Karla Straker

Typologies and touchpoints: designing multi-channel digital strategies

Purpose This study aims to gain a clearer understanding of digital channel design. The emergence of new technologies has revolutionised the way companies interact and engage with customers. The driver for this research was the suggestion that practitioners feel they do not possess the skills to understand and exploit new digital channel opportunities. To gain a clearer understanding of digital channel design, this paper addresses the research question: What digital channels do companies from a wide range of industries and sectors use? Design/methodology/approach A content analysis of 100 international companies was conducted with multiple data sources to form a typology of digital “touchpoints”. The appropriateness of a digital channel typology for this study was for developing rigorous and useful concepts for clarifying and refining the meaning of digital channels. Findings This study identifies what digital channels companies globally currently employ and explores the related needs across industries. A total of 34 digital touchpoints and 4 typologies of digital channels were identified across 16 industries. This research helps to identify the relationship between digital channels and enabling the connections with industry. Research limitations/implications The findings contribute to the growing research area of digital channels. The typology of digital channels is a useful starting point for developing a systematic, theory-based study for enabling the development of broader, comprehensive theories of digital channels. Practical implications Typologies and touchpoints are outlined in relation to industry, company objectives and customer needs to allow businesses to seize opportunities and optimise performance through individual touchpoints. A digital channel model as a key outcome of this research guides practitioners on what touchpoint to implement through an interrelated understanding of industry, company and customer needs. Originality/value This is the first paper to explore a range of industries in relation to their use of digital channels using a unique content analysis. Contributions include clarifying and refining digital channel meaning; identifying and refining the hierarchical relations among digital channels(typologies); and establishing typology and industry relationship model.

Not just what they want, but why they want it

Purpose This paper explores advantages and disadvantages of both traditional market research and deep customer insight methods in order to lay the platform for revealing how a relationship between these two domains could be optimised during firm-based innovation. Design/methodology/approach The paper reports on an empirical research study conducted with thirteen Australian based firms engaged in a design-led approach to innovation. Firms were facilitated through a design-led approach where the process of gathering deep customer insights was isolated and investigated further in comparison to traditional market research methods. Findings Results show that deep customer insight methods are able to provide fresh, non-obvious ways of understanding customer needs, problems and behaviours that can become the foundation of new business opportunities. Findings concluded that deep customer insights methods provide the critical layer to understand why customers do and don’t engage with businesses. Revealing why was not accessible in traditional market research methods. Research limitations/implications The theoretical outcome of this study is a complementary methods matrix, providing guidance on appropriate implementation of research methods in accordance with a project’s timeline to optimise the complementation of traditional market research methods with design-led customer engagement methods. Practical implications Deep customer insight methods provide fresh, non-obvious ways of understanding customer needs, problems and behaviours that can become the foundation of new business opportunities. It is hoped that those in a position of data collection are encouraged to experiment and use deep customer insight methods to connect with their customers on a meaningful level and translate these insights into value. Originality/value This paper provides original value to a new understanding how design techniques can be applied to compliment and strengthen existing market research strategies. This is crucial in an era where business competition hinges on a subtle and often intimate understanding of customer needs and behaviours.

Digital channels for building collaborative consumption communities

Purpose Collaborative consumption firms leverage networked peers, communicating, collaborating and even delivering services to one another through a central marketplace channel. This raises questions as to the nature of this new form of digital channel strategy and deployment from a firm’s perspective. As a first step, this research seeks to help bridge the gap in knowledge by establishing an understanding of the digital channel usage of collaborative consumption firms. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative content analysis of 30 collaborative consumption firms was conducted using multiple data sources and coded into typologies against a predetermined coding scheme. These results were then compared against existing literature on digital channel usage in regards to a wider company usage. Findings This study identifies the digital channel usage and digital channel typology of each of the 30 firms associated within the collaborative consumption domain. The study shows a distinct increase in the use of social and community digital channels between traditional firms and collaborative consumption firms. As a result of this study, a concise definition of a collaborative consumption firm is provided, the digital channel usage of collaborative consumption firms is detailed and insights are provided for each sub-type of collaborative consumption. Research limitations/implications This study contributes to the understanding of the collaborative consumption phenomena, the business model of collaborative consumption firms and digital channels. This study assists in describing the shift from traditional firms to peer-to-peer systems. Finally, a theoretical model is provided that demonstrates the nuance of collaborative consumption channel choice within each subcategory for future researchers to test and reflect upon. Practical implications This study demonstrates how collaborative consumption firms are allowing customers to drive interaction rather than traditional business-to-customer messages. A theoretical model is provided which shows contemporary marketers how to best dictate a digital channel strategy for a collaborative consumption style initiative. Originality/value Contributions include: a definition of what a collaborative consumption firm and its channels pertain to and how to design a collaborative consumption digital channel strategy. This study presents a digital channel comparison between collaborative consumption firms and traditional organisations.

