We give retail brands the confidence they need to thrive by future-proofing their customer experience.
SLD is at the forefront of future-focused design within the world of retail, helping brands navigate through disruption by embracing change and building strong relationships with their customers. Our approach to design is strategic, and can be summed up in a single phrase: “The Blink Factor.” We help brands connect instantly, powerfully, and emotionally with their customers through design and branding solutions – and our ThinkBlink process ensures these solutions will resonate now and well into the future.
We work with a wide range of brands within the retail marketplace, from independent start-ups to large multi-national organizations. Our cross-functional, award-winning team delivers a seamless, full-service transformational experience, including: future scenario planning, brand strategy and engagement, place branding, naming, digital experiences, environmental design, product innovation, package design and experiential design.
The ThinkBlink process allows retailers to future-proof their brands, and consists of three main phases, each building on the learning and insights from the preceding phase. The initial “Define” phase provides the foundation for the strategic branding direction, and identifies a company’s key challenges and the critical uncertainties impacting their business. The “Design” phase personifies the gathered insights into potential plausible scenarios supported by rich imagery and consumer-centric brand experience stories. The “Deliver” phase sees the project through to the execution stage, ensuring the opportunity is properly translated from the chosen final design to a rich new customer experience that will deliver on key business goals.
In order for a transformation project to be successful, it is critically important to take a customer-centric view, and then to ensure the customer needs align with those of the organization. Our Future-Proofing Immersive Experience Model demonstrates how opportunities are clearly defined to ensure a compelling retail experience for customers that will connect back to the business goals of the brand.
The first phase of the journey lays the foundation of insights and learning. The phase helps define the driving hypothesis for the given assignment. The Define stage will result in identifying an opportunity for both the client’s brand and organization. We have provided an in-depth review of this initial strategic phase, defined in the first of three Think Blink books, namely: Brand Card, SWOT, Name Generation, Research and Path to Purchase mapping.
The second phase of the Think Blink process personifies the insights and opportunities which emerged from the Define phase in order to explore the widest range of potential design options.
To accomplish this, our tools and processes allow for a cost-effective exploration of a wide range of seamless virtual to physical immersive ideas in order to ensure that all opportunities become part of the design consideration set. The second part of the Design stage is based on further input from the client as well as consumer and staff research, and consist of translation of the ideas, and culminates with client’s approval of the design direction. The direction will proceed to final design, with consideration to the limitations of the physical location, budget, operational guidelines, etc.
The final phase consists of translating the final design direction into a set of final designs and digital artwork that would guide to the successful completion of the program. This task culminates in the development of a set of brand standards which ensure a coherent and consistent execution across business units and geographical boundaries.
Collaborative and inclusive engagement principle is at the center of the Think Blink process. This principle ensures key stakeholders have a voice and opportunity to contribute. Think Blink adapts to meet each client’s unique criteria and gives appropriate weight to the parameters that define a project’s success, the overall process is designed to:
• Support how consumers connect with brands
• Foster an automatic bias system of pre-selection in the brain at the moment of purchase
• Drive the emotional predominant decision making process that drives impulse decisions
• Support consumers’ natural selection process
• Cut the clutter by increasing visibility and message retention
• Leverage how consumers absorb communication (40 percent of all communication is visual, 80 percent is colour and shape).
Think Blink and its core values permeate each area of expertise we offer to our clients.
