirds. What is the brand ethos? Who are their target consumers?
1.2 Journey Map
Journey Mapping, brainstorming and creating personas, surveys.
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1.3 Brief
Defining a brief for Allbirds, exploring different concepts and strategies.
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1.4 Prototyping
Prototyping ideation and testing ideas to make Allbirds a niche in the market.
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1.1 Allbirds Overview & Business Operations
MAJOR INSIGHTS
-Allbirds has not amplified its voice enough in the market and is not globally recognized.
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- Allbirds has opened brick and mortar stores in various locations. However, it sells more online than offline.
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- The brand ethos is to sell sustainability and make consumers aware about their contribution to the planet. But is that enough?
My Contribution: Presentation Layout and Research on the timeline, the products, store visit and customer chain analysis, strategizing potential questions as next steps.
1.2 Customer Journey and Personas
1.2a Customer Interview (Survey Feedbacks)
We prepared a questionnaire to be sent out to customers on the basis of the following factors.
1.2b Persona Creation
We collated the surveys and mapped them out according to the interaction with the product.
Persona 1- Convenience Terence
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Persona 2- Sustainable Susan
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Persona 3- Ambivalent Andy
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Collating the Personas- Inception to Conversion
After creating the personas and a collective journey map we moved to examining some of the clashing consumer perspectives between Allbirds consumers and non-Allbirds consumers which guided us to the brief.
Observation and Interviewing a customer's experience and understanding their experience with the brand and the unmet needs to provide opportunities for improvement.
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MAJOR INSIGHTS
My Contribution: Interviewing customers and collating data. Finding commonalities and differences, and potential business opportunities for Allbirds.
1.3 Creating the Brief
After creating the personas and a collective journey map we strategized potential briefs that could be achieved to tackle a part of Allbirds. The brief was to act as a framework for the project and for developing the prototype.
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Exploring possible
design briefs
Based on
Innovation as an outcome
A guiding path on the basis of which briefs were derived
How might we strengthen/ amplify their 'neutral voice' as a brand niche?
Brand | Positioning | Strategy
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Should Allbirds continue using a Direct to Customer Strategy?
Brand | Positioning | Strategy
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How to make Allbirds available for a wider audience to try and buy?
New Markets | Process Innovation
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How might we differentiate the store experience to be unique to Allbirds?
Brand differentiation | Marketing Innovation​
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How to optimize the supply chain from a sustainability and pricing point of view?
Cost Reduction | Supply Chain Innovation
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How to get Allbirds involved in the future of material innovation?
Product Innovation | Marketing Innovation
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Strategy applied to select the brief that is achievable and tactile.
3 main themes derived from the various briefs?
A. Sustainability
B. Branding
C. Services/CX
What does success look for Allbirds in the next 5- 10 years?
Review criteria created on the basis of different points of importance required for Allbirds to create a niche in the market:
a) Achievability
b) Impact to sales
c) Positive Externalities
d) Value for Money
e) Adherence to Mission
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Scored according to the above mentioned criteria:
1 being the most achievable and 3 being the least.
For example: Under the ACHIEVABILITY criteria, we scored services/ cx as the most achievable and sustainability as the least.
The total scores were an addition of the review criteria in which the least scored was the most achievable and the highest being the least achievable.
1
Most
2
Achievable
3
Least
Selected Brief: How might we strengthen/ amplify their 'neutral voice' as a brand niche?
1.4 Current position of Allbirds
PROCESS
Brand Study
Brainstorming
Hypothesis
The brand user study strategy was done with the main incentive of seeing where does Allbirds stand in the market. After accumulating the data we arranged them in the 4 quadrants and listed them down in the categories we thought we most appropriate.
Outcomes:
1. Several brands are tagging them as sustainable and have hiked their prices based on the material they use.
2. We found interesting insights studying other brands that could be used as following steps for Allbirds to use.
3. An interesting finding was that we observed Allbirds does not lean to any specific side. It is has equal balance of luxury, non-luxury, feature rich and less feature.
ALLBIRDS HAS A NEUTRAL VOICE IN THE MARKET.
NEXT STEPS: HOW MIGHT WE AMPLIFY ALLBIRDS NEUTRAL VOICE TO MAKE IT A NICHE IN THE MARKET?
1.4b Exploring Prototype Ideas
We did a brainstorming session on what we think could amplify the neutral voice Allbirds has and how might it make its sustainability an x-factor in the footwear industry.
Many options were outcomes of inspirations from various other brands and innovation of ideas where it can take a lead in the market.
We arranged these prototype ideas into categories subjected as Aesthetic Neutrality, Sustainability, Partnerships & Collaborations, PR/ Advertising, Miscellaneous, Product Line Innovation, Business Models.
1.4c Prioritization Map
Inspired by IBM's strategy to create a prioritization map, we marked Importance on the Y-grid and Feasibility on the X-grid where importance is relative to the users and feasibility is for the brand.
After careful scrutiny and discussion we looked at another potential prototype:
A multi-brand retail aggregation model led by Allbirds - creating a unique destination for sustainable consumer brands in various segments.
1.5 Visualizing Allbirds in the future
Allbirds to act as an UMBRELLA for all other brands, with sustainability as its key focus
1.5a Redefining the brief
Redefined Brief after brand study and prioritization mapping
Keywords to focus on: NEUTRALITY & SUSTAINABILITY
Defining the 2 keywords
Connecting the keywords to define the brief
NEUTRALITY
The state of not supporting or helping either side in a conflict, disagreement, etc.
SUSTAINABILITY
The state of being transparent and consistent by instigating collaboration for concealing the negative impact on people and the planet.
How might we use their ‘neutral’ market position as a foundation for normalizing sustainability in the market?
1.5b Developed Business Model
Proposal for a Sustainability focused aggregator store: ALLBRANDS co.op.
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1.5b Store Design Prototype
