The industry of e-grocery shopping has experienced significant growth in recent years, as more existing supermarkets are finding ways to provide their customers with products through the online envrionment, as well as new companies being created in the industry. Crisp is one of those new companies. They are a Dutch online supermarket, specialized in fresh seasonal products, founded in 2018. Their mission is to make ‘better food’ available for more people. As of 2020, their company was expanded to Belgium, Flanders. This has brought about some challenges, one of which is trying to find a way to nudge a group of Flemish customers exhibiting latent loyalty behavior towards Crisp into becoming customers who exhibit absolute loyalty towards Crisp. In other words, Crisp desires these customers to use Crisp predominantly rather than occassionally, as the current situation shows.

For the structure of this project, the double diamond method was used. This made sure that the problem would be tackled from all different angles, without expanding the scope too far. Throughout the project different reasearch and design methods were used, such as qualitative research (interviews), desk research (literature), validation research (survey), brainstorm sessions and a co-creation session. The research phase brought about insights regarding the possible barriers for Flemish customers to exhibit absolute loyalty. The most important insight for this research proved to be the feeling of ambivalence towards the delivery of the groceries by Crisp, since this did not align with their environmental beliefs. Therefore, this was the focus during the design phase, to develop a concept which would take away this ambivalent feeling and, ultimately, replace it with a feeling of wanting to be an ambassador. One of the design principles was to stimulate this transition through conveying information based on the short supply chain of Crisp and it’s benefits.

The final concept which is created based on the insights from the research and design phase, is the Crisp Feitjes Kalender. The Feitjes Kalender is a calendar with a different relevant topic for every month of the year. These topics specifically are sustainability and wellbeing topics related to (the service of) Crisp. Since the focus for this project was to convey information regaring the short supply chain of Crisp, this topic is presented in the current month. Customers are able to receive more information about the short supply chain and what this means in relation to the environmental impact. It also shows a comparison between Crisp and a regular supermarket, to clear the misconceptions which customers could have regarding the (environmental impact of) delivery by Crisp.

Lastly, the concept is tested and reviewd, after which minor adaptations are made. The Feitjes Kalender is also part of a larger vision/strategy which has been designed for this project. Namely, the need to focus more on communicating their third marketing strategy pillar, ‘consciousness’, to increase customer satisfaction and enhance absolute customer loyalty. This vision has concepts related to three horizons, the first one being an informative visual and video, the second one being the Feitjes Kalender and the third one being the merge of the Feitjes Kalender with another (existing) feature in the Crisp app, ‘Invite a friend’. This will complete the customers transition from ambivalent to ambassador.

In conclusion, the Feitjes Kalender is one of the steps which could help Crisp to nudge latent loyal customers into becoming absolute loyal customers. Providing the customer with clear & credible information on the benefits of Crisp’s short supply chain, will take away the ambivalent feelings of customers and replace them with a feeling of an ambassador.
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Outdoor sports, such as surfing, mountaineering and skiing, are historically exclusive. For years, those sports and their communities were dominated by a white athletic male culture and were far from diverse. This homogeneous environment was, and sometimes still is, reflected within the outdoor industry. Thus, for years, outdoor brands, including Patagonia, represented this one-sided image of outdoor sports throughout their products, marketing, and workplace. This image has excluded various people and has caused minorities to experience barriers to participating in outdoor sports. Over the last few years, Patagonia has been contributing to inclusion and diversity in outdoor sports. As such, Patagonia strives to represent different minorities within outdoor sports. In this way, Patagonia attempts to convey that these people are also part of the outdoors.

Additionally, the brand provides minority communities financial support to participate in outdoor sports and to realize their community projects. Yet, the brand lacks internal diversity and understanding of minorities and their outdoor concerns and interests. In the endeavour for outdoor sports inclusion, Patagonia seeks new ways to understand these people better to support them to engage in outdoor sports. Therefore, this graduation project explores further possibilities for Patagonia to support minorities to enjoy outdoor sports.

Based on insights from literature, interviews with multiple people within the outdoor industry and an analysis of Patagonia, a list of key takeaways is formulated. According to these takeaways, the outdoor sports culture is slowly becoming more diverse, yet outdoor brands internally lack the expertise to represent and appeal to this diverse audience. Besides, outdoor brands need to portray outdoor sports in a way that appeals to people outside the traditional demographic. Lastly, this research dominantly shows that to understand marginalized individuals and to help them engage in outdoor sports, Patagonia needs to collaborate with minority outdoor communities. These communities understand marginalized individuals and know how to get them engaged.

A project vision called "Outdoor Stories" was established based on the key takeaways and Holt's Cultural Brand model (Beverland, 2018). This vision encourages everyone to create outdoor stories together with Patagonia. The underlying thought of this vision is to look for project directions to connect Patagonia with minorities. Thus, creating a solution for collaborative support enabling minorities to participate in outdoor sports. This vision to connect Patagonia with minorities is turned into Designing Outdoor Inclusion, the co-creation tool designed for this graduation project.

Designing Outdoor Inclusion is to be used as a tool for a co-creation session between Patagonia, marginalized young adults and minority community leaders. The tool consists of obstacle and context cards. With the help of these cards, participants brainstorm solutions in groups to solve exclusivity issues in outdoor sports.

Additionally, participants explore applying these solutions within different contexts on which Patagonia has influence. The use of the tool ultimately leads to concepts to enable marginalized young adults to participate in outdoor sports. In cooperation with minorities, Patagonia can then turn these concepts into products, services, and campaigns. Furthermore, the tool enables Patagonia to acquire more knowledge about minorities and provides Patagonia with a means to connect with minorities in a new way. ... Read more