The B&Q challenge was to optimise the customer experience in store, in particular through communications. We spent time listening to customer needs and they told us the stores were over whelming, lacked inspiration, were sometimes difficult to navigate, and didn’t give customers confidence to choose the right product or put projects together.
The solution
We developed a comms hierarchy based on Nice, Advice and Price, creating a tone of voice and graphic style for each area, whilst keeping a strong B&Q synergy throughout. We showed inspiration through seasonal and range graphics, and by cross merchandised “get the look” collections. Advice was reduced to 3 simple steps with a human touch graphic to help. Price was rationalised and not over used – price is a given in B&Q before you even get to store so don’t inundate your customers. We captured all of this in the “B&Q customer led principles for in store comms”, and a design guide for their implementation.
The result
B&Q took results from the brand matrix and communicated the mission and values through the business internally. The comms hierarchy has been taken by the B&Q retail team as a creative direction for the new store look and feel.
