E-sports Brand Store Experience Upgrading Research Project
Interviewee recruitment management, Qualitative Research, Workshop Facilitator, Concept Visualization
Background
From Product Design to Service Design
ROG is a high-end gaming brand under ASUS. In the early days, it stood out with its excellent product performance. However, with the advent of the experience era, consumers' needs have become more diverse, and their perception of a brand is often multi-faceted. Simply relying on hard-core products can no longer create more brand premiums. Improving offline experience is crucial for the next stage of brand growth.
ROG offline stores are the core scene for the brand to carry user experience and play a vital role in shaping brand influence. ROG hopes to upgrade the 4.5 store experience "based on user experience".
ROG Product Line
To achieve the goal, there are three main objectives:
1.Customer Insight
- What kind of people are users?
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What are their needs?
- Why are they loyal to ROG?
2.Experience Strategy
- What are the opportunities that can effectively improve customer experience?
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How should we act when faced with opportunities?
- How should future services be continued?
3.Spatial Strategy
- What scene functions should the 4.5 store include?
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How to reasonably set up space modules?
- How should specific touch points be arranged?
Planning
The project was planned to use qualitative research and co-creation methods. A store experience strategy report will be delivered at the end of the project. The report will include service and spatial strategy, to be the guidance for store experience upgrade.
Project Planning
User Research
To have a fully understand of ROG customer, the team used a variety of qualitative research methods to obtain information input:
01 Desktop research & On-site store visits
Read and digest ROG's current brand manual and store service specifications, and detail ROG's brand positioning and existing 4.0 store operations. Through on-site visits to ROG and competitor stores, collect information on competitors and cross-border trends to form research hypotheses.
02 Stakeholder interview & Store manager interview
Interview ROG core internal members and store manager representatives to understand ROG's current product line, store operations and customer characteristics, sort out the current problems in store operations, and understand the expectations of internal stakeholders for this project.
03 User interview & Customer Journey
Through user interviews, we understand the gap between customer expectations and the existing service experience in stores; we understand users' perceptions of the ROG brand, products, and peripherals, and form preliminary research conclusions.
Based on the input from the survey and interviews, we organize the initial version of the service experience journey, summarize and analyze the pain points and opportunities of existing services.
At the end of research, ROG store user journey was established, which include gain and pain points through the process in the store. User expected the service to be described as “professinalism, freshness, ceremonial”, so that they can “recharge the faith” in ROG.
Current Customer Store Experience Journey
Co-creation
During the two-day workshop, cross-team members from ASUS Design Center, Front-end Operations, Product Department, and Customer Service Center participated. The project team provided service design methodology on site, shared the previous qualitative research content, helped the ASUS team change the user perspective, and reached a consensus on the existing operational problems of 4.0 stores. Based on the opportunities in the pre-sales, sales, and after-sales stages, they co-created service concepts, created the core highlight services of the future 4.5 stores, and the ideal user journey, and clarified the focus of future work.
Outcome
The project eventually produced the spatial layout and ideal journey map of the ROG 4.5 store, with corresponding experience principle descriptions for each highlight concept, division of responsibilities of each department, etc. These contents played a crucial top-level guiding role in the actual operation of the ROG team in the later stage, ensuring that each department can always control the user experience during the practice process, thereby strengthening ROG's radical and cool brand image, allowing players to experience the pleasant experience of "recharging their faith" in the store.
6 months after the project, ROG team had implemented lots of service concepts from the project, such as accessible DIY workshop area, VIP treatments, Opening Ceremony, etc.
These services are being implemented in more than 100 stores across the country, bringing unique experiences to more and more players and enhancing brand loyalty.