TOURATECH Brasil
In November 2012, the Brazilian distribution market for Equipment & Accessories for Motorcycles BigTrail won a new distributor for all Adventurer Riders. – I present all steps that made the difference for a new beginning. This is the process I used to make a positive difference for the company TOURATECH Brazil.
The Customer
TOURATECH is a “LEADER” in the market share of equipment and accessories for touring, rally and adventure motorcycles. The main products are luggage solutions, protection, comfort (ergonomic upgrades), electronics and navigation to Bigtrail bikes.
Located in Niedereschach, near the famous Black Forest in southern Germany, it was founded by Herbert Schwarz in the early 90s along with Jochen Schanz.
With distributors in over 20 countries, Touratech manufactures original accessories for BMW, Yamaha, Honda, KTM and others. Created from great experience gained through many kilometers travelling, more and more products are continually being developed and improved. Now you find all benefits and quality of TOURATECH in Brazil.
My Role
I had just disconnected from an advertising agency located in São Paulo, when I was summened to be part of the team of a new distributor of equipment and accessories for Bigtrail motorcycle, to be responsible for strategy and design of a new website and lead the work Experience of Use of Product, producing all major deliverables and present it to the client from August 2011 to July 2012. In this project I worked beside a Senior Developer being directly involved with the client and all the staff in the headquarters in Germany. I had the responsibility for the Project Manager, Art Director, UX Design and everything about internet consulting so it could be delivered quickly, with quality and expected results.
The Challenge
Step #1: Plan and develop the experience of Use of the Product, create all brand communication and increase sales in 10 months.
Step #2: Maintain the growth of the brand and the user experience continuously.
Step #3: Provide support for all team members with consulting and training in the model created over the years.
I knew there would be a lot of work to be done in a short period of time for a company that didn’t have the necessary structure. An e-commerce, visual identity standardize, interfaces for users with advanced age and outreach strategies and sales of products over the Internet.
The customer proposed four main objectives: to create an online catalog, the brand dissemination in Brazil, standardize the communication provided by Germany and of course, increase sales.
I worked with six main objectives:
- Know the customer and product;
- Know the consumer in various research;
- Understanding the reason behind the product;
- Create an online catalog for sales;
- Increase the sales;
- Consumer satisfaction;
I used Google Docs to develop a simple schedule because it would be shared with others, some of them would need more than others all information.
Process Overview
We started with a simple WordPress Blog and the translation of a 500-page catalog, this way we could present the product to the consumer while each strategy would be created. Daily, dozens of products were published and specifications to inform the consuming public about the brand. In a short period of time, the information had to be delivered the information to the largest number of consumers who could then put a plug on the blog so the navigation could be done in mobile and tablets, to be easy for the consumer to read and engage with all products as It was published.
The Blog
For mobile
The consumer was able to read the product perfectly and get all the information needed to be persuaded that this would be the best choice.
Email Marketing
Beyond the blog posts, we also started a weekly email marketing campaign to notify everyone of new publications that were made in the provisional blog, until the entire process of research and strategy definition was ready to work.
An other tactic that quite worked, was to reply information on Facebook. We use sponsored posts to inform consumers of new products, and also some promotions with the registration of the email, which initiated the growth of a community and good sales.
Strategy definition
After a few months of hard work with translations, publication, messages sent, we began to define our strategy. I knew I would have to do extensive research to better understand the target consumer and there was a concern of where to direct the project and the reason behind the product.
We started interviews with users, follow-up research in forums, online interaction and that’s when the phone started ringing, with consumers wanting to know more about the products and how they could buy it. But that was not enough.
Research
Consumer Journey Map
I designed a diagram with some researches I had done, and I started to interview the customers, employees, touring lovers and Facebook followers to explore the multiple (and sometimes invisible) steps taken by the consumer while they engage with the product. The consumer journey map allowed a definition for the design, to have a view of the product, the consumers motivations and needs at different stages of the journey, with solutions that would be appropriate for each one of them.
Ecosystem
The ecosystem allowed me to have a map of the digital properties of the brand, that has given us an insight into the connections between them and their function in marketing strategy. It gave me valuable insight into how to utilize the properties that the brand had (and new properties that would be created) to achieve business goals.
Proposition Value
The proposition value was a reductive method in the early stages of the product scope, which mapped the main aspects: what is the product, for whom it was created, how and when it should be used. It helped the team to funnel the options and to determine about the product that would be drawn.
User Flow
Google Analytics helped us to have a visual representation of all the steps that user went through on the website to complete tasks within the product. With this user flow, we analyzed if the user follows the steps that were designed to develop a project. We analyzed if the user started at the homepage, then enter the page of a product, going to the shopping cart – and so on. It is the user’s perspective on the organization’s website, which helped to identify what steps needed to be improved or redesigned.
Ideas Generation
With a small team, we met every day to create new ideas and to brainstorm. We questioned the methods used during the creative stage of the project, which helped us to collect ideas from all team members and to make sure it stayed aligned for the new products and launch.
