Copper + Crane | UX & Email Design
Overview
Copper+Crane is a collection of artisanal bath and body care products. Designed to cultivate immersive experiences.
Roles & Responsibilities
For the creative and content teams, nine members developed every aspect of Copper+Crane from the branding, content strategy, information architecture, user experience, user interface, and content development. I was responsible for information architecture, site mapping and site planning, wireframing, prototyping, user experience, as well as designing the marketing and transactional email design.
The Problem
New Customers, More Data.
Georgia-Pacific, a leader in consumer goods, wanted to expand its offerings beyond its typical product market (paper towels, toilet paper, paper plates, and paper cups) into more luxury products as well as sell directly to consumers. The challenge was there has never been a product that Georgia-Pacific sold directly, the company would typically partner with retailers to launch and carry products. With this relationship, the retailers would own the customer data and they would be essentially their customers. Gaining insights and speaking directly to the consumer would be instrumental in the coming years and the company knew that. But, Georgia-Pacific had to walk a fine line because retailer relationships were core to Georgia-Pacific’s current business model and if not careful launching a product line direct could jeopardize relationships with large retail partners i.e. Amazon, Walmart, etc. So Georgia-Pacific created an entity called Digital Roadmaps that Copper+Crane would be distributed by. Meaning that we had to launch a product from a major brand but could not reference the relationship to that brand.
@zorymory
Maximizing Resources
Few financial resources were allocated for the project and the timeline for the project from inception to the launch of an e-commerce platform was three months. because of this, the team had to get resourceful. Team members could not dedicate 100% of our time to the project because it was not a revenue-driving initiative initially. So we had to manage the project and work in stages to execute in the allotted time frame.
Users & Audience
Internally, the innovation brand managers were our main clients. Their main goal was to validate that we could sell directly with minimal investment and resources. For the users, we targeted females in their mid-30s to 50s who were suburban with an income of $120,000+. College-educated who enjoy traveling. Adventurous individuals that liked new experiences and wanted to recreate the spa at home.
@christinagalbato
The Process
Preliminary Categorization Sketch
Organizing the Info
The initial idea for Copper+Crane was based around a four-ply luxury toilet paper. Over time, more products were added beyond paper to include soaps, moisturizers, candles, and diffusers, and aromatherapy. With this expansion, there was a need to identify and categorize what products should be organized together in the most efficient ways.
Site Map
Wireframe Sketches
Creating Frames
While the content was being finalized I began to do research on luxury brands from a user interface standpoint. From the research and the information provided by the brand managers, I was able to create rough wireframes.
Example Wireframes
Designs & Interactive Prototypes.
While the wireframes were being completed, some of the content was being finalized so I was able to use some of the color palettes, the logo, and the design elements to create a high fidelity interactive prototype.
Email Design
The last piece of the project that I worked on was the emails. The emails utilized content that was developed for the site to drive traffic and increase engagement.
The Learnings
The products launched. It proved that the internal design team could create an end-to-end solution in a product market that was not core to Georgia-Pacific’s business model with a very short timeline and budget. Also, selling directly to consumers was such a success that it was rolled out to all of Georgia-Pacific’s core consumer brands.
Unfortunately, Copper+Crane was retired as a brand, It was unable to garner a wide enough audience to continue to receive support from the company. While I feel the brand could have been more successful specifically if the initial product launch was smaller to gain more brand recognition. The offerings were too vast at the onset, which made it challenging to reach the target consumers. Additionally, if the brand was able to launch as a subsidiary of Georgia-Pacific I feel, it could’ve had more market penetration.