Häagen-Dazs

Bespoke Café Experience

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The Challenge
The Approach
The Process
The Outcome
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The Challenge

Love for Häagen-Dazs products’ runs deep, and is amplified through its global network of retail stores that bring the brand to life for consumers. Häagen-Dazs recognized that their brand image and retail experience could work harder to address the needs and aspirations of consumers in Europe and Asia. There was a need to develop a unique flagship retail concept designed to properly position the brand, entrench loyalty, and drive further business growth and expansion. Our strategy and retail design teams were tasked with the challenge of meeting these goals.

The Approach

  • Working closely with Häagen-Dazs, our strategy team began with an extensive review of research and customer segmentation to understand the underlying needs, attitudes, and drivers of the core target consumer.
  • A comprehensive audit of various retail locations and format types was completed, identifying potential pain points in the experience and areas for further optimization to better address the needs of each distinct type of visitor.
  • Extensive pre- and post-testing around brand metrics and global receptivity of the design was also executed.
  • Guided by quantitative and qualitative insights extracted from our strategic analysis phase, our retail design team worked to create a flagship retail concept that delivers a multi-sensory brand experience.

Our retail design team created a new store design layout intended to encourage a variety of eating-in experiences.

Consumer insights were used to inform the parting of the experience into distinct zones designed to address specific customer preferences by usage occasion. Varied seating types, the use of texture, tone and lighting, and the application of bespoke branding elements are balanced to create the perfect atmosphere that reflects the brand’s values in each distinct zone of the shop experience.

The addition of a host station upon entry is intended to set the tone for a more personalized experience. Bespoke curvilinear sofas in Häagen-Dazs’ proprietary burgundy colour palette and complementary art pieces are used to add femininity to the design.

Operational insights led to the reconfiguration of work counters and traffic flow, while menu boards were re-engineered to reflect the consumer decision-making process, accelerating the ordering process. The integration of a retail offering selling proprietary Häagen-Dazs merchandise provided a new revenue generating opportunity.

The Outcome

Our design for the Häagen-Dazs shop that was launched at Hackescher Markt in Germany won gold in the specialty food retailer category at the A.R.E. Design Awards.

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