Taxonomy
An exploration around the multiple ways of categorizing the content and information, like the editorials on a news site or the product categories in e-commerce, for example. this way we help to analise what designers can define as structure, content f and labels that will help the user move around the site.
Metrics Analysis
With the metrics analysis, we analyzed provided numbers with metrics tool that give insights into how users interact with the product: clicks, shipping time, keywords searched etc. The numbers helped reveal valuable insight into the consumer behavior, which often could not be captured by a usability test.
Product Planning
At this stage all the studies and analyzes were performed and discussed within the team and the professionals involved. With the product planning we entered the stage of development the product in question.
It was decided that the best solution would be to create an e-commerce from sales directly to the consumer. Time was running out for a secure seek distributors throughout the country, so we decided for direct sales.
many e-commerce platforms with low budget were researched, we chose to use an Open Source platform (OpenCart). We hired a small company specializing in the development OpenCart to make our ideas real, but we did not have the expected return, then I turned to professionals who had worked at the agency which were working as freelancers.
Content Auditing
Meanwhile a whirlwind step had to be met and delivered, the administration staff began to list all the available content from other distributors sites and organize the content that would be used in various stages of the project, helping to see the entire project, to set strategy and content to verify the details of each page. At this stage we used Google docs to share the work with other employees.
Sitemap
As the team was still small, I built the sitemap architecture, one of the known methods from UX, which consists of a diagram pages of a site organized hierarchically. With it we visualize the basic structure and navigation among different parts of the system.
Drawing Interfaces
These are the most common deliverables UX Design: the ones that document how determined screen should work. They Are great tools to communicate ideas with other members of staff and customers, all parties involved in the project.
Sketches
With many sketches and work with a new interface using pen and paper. Sketches can be very useful to quickly validate product concepts and design ideas with other team members and users.
The board
Set the direction from design
We made a top to bottom approach to define the overall structure of experience. Sketches and Storyboards are piles of ideas on the UI arrangement, functional elements and data, and interactive behaviors. From a broad vision, we evolved into a tangible project. The high-level design language, interactions and application anatomy, navigation steps and the project begins to take shape.
Wireframes
A visual guide that represents the page structure as well as its hierarchy and the main elements that compose it. It is Useful for discussing ideas with the team and with clients, and also to inform the work of the Art Directors and Developers.
Pattern Library
A list of practical examples (and sometimes code) of the patterns of interaction that will be used in the entire site. Not only helps to maintain consistent design on different screens, but also organizes and facilitates the progress of the project for the developers when implementing the elements.
To standardize the delivery for all companies that were asking the client’s logo, we created a CI Guide with the main elements that made it easier to explain shapes, colors and symbols for the use of partners.
Small CI Guide
Art Direction
In addition for all jobs to work online, we also needed the OFFLINE communication. There was the need to integrate the brand communication with the process of magazine ads and communication for events.
Layout created for proposals for companies and partners:
Business Card
Shirts
Flyers
ADS
in Germany
Every year comes a meeting with all distributors in the world located in Central Germany. It is a 5-day event where the central features new releases, new information and targets to be met by all distributors. I was invited by the customer to join them and learn more about the brand before the launch of our e-commerce. It was there that we presented the new e-commerce that would be online after our return. We discussed several issues about online sales, how we create our strategy and how we would work over the next six months.
Launch
The most anticipated stage of the project in this period spent 140 days working on many analyzes, studies and alignment of ideas to come up with a final product and initiate sales. We can with all this work to surprise the client and transform the doubts of users on a client acquisition in order for the company
The Impact
With IPO of the new website, with email marketing, actions on social networks, communication and events held, achieved a surplus of more than 12,000 visits in the first three months. The profit of the company increased by 170% the first year and the brand has become a reference in the country.
Analyses show that our proposal and user interaction was positive to our project aimed.
Event
In the largest motorcycle event happening every two years in Brazil, was the first major brand exposure. Salão Duas Rodas in 2013 did consecrate the brand in the country for the every audience, proving the real structure of the company.
We managed to reach in the first place in ranking HUGECITY with single marketing actions made in the process of disseminating.
Coaching
But the work did not stop! We had to adapt the company to growth, hiring new professionals to the team, promoting specialized training to integrate each new team member, as the company was growing.
I developed the training manual for the administration of the online shop and the creation ..
First Shopping Window
After a year and a half of a lot of research and hard work, we realize the real necessity of opening a physical store, a real shopping window for riders to venture on a trip untill the place.
The Work
After 2 years old of hard work, I realized that the adventure on two wheels is only begun. I learned so much from all the mistakes and successes in work done for the company. We had bad moments and we also had times of great joy and satisfaction with the work done.
Today I do some work for the company to distance and the strategy is always renewing itself. Soon we will soon open a new store in the third largest city in the world, São Paulo (Brazil) will meet thousands of new customers and adventurous riders. Also we are designing a new user interface and you can check out some of the work in progress for a brand new e-commerce.
If you got so far till here, I want to say thank you for the patience to navigate this page and ready more about my story and my work.
