From ambivalent to ambassador

Abstract

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.