Kiehl's

Kiehl's, a 150-year-old provider of skin- and hair-care products, had amassed an incredible cult following, with customers clamoring for their handcrafted, simply packaged products. When the company approached Method, it was selling its products in New York retail locations, and online through a Yahoo store. The online store didn't represent their brand, didn't work with their national rollout strategy, was hard to use, and was not integrated into their back-end systems. This was obviously unacceptable, and Method was chosen to address the problem. Key goals for the future site included representing all of the aspects of the brand - including its quirky history, fantastic in-store experience, and superb products. These goals set a very high bar for the new site. Method began its work by making sure we had a shared vision for matching those expectations. By interviewing customers in Kiehl's stores as well as in-store service personnel and company management, we created an image of the Kiehl's customer and the Kiehl's experience to design around, a shared description of what exactly it was that made Kiehl's customers so passionate about the brand. Central to that experience was the in-store clinician: trained sales personnel who would question each customer about his or her needs before recommending products. Method proposed a mechanism for an online consultant who would ask questions designed to pinpoint the customer's needs. Kiehl's was known to be generous with samples, so we ensured that the check-out process included a step for selecting samples to be shipped with your order. Kiehl's history and values are central to the store's brand, so each website page makes room for some of those engaging stories. Method's clean visual design for the site echoed the product labels, and made room for large photos of the products and the ability to view (and get reference materials on) each product's ingredients. The research paid off in a true interpretation of the Kiehl's in-store experience for the brand's web presence. The final product was an award-winning website which dramatically improved Kiehl's presence online, resulting in a stronger brand and increased sales.

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