Translating emotional insights into digital channel designs: Opportunities to enhance the airport experience

Purpose The purpose of this study is to identify and understand the emotions behind a passenger’s airport experience and how this can inform digital channel engagements. Design/methodology/approach This study investigates the emotional experience of two hundred (200) passengers’ journeys at an Australian domestic airport. A survey was conducted which implemented the use of Emocards and an interview approach of laddering. The responses were then analysed into attributes, consequences and values. Findings The results indicate that across key stages of the airport (parking, retail, gates and arrivals) passengers had different emotional experiences (positive, negative and neutral). The attributes, consequences and values behind these emotions were then used to propose digital channel content and purpose of various future digital channel engagements. Research limitations/implications By gaining emotional insights airports are able to generate digital channel engagements, which align with passengers’ needs and values rather than internal operational motivations. Theoretical contributions include the development of the Technology Acceptance Model to include emotional drivers as influences in the use of digital channels. Originality/value This research provides a unique method to understand the passengers’ emotional journey across the airport infrastructure and suggest how to better design digital channel engagements to address passenger latent needs.

Emotionally engaging customers in the digital age: the case study of “Burberry love”

Purpose - The paper seeks to investigate how companies can design digital channels to evoke desired emotions. Design/methodology/approach The successful business case of retailer Burberry has been examined to understand the strategy and customer engagement of digital channels implemented by decoding the emotional intensions. Findings - Results illustrate that the ability to create engaging interactions via digital channels with customers has a significant impact on growth, revenue and brand advocacy. Findings from this study provide a new empirical support for the proposition that emotions can be utilized to guide company digital strategy for building digital channel relationships with customers. Originality/value - This is the first study to examine the relationship between digital channels, emotion and customer responses to digital engagements. The inclusion of an emerging theory model is outlined to explain the successful process of reformulating business strategy through a dynamic and creative process of intersecting emotion, strategy and digital channels.

The Role of Emotion in Product, Service and Business Model Design

Designers have become aware of the importance of creating strong emotional experiences intertwined with new tangible products for the past decade, however an increased interest from firms has emerged in developing new service and business models as complimentary forms of emotion-driven innovation. This interdisciplinary study draws from the psychological sciences – theory of emotion – and the management sciences – business model literature to introduce this new innovation agenda. The term visceral hedonic rhetoric (VHR) is defied as the properties of a product, (and in this paper service and business model extensions) that persuasively induce the pursuit of pleasure at an instinctual level of cognition. This research paper lays the foundation for VHR beyond a product setting, presenting the results from an empirical study where organizations explored the possibilities for VHR in the context of their business. The results found that firms currently believe VHR is perceived in either their product and/or services they provide. Implications suggest shifting perspective surrounding the use of VHR across a firms business model design in order to influence the outcomes of their product and/or service design, resulting in an overall stronger emotional connection with the customer.

From a mission statement to a sense of mission: Emotion coding to strengthen digital engagements

Abstract The emergence of new technologies has revolutionized the way companies interact and build relationships with customers. This study aims to understand the emotion behind the company strategy and how they can be used to inform the design of digital channel engagements. A content analysis of 100 international companies from a range of industries and sectors was conducted with multiple data sources to develop an emotional coding scheme, for clarifying and refining the meaning behind a company’s strategy and its relationship to corresponding digital channels. This study identifies 10 distinct emotional channel typologies across 16 sectors through the analysed companies. This research contributes a theoretical and empirical understanding of emotion as a strategy. Outcomes guide practitioners on the selection and design of digital engagements based on the emotion code of their strategy as well as an industry sector. This article provides a novel approach to understanding and designing digital channel engagements by starting with meaning and purpose of the company.

The design movement : Two case studies from the edge of the discipline

Abstract As the boundaries of the design profession expand so must the research paradigms scaffolding them. This paper explores two trans-disciplinary PhD research projects - both broadly aimed at exploring design value in business. The first case study reports on the implementation of the design-led innovation within an airport corporation. The second case study reports on the development of an emotional business model. Each case study involved a designer, become researcher, working within industry to formulate, test and evaluate the changing role of their own design practice. The outcome of this paper is a proposition that the next phase of design will see more hybrid design capability required, such these two ‘Design Innovation Catalysts’ in order to provide value to industry and academia alike. The unique capabilities of such a new hybrid design catalyst are presented through the case study comparison, providing implications for future research directions aligning to the design movement.

Designing new business models: blue sky thinking and testing

Purpose - In what is going to be an uncertain and rapidly evolving global economic landscape, it is clear that firms will have to become more adaptive and responsive to changes within their marketplace. To do this, businesses will not only need to engage in business model experimentation but also look to embrace business model innovation as a core competency and a means for sustained competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach - This paper outlines how a design process of experimenting and prototyping can apply to the design of business models through the case study of hypothetical luggage company Packright. Findings - Five meta-models with differing foci are illustrated as an accessible and provoking framework that provides a new logic to classifying, experimenting and prototyping business model designs. Practical implications - These five meta-models provide a tangible starting point from which a business can begin to explore different perspectives and gain insights into the internal and external capabilities of their company. Originality/value - This paper builds upon the emerging research and exploration into the importance and relevance of dynamic, design-driven approaches to the creation of innovative business models.