
A Platform to Create Joyful New Balance Community for Users to Share Their NB Lives to Boost The Buying Power and Form Diverse NB Culture
Group Project / Role: Idea Thinker, Strategist, Analyst, UI Designer, UX Designer, Motion Graphic Designer, Prototyper
August, 2020
New Balance Life (NB Life) is a life-sharing social networking function designed for New Balance, a sports apparel company with over 100 years of history. People love to show themselves. NB life allows NB users to establish themselves by sharing their NB experience. Combining with the online try-on function, NB users will quickly locate the preferred item by knowing the product from other users' NB experience. NB Life creates and diverse NB culture. It also benefits NB by promoting sales, gathering product feedback, and identifying the hot NB products efficiently.
Research
Basic Info:
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C’est Si Bon Bakery is a team of dedicated artists creating expressive and inspired cakes, celebrating individuality to the highest degree, and manifesting an open space where the customers can bake their dreams into reality.
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C’est Si Bon Bakery has more than 30 years of history, originally from Melbourne, Australia.
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Has operated 15 years in San Jose, California, serves customized cake and Persian Sweets.
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Want to grow bigger from a family business
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It is a Local business at San Jose

Current Webpage, Products & Services:
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In-store: In-Store Cakes; Pastries; Cookies; Cupcake.
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Doordash + Uber




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In-store: Custom Cakes



Sales Promotion & Delivery:
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Most sales promotions are run through Facebook, and linktr.ee.
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Instagram is a place to show the events for C’est Si Bon Bakery.
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Work with DoorDash & Uber for customer convience.


linkedtr.ee

DoorDash +Uber
Competitive Analysis
There are many bakery stores in San Jose. They share the same customer source. We choose 9 top San Jose bakery stores based on Yelp rating for competitive analysis to get a more comprehensive understanding of C'est Si Bon Bakery's business state.
Ranked NO. 3 on Yelp by the search of 'THE BEST 10 Bakeries in San Jose'.

Ranked NO. 6 on Yelp by the search of 'THE BEST 10 Comstom Cake in San Jose'.


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Many bakery store websites are poorly designed.
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The categories of products the bakery stores offer are quite similar.
Summary:
As a local bakery business, C'est Si Bon Bakery is quite popular. It ranks NO. 3 on Yelp for the best bakery stores and No.6 on Yelp for the best custom cake at San Jose. However, current popularity does not mean it has an absolute competitive advantage in the bakery business forever.
It offers similar desserts as other competitors. Due to the bakery business's characteristic, there's always a certain amount of bakery stores scattered in the same area, and trying new bakery store is the typical behavior of the customers.
Bakery Lovers' Interviews



From the interviews, customers are easily attracted by the special, new arrivals. And for designer cake, whether the cake can represent the events well is crucial. In a word, bakery business not only produces one type of food but also bring customers different experiences.
Pain Points VS Advantages
Pain Points
Advantages:
What Can C'set Si Bon Bakery Do
Similar Products & Services Categories as Competitors
Nearly Saturated Dessert Market in San Jose
Covid-19 Impact
Capable to Do Highly Customized Designer Cake
Already Has Certain Loyal Customer Group
Only One Store in San Jose, Operation Cost is Controllable
Utilize the Capability of Designer Cake to Increase the Diversity of the Products Beyond Designer Cake Service
Products Could be More Attractive Visually to Capture More Customers through Online Platforms
Small Business, Lack of Fund
Designer Cake May Need More Customer Communications
Work With Uber Eats & DoorDash
Make Customer Communications More Efficient and Effective in Designer Cake Service
Crisis VS Opportunity
Covid-19 brings great crisis to the economy globally. Many businesses shut down, including some well-operated companies.
C’est Si Bon Bakery, as a recognized local bakery store, is already very successful. It also faces the economic crisis Covid-19 brings. However, It also could be an excellent opportunity to explore new customer channels and customer groups to maintain the leading position of local bakery business and thrive in the long-term.
The Niche
Customers expect special, exciting experiences from bakery stores. But the existing bakery stores in San Jose provide the similar product and services.
We believe that by introducing a platform with a well-designed, attractive, unique, time-varying product category through product & service re-packaging and combining a cake design app with designer cake service will help C’est Si Bon Bakery maintain the leading position and go far.
We will know this to be true when the C’est Si Bon Bakery's orders and customers increase as well as the profit.
Persona
Behaviors:
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Is looking for special offers, trying to save money on dessert.
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Most of the time purchasing dessert for a good mood.
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Shops online mostly during Covid-19
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The appearance of the dessert attracts her a lot.
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Like to try new bakery products.
Needs & Wants:
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Healthy food.
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Healthy mood.
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Bakery product with a reasonable price.

Thinks:
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I wish bakery product can be more healthy with more variety. Because sometimes I really need it after whole day work.
Says:
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I love to try new dessert. A tasty dessert can take away my tiredness from whole day work.
Does:
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Search online for a good bakery products during Covid-19.
Feels:
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There's limited varieties with even less product photos to let me make decision. I still want to try new dessert, but during Covid-19, new arrivals declines a lot.
Ana
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Age: 28
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Job: Instructor
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Education: Bachelor of Education
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Marital Status: Single
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Family: No plans

Sam
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Age: 36
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Job: Real Estate Agent
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Education: MBA
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Marital Status: Married
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Family: One kid
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Income: Double income
Behaviors:
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Loves to try new sweets.
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Focuses on the tastes more.
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Shops online a lot.
Needs:
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Need a cake to celebrate the anniversary with his wife.
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See options for custom cake.
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Order custom cake online with his wife's favourite flavor.
Thinks:
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what kind of anniversary cake can bring her a surprise?
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She don't like the cake with too much sugar.
Says:
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For me, taste is important. However, after I browsed some bakery store website, I think appearance is important too.
Does:
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Search online for a good custom cake store.
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Seeking recommendations from his friends.
Feels:
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There's too much options. However I have some specific requirements. I don't know if the bakery store can fulfill my requirements.
Strategies
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Repackaging:
C’est Si Bon Bakery is good at designer cake. It has strong ability to make different type of cakes for different themes.
Ordinary desert is for the daily sale, it brings the basic
1, Ordinary desert: Reasonable price for daily purchase---keep could offer $20, $40 special combination, etc


2, Theme desert:
eg:
a, Cake for mood: love, sad, happy, what ever, be gorgeous, etc;




b, Color theme: black & white; green; red; etc;










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c, Special shape


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d, Holiday cake: Valentine's Day; Mother’s Day; etc.





e, special requirement cake: cake with low sweetness; cake for certain group with certain allergies, etc...

f, g, h, etc...
3, Custom cake:
eg:
a, Cake for mood: love, sad, happy, what ever, be gorgeous, etc;
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Repackaging:
Customers expect special, exciting experiences from bakery stores. But the existing bakery stores in San Jose provide the similar product and services.