Service Design for Marketing Company

Service Design for Marketing Company

Uncork Seeks to improve the resilience of Small Wineries with a creative service that boost their growth and brand recognition

Client

Uncork is a marketing company dedicated to catalyzing the growth of small wineries. Valuing strong relationships with wineries, Uncork strives to authentically promote winemakers' brands, expand their customer base, and enhance distribution channels. To achieve these goals, Uncork has partnered with SCAD to design its services.

Problem

Over the years, Uncork's founders witnessed the cycle of small wineries with exceptional wines rising only to decline eventually. The closure of a winery they were close to motivated them to pursue the idea for Uncork. With this project, Uncork aims to enhance the market reach, distribution network, and brand recognition of small wineries.

User & Audience

This product primarily aims to assist small vineyards and wineries that are interested in growing their brands, attracting wine drinkers of all experience levels, and local businesses capable of selling alcoholic beverages.

Scope & Constraints

This 10-week project aimed to create a service that would enable Uncork to achieve profitability within 3 years, expand the market reach and brand recognition of its wineries, and provide added value to its event partners. Uncork provided a specific example of the type of wineries they plan to collaborate with, which guided our focus in designing the service. The limited production nature of these wineries added to the constraints of the project.

Role & Responsibilities

Uncork's partnership with SCAD, was chosen among four options by our class. Guided by Uncork's founders and our professor, our team of four collaborated closely. My contributions paralleled those of my teammates: collectively researching the industry, ideating a service, designing and refining its details, and presenting our solution to Uncork's stakeholders.

The Design Thinking Process was utilized to craft a tailored service for Uncork and its Users' needs.

The design thinking approach necessitates a mindset of empathy, collaboration, and a willingness to embrace ambiguity and complexity—qualities essential in service design. It emphasizes understanding users' experiences, preferences, and needs, ensuring that services align closely with user behaviors and expectations. These principles make design thinking an ideal methodology for developing a service to meet the needs of Uncork.

Preliminary Research
Explores Sandlands and Its Context Within the Wine Industry

The preliminary research aimed to gain a comprehensive understanding of the wine industry and the context of the provided sample user. This involved conducting online research on Sandlands and the broader wine industry.

Our research revealed that Sandlands is the personal project of Tegan and Olivia Passalacqua, a new generation of winemakers dedicated to crafting wines that authentically reflect their origins.

Wine comes in three colors—red, white, and rosé—and three types: still (table), sparkling (with bubbles), and dessert (sweeter with higher alcohol). Its taste depends on grape variety, climate, soil, and winemaking. With thousands of grape types, ten major ones make up 80% of California's wine. In 2016, the US sold 399 million cases of wine, worth $60 billion. US wine consumption rose from one gallon per person in 1965 to three gallons in 2016.

Our research revealed that Sandlands is the personal project of Tegan and Olivia Passalacqua, a new generation of winemakers dedicated to crafting wines that authentically reflect their origins.

Wine comes in three colors—red, white, and rosé—and three types: still (table), sparkling (with bubbles), and dessert (sweeter with higher alcohol). Its taste depends on grape variety, climate, soil, and winemaking. With thousands of grape types, ten major ones make up 80% of California's wine. In 2016, the US sold 399 million cases of wine, worth $60 billion. US wine consumption rose from one gallon per person in 1965 to three gallons in 2016.

Problem Statement
Crafted Using POV Framework to Address Sandlands' Needs and Clients objective

With a clearer understanding of Sandlands and its position within the wine industry, we began crafting a problem statement. This statement aimed to guide the development of a service designed to address users' needs similar to those of Sandlands.

We employed a Point of View (POV) framework to develop a clear problem statement for our design process. By generalizing Sandlands into a representative user group and identifying key needs from their challenges, we incorporated a key quote from Tegan Passalacqua to refine our insights. This approach produced a problem statement that addressed user needs and aligned with the client’s objectives.

We employed a Point of View (POV) framework to develop a clear problem statement for our design process. By generalizing Sandlands into a representative user group and identifying key needs from their challenges, we incorporated a key quote from Tegan Passalacqua to refine our insights. This approach produced a problem statement that addressed user needs and aligned with the client’s objectives.

Concept Brainstorming
Identifies Opportunities and Develops a feasible Service concept

With a clear understanding of the user's problems, we began brainstorming services to address their needs. We identified areas of opportunity within the user's industry, which sparked an idea for a solution. This process led to the development of a concept for the service.

To brainstorm ideas for a service for Uncork, we took a step back to identify Sandland's strengths. Through this process, we discovered three key strengths, which we then transformed into areas of opportunity for new services.

With no viable ideas emerging, we decided to conduct a "How Might We" exercise to brainstorm solutions for each opportunity. This exercise sparked the idea of a mobile wine service that could incorporate all the strengths of our users and meet our client's requirements. With this concept in mind, we began researching to validate the concept.

After discovering more successful case studies, we pivoted to a traveling wine service event. To refine our concept, we clarified why the service would work, what it entails, and how it would function. We then consolidated these insights into a cohesive pitch to present to our professor.

To bring our concept to life and communicate the service experience, we created visuals depicting key moments of the service. These visuals were used to support our pitch to the professor, helping to illustrate the concept effectively.

To brainstorm ideas for a service for Uncork, we took a step back to identify Sandland's strengths. Through this process, we discovered three key strengths, which we then transformed into areas of opportunity for new services.

With no viable ideas emerging, we decided to conduct a "How Might We" exercise to brainstorm solutions for each opportunity. This exercise sparked the idea of a mobile wine service that could incorporate all the strengths of our users and meet our client's requirements. With this concept in mind, we began researching to validate the concept.

After discovering more successful case studies, we pivoted to a traveling wine service event. To refine our concept, we clarified why the service would work, what it entails, and how it would function. We then consolidated these insights into a cohesive pitch to present to our professor.

To bring our concept to life and communicate the service experience, we created visuals depicting key moments of the service. These visuals were used to support our pitch to the professor, helping to illustrate the concept effectively.

Service Concept Yields a Viable Proposal with Positive Feedback and Key Insights

Our service concept for Uncork resulted in a viable service proposal that was successfully pitched to our class, professor, and Uncork’s founders. We achieved our goal of developing a feasible service to address the client's needs and enhance their market presence. The concept received positive feedback from the founders, though it also prompted a few questions for further consideration.

Our concept received positive feedback from Uncork's founders, but it also highlighted a specific concern: the manpower required to onboard wineries. We learned that addressing this challenge could involve hiring dedicated representatives to streamline the onboarding process and effectively attract clients.

Feedback from Uncork's founders also highlighted an opportunity for improvement: integrating a mobile app to assist end users in managing upcoming events, invitation keys, ticket purchases, and other service offerings.