Knowing what customers want, before they do

Three years is a long time to keep anyone interested in anything, so it was critical for us to get to grips with what was valuable for people over that length of time.

From the honeymoon period of getting a new car, to the relatively uneventful ‘middle years’ when the vehicle serves day-to-day needs, to the anticipation of the next model: the project required us to create an in-depth, three-year journey map, understanding the functional and emotional needs during ownership.

Our goal was not just to improve the performance for existing customers, but prospects too – who might also be somewhere on the three-year cycle.

Using our customer insight teamed with data science and modelling, we predicted the behaviours most likely to indicate a readiness to purchase.

The challenge here was twofold: great, inbox-stopping creative hitting at exactly the right time, plus how to help the organisation to implement change.

In our mapping work we uncovered that in places, an email sequence could come from multiple silos in the organisation and third parties. Here our consulting team helped stakeholders to initiate new working principles with cross-functional teams. In the meantime, quick wins and new creative could be put into place to begin to optimise results immediately.