A PORTLAND BREWERY EMBRACES UX RESEARCH
One of the newest and finest craft breweries in Portland, Culmination Brewery (CB) stands out for its innovative flavors and agile beer making process. But, with a multitude of other breweries for beer drinkers to enjoy, a good product is simply one important step in attracting customers. Media presence, ambiance, and ongoing engagement are just as important in getting them to return.
SITUATION: After a meteoric rise, sales had evened out and the search for other markets ensued. Using a 5E research model I analyzed the complete user experience starting with a comprehensive media scan and competitor audit. Ethnographic research of CB and other successful Portland breweries revealed the enticement, enter, engagement, exit, and extend experiences of their customers.
Several open ended interviews with CB customers revealed insights that were later explored through an empathy mapping exercise with the staff and proprietors. Pain points were identified throughout the user experience starting with web searches and google ratings to customer engagement within the brewery. The exit and extension experiences were also analysized. Weaknesses were especially evident in the extend portion of the user experience. Customers and beer marketers who after visiting the brewery were not able to easily find stores nor distributors to purchase the product. And, with no online retail sales, an emerging international customer base had no way of purchasing CB’s products.
Post-its from the empathy map exercise. Because of time constraints it was conducted on the production floor directly across from the brewing tanks.
CHALLENGE: The staff and owners had severe time constraints and getting group interactive input was difficult. This was notably so with the empathy mapping exercise where only one to three staff members could participate at a time. This precluded livelier discussion that could have extracted deeper insights. Nonetheless, valuable personas were constructed of the current customer base but the data simply didn’t exist to create more assumptive personnas of the emerging international market. It also became clear that CB's website was key to improving the extend portion of the user experience. However, creating the online infrastructure to do so would take more time and effort that an already burdened staff and owners could not quickly provide.
After several interviews it become clear the majority of customers were male but in distinct age groups. Download the PDF of the personas and see how they compare.
RESULT: Culmination now has comprehensive understanding of its current customer’s experience and valuable insight into better connecting with new markets. To accomplish this, the website is being redesigned with an online retail component and the content strategy is being clearly defined as are plans to streamline and automate it. Other marketing opportunities have been uncovered and fresh ideas on locating new customers in different markets also are also being considered.
A partial snapshot of the architecture for the new website. A merchandising section and a distinct breakdown of the product categories has been introduced.