Arla Project
Everything has
prepared us for this. All the lectures and the Service design conference have
led to our final experiment. I’m talking about a project where we can put all the
things we have learnt to the test. That test is a project with an interesting
commissioner that makes dairy products, Arla Oy.
So why are we doing a
service design project for a company that is known for its milks and yogurts? Even though we connect Arla
to products and not to services, service design is a capable tool for every company.
Arla’s Consumer
Engagement Manager, Ulla Jones, gave us the instructions via video. Project
assignment was pretty vague, but the main points appeared clear. The target group
was young people in their early or mid-20s. We were guided to look into our
peer’s everyday behaviour. In addition to that we
should think about service opportunities for the company. We were told that we
could do this in teams of two or three so I teamed up with Kalle and Petri.
Everything sounded
simple and clear, so we started planning. We wanted to
use research methods that we had learned in the course and for that reason we decided to go with
service safari, interviews and autoethnography. Journey map was also
considered, but we didn’t see a real use for it in this project.
In order to gain
information on our peer’s dairy product consuming habits, we formed a
questionnaire. The interviews were
conducted via phone, online and also face to face. In the end we had managed to
gather 10 interviews all together.
The main things we
learned from the interviews were:
- Price is very important for a young consumer
- Packaging is the most important source where to receive information about the product
- Arla has mixed image among young people
- Our target group weren’t consuming Arla’s products consciously
- People don’t go to websites that are on the product (QR codes don’t work either)
When I studied my
own behaviour and my habits regarding consuming dairy products, I discovered that I had
been drinking Arla’s milk for almost a year at the moment, which was a complete surprise to me. I didn’t know that until I checked the label on the milk found in my refrigerator. I was drinking it because I was used to it and it
was reasonably priced. I should say that it tastes good as well. I learned that
when it came to buying milk, my actions were almost automatic. I wouldn’t have
thought of that if it wasn’t for this project.
Okay so I mentioned
that the research methods we decided to use in the project included a service
safari. For that reason, we headed to the supermarket right next to our school.
It was a good place to observe Arla’s products and their appearance and how they are placed in shelves compared to other
brands in the store.
We wondered around
the store for an hour and came up with following notes:
- Confusing brand image
- Sometimes Arla, sometimes Arla Ingman and Ingman
- Most of the milks were Arla’s (about 50 %)
- Same design language among the products
Based on the
information we gathered, we came up with two service opportunity ideas. First is a
mobile application that you can download to your mobile phone. It could include
information about Arla’s products for example nutritional information and some
cooking recipes. I think it would be a valuable application for young people, as they already spend plenty of time with their smartphones. The second idea was to have brochure holders inside any store
that sells Arla’s products. It might contain the same information as the mobile
app.
Arla workshop
In the beginning of the Arla workshop all teams presented their project process and
results they got from it. Other teams had done excellent work and I
enjoyed watching their presentations. Ulla Jones also gave some really valuable
feedback to every team.
After presentations
we discussed how to get valuable information about a target group. Good way to
do that is to do an interview where the person, that you are interviewing, has an
opportunity to speak his/her mind on a subject that the interviewer has
defined. No assumptions or a questionnaire with strict question would be involved. This way you can
learn how this person truly thinks and feels. You can start by asking for example what
he/she does in the mornings and then you just let them speak while you observe.
If the conversation steers of the tracks, the interviewer can steer it back to the
wanted subject. It is that simple!
One really
fascinating conversation that we had in the workshop was about assumptions. I
didn’t even realize that how much we generally assume things. We think that we
know something and it affects our ways of doing everything. For example in the
beginning of Arla project, we assumed that we know everything there is to know
about our peer’s everyday behaviour, so we didn’t bother to look into it that
much. Our research was focused on the product consuming habits instead. In
order to have a meaningful research, we need to free ourselves from those
assumptions. Let the person explain what they do and what for, instead of assuming that we
know it already.
The workshop got me
to wonder, what should be done differently next time I’m doing a similar kind of project. Well there are a couple things, for example:
- More precise and comprehensive service safari. We should have treated it as a real shopping experience and observed the whole process.
- Open interviews without direct questions, where the interviewee could freely talk about the subject. It would have been more revealing perhaps.
- Focus more on the target group’s everyday lives and not on the consuming habits.
All in all Arla
project and the workshop were very good learning experiences. It was fun that
we were allowed to do anything within certain guidelines. Nobody was saying what we needed to do and that was also the biggest challenge.
Keeping that in mind, I think we did pretty well. We managed to open our way of
thinking to Ulla and share our thoughts in a meaningful way. I also really
appreciated the workshop we had after the project. Some worthy mentions from
the workshop are the open interview method and discussion about our
assumptions towards everything.
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