A deep dive into consumer needs around the world
Ekornes
In-depth insights for furniture design
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EGGS has helped furniture producer Ekornes gather key insights to fuel product development and guide product-specific strategy work. Covering their most important markets; Germany and the US, and Norway due to easy access, we have gathered in-depth insights to reveal future opportunities for innovation, define necessary updates on the current product range and explore possible new services.
Despite having significant information available in market reports and insight from stakeholder interviews, we saw that Ekornes could benefit from getting more detailed information about people's life at home. For example, how they used their furniture and which emotional drivers lead them to buy a product in a high price range. This information would be valuable when developing new products targeted at different markets while sustaining a global appeal.
Home interviews gave better and deeper insight
To gather the missing insight, we did 42 home interviews with over 60 people, as well as interviews and shopping experience observation in 25 different retail stores.
The research plan involved the current hypothesis, research goals, and a roadmap for executing insight work, covering logistics, GDPR, and confidentiality. We prepared visual probes so that we could discuss themes like comfort and aesthetics with the interviewees. In each of the three markets, we were supported by recruitment agencies to recruit interviewees and also helped adapt the recruiting criteria to the local living standards and culture. Understanding the cultural differences is critical to meet the interviewees with respect and professionalism.
In-home interviews are valuable for several reasons. Interviewing people where they live lets us into their safe zone, where they tend to share more and show us how they use or think while operating the products.Eva Tøftum, Senior Industrial Designer, EGGS Design
Cross-competence was key
In this project, it was necessary to get the broad spectrum of competencies when synthesising the data into business opportunities for Ekornes. Hence, our field research team was a cross-disciplinary one, consisting of a service designer, a business designer, and an industrial designer.
Concrete conceptualising of the insights
By linking the learnings with in-depth knowledge on product design detailing, functionality and aesthetics, it is possible to increase the desirability for the products in the key markets. We analysed and structured the findings into action points for Ekornes and conceptualised new possible business revenues, services, and product offerings for different segments. We conceptualised and visualised a selection of the recommendations.
Furthermore, we also created an executive summary comparing the markets' similarities and differences, giving the stakeholders systematic and compressed learnings from the study.
