OVERVIEW
The key to the perfectly designed space often rests in the color that coats the walls. Paint can transform a room or be the touch that subtly pulls together a cohesive style. The problem many homeowners face, however, is figuring out which hue is right. Upwards of 75% of customers decide to forgo a paint project because they cannot decide on a color, which was costing Home depot approximately $1B in loss revenue annually.
+75%
of customers decide to forgo a paint project because they cannot decide on a color
Home Depot was also faced with a unique challenge whereby it was generally taking customers 3 trips to the store to follow through with a purchase. This put a strain on store associates who were tackling repeat visits and questions and also resulted in a decrease in online purchasing.
Our initial focus was orienting ourselves around the consumers and defining our understanding of the journey. Home Depot serves a number of different user types and it was important that we considered adjacencies to get a complete and accurate picture.
As a result of this discovery phase, we were able to design a journey that demonstrated key moments and opportunities to focus our response.
Home Depot was looking to answer the main question around how to fix the color choice problem but we learned from our deep discovery that there was more to the problem to address with our solution. In order to guide our response and how we pursued next steps, we created principles that were rooted in our discovery insights:
Painting is personal. Our insights showed us that this isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. We needed to create an experience that can allow people the ability to choose and yet offer creative expression.
Seeing is believing. The ability to “visualize” the color and sheen on the wall was so critical to blocking a decision. This was not unique to Home Depot but identified as a real differentiator for the company if we can solve for this.
Customers think in projects. Our insights also showed us that customers don’t only think “I need to find a color” but rather they tend to think more broadly in terms of “I want to paint this room.” We found that the tentacles that this mental model created was something that Home Depot was missing in their strategy.
APPROACH
To answer this problem, Home Depot issued an RFP that included known players in the industry: R/GA, AKQA, Sapient and IDEO. Coming from salesforce, we were not known, but I was in a position to influence the organization and our leadership to consider throwing our hat into the ring. Our key advantage with our competition was our readily available technology stack and ability to seamlessly connect data. To get going, I was able to secure $200K in funding and pulled together a tiger team of experts.
THE RESPONSE
Our research and insights indicated that “seeing the color” was the critical moment in the journey. We also knew that the competing agencies would be approaching their answers with a broader marketing and brand solution. We had technology in our back pocket and as we were thinking about it, we knew that VR was going to be a game changer. I used my network to identify a developer in Kansas who was building a propriety software that allows a user to essentially “find the edges” on an object and select areas to make changes. We built a low-fi prototype to test an idea we had designed with users and recorded sessions so that we can use in our response back to Home Depot. Critical to the POC was demonstrating the ability to capture a wall and change the color and sheen so that we can address the number one challenge of the customer.
We ended up winning the business, however some of the prominent business leaders were not confident we had the correct problems identified: “Identifying the color is the real problem. Customers are not worried about a project or see it from that perspective. We need to get them to a paint color, get it on the wall, and convert the purchase. What they do from there is up to them.”
We decided to get the execs into the store to experience reality—we divided them up in teams, giving them each a project list, $25, and 30 minutes to shop
They ended up coming away with a different experience, with key insights that included: it is really difficult to navigate a store, it really is more than just thinking about color, more choices means more problems, and a 3X3 card does turn into a an immediate decision.
We co-authored a vision to help guide us going forward: Design and build a paint experience that allows a customer to pick a color, see it, and make a paint purchase in one visit.
As we refined and tested the solution, we keyed in on the moments that would matter based on our ongoing research and testing of concepts. We ultimately landed with “find it, match it, and see it” as our guideposts, adding in additionally capabilities to enhance the JTBDs and overall value to the customer.
Find it.
We designed a search experience that would allow a customer to explore organically, discover color in color families, search by a color or brand, or find colors via color inspirations. We also tapped into an API in partnership with pinterest to allow users to gain access to more inspiration and the ability to save colors and projects across applications.
THE SOLUTION
Using the momentum from the shopping experience, we assembled a working group across the business, technology and digital experience teams to quickly turn to alignment and co-creation sessions. Inherently a SAFE modeled organization, we introduced the company to new agile frameworks, with the team ultimately developing an identity around their sprint methodology.
Match it.
We found that most customers were looking for an easy way to match an existing they may have been inspired by but have struggled to get it right. We designed a feature that made it easier for them to capture or upload a photo and easily tap on an area to get an exact color match and similar recommendations.
See it.
With the power of augmented reality, customers can answer the important question of what a color will look like in a room in seconds. The app’s “See It in Your Space” feature can “paint” around other objects and recognize lighting conditions, giving customers the most realistic visual possible without putting a paintbrush to the wall.
In addition to adding features like saving colors, ordering samples, and the ability to make a purchase decision, we also wanted to ensure we were “extending the aisles” to tie other parts of the experience to a project mindset—offering products to “finish the room.” We also felt there was a real need fro Home Depot to create a dedicated presence for paint within their online experience, mimicking the same experience from the native app.
OUTCOMES
“Augmented reality has been available within mobile for a while, but Salesforce helped us amplify its benefits across key categories and projects — the result is an intuitive, realistic experience grounded in what the customer needs. Under Brian’s direction, we were able to create real impact for the business. He pushed us to get more value early on and went above and beyond the initial pitch work to create a category-defining solution and strong business partnership.”
– Samara Tuchband, General Manager Online
#1
Home Depot moved to #1 in preferred category beating out Lowes for the first time
-2
Reduction in store visits based on surveyed customers (moved down from 3 to 4)
9x
Increase in purchase intent based on converted cart data