Helping women feel confident to be themselves
Taking control of your customer experience & brand identity
Services
- Branding & Design
- Customer Experience
- User Research
- E-Commerce (shopify)
- Marketing
Outcomes
- 11% more time on site
- 26% more subscriptions
- 80% direct sales
- 100% delighted clients
Mission
Anna Chocola’s mission is to make her clients feel confident to be themselves when attending a special day in their life. If you feel great and comfortable, you can be yourself in any situation.
Job to be done
Although it has always been her mission she needed help to put it in words and reflect it in her brand. She wanted to make it clear to her clients that she creates much more than tailored hats - She helps them on their journey to feeling great and beautiful by offering a very personal service from the first point of contact to the moment they receive their much-loved hat. On a business level. she was ready to leave her eBay shop behind and wanted to increase her direct sales, especially custom made headpieces.
" The branding workshop was a revelation in terms of my understanding of my product and service. It has helped me define exactly what it is I sell, what I really have to offer my customers and what makes me different from my competitors. "
Positioning & Brand Identity
Anna Chocola has been making hats since 2010 and it is a naturally loved brand. To take her brand to the next step, she needed to control her brand message and identity. Through a branding & positioning workshop, we defined why she’s doing what she’s doing, how she is doing it and who needed her brand. This was our foundation to create her identity and narrow down her offering.
The full customer experience
We found out through customers interviews that Anna Chocola's clients were comfortable buying high quality and personalised hats, without having to walk into a shop and try it on. Her clients feel that they’ve almost designed the hat with Anna. They’ve seen samples, then photos of the progress, exchanged ideas on email. So when they receive the hat, they already know it and love it, this journey is as important as the hat. That’s why they don’t have to come in and try it on. It’s a piece of their life and has emotional connections, it was a little adventure and treat. Seeing the hat getting made and being involved is as delightful as wearing it.
Furthermore, Anna Chocola has great customer service. From the first point of contact to the last. Her customers would only be aware of it once they’ve committed to buy or to contact her so we had to surface this to the forefront. Some clients have great stories that emphasise her process and how she brings delights when matching the hat to their outfit and vision. Those are now making the most of her blog section and used in her newsletter. Her website also shows testimonials reflecting her unique value proposition. The process is explained everywhere on the website, from the product pages to the Studio page.
Selling more made-to-order hats was also an objective. The top navigation now brings this new section to the forefront, explaining and showing photos of the process.
The downside of an online business is that you don’t have clients walking into your shop, so it can be hard to understand your target audience. Anna Chocola had a good email list of all her favourite clients and people who registered interest, so we opt for a survey. The primary goal was to validate that customers would feel comfortable enough buying directly through the website. Based on all her clients’ communications and knowledge, we already had a clear picture of segments to target. We asked a few personal questions to refine those a bit further and get some insights into her clients' lives. To make the survey more appealing, we offered a 25% discount when the new website would be live.
" The workshop allowed me to find the right message to reach my ideal target customers, thus it finally feels like my website is a true representation of my brand. After a few months of putting it all into practice, I’m now noticing growing traffic and demand which is absolutely brilliant! "
Designing a website as friendly and elegant as her brand.
The products and content had to be the hero, especially as there’s some great photography on her website. To support it, we choose an elegant header font with practical and readable body font, just like her hats. Her brand is elegant with beautifully crafted products, we didn’t want to spoil it with over the top special effects. Animations are here to help bring attention to the brand’s value or Call To Action. The majority of her clients are on mobile and tablets, probably sipping on a glass of wine in the evening, so the website had to be optimised for mobile and tablet.
e-commerce strategy
Investing in major changes can be stressful for small brands. We always have a very lean approach to change and experiments, finding out how little can we get away with to validate our decisions. After a fair amount of research, Shopify became obvious as the most cost-effective and easy to maintain solution. We started with the cheapest option and using their API to sell directly on her website. After a trial period, we had the confirmation that clients would buy directly like they said they would in the survey. This was enough for making the full move to Shopify and migrating all content.
" With a 48% open rate, 23% click rate and with each campaign resulting in a sale, Anna Chocola email campaigns are 10% above the industry average. "
Marketing & social media focus
Anna Chocola is all about the story and conversation with her customers so most of her marketing is done through social media. Her strategy is to start a conversation around work in progress and clients' stories, building a community around her brand.
No one likes to be spammed with a useless sales newsletter. Anna Chocola’s email marketing is super light and only shout about new collections and her customers’ stories. We created a template in MailChimp that give her speed and autonomy with her comms.