From ownership to luxury membership
Brand proposition and platform strategy, client partnership, business transformation, audience segmentation, global research and insight programme, experience strategy and design, innovation design, service blueprint and roadmap, content and activation strategy,
Date: 2020-2023
Agency: Critical Mass
International strategy lead for Infiniti Cars for over three years, providing global account leadership, brand and connected multi-sensory customer experience strategy and content design, pivoting the brand towards a customer centric 2030 vision and reconnecting with luxury positioning.
Created as the luxury marque of automotive giant Nissan, Infiniti Cars has a rich history but was facing a challenging future and needed to reposition itself for the changing luxury buyer. The business ambition was to provide an ownership experience that is amongst the best in the world. The reality was there was little brand differentiation or a shared business vision for the future customer experience across the organisation.
The strategic objective
As the agency strategy lead for international markets for over three years, my role was to define, design and deliver a new brand positioning and and elevated customer experience strategy to differentiate the brand, pivoting the company towards a customer centric 2030 vision and reconnecting with Infiniti's luxury positioning:
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Leading the global strategy development alongside INFINITI Cars senior management and C-suite client teams, providing long-term luxury strategic direction and programmes of work
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Working with global and regional client teams to identify, plan, design and produce five year strategic vision and approach for digital, in-store and in-vehicle customer experience and brand positioning
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Transformative strategies to transform the brand, operation, customer experience and marketing approach across digital, physical, in-vehicle and virtual touch-points and platforms
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Originating and developing new initiatives for multi-sensory omni-channel vision and service blueprint, sonic branding, brand naming architecture, loyalty programme definition and product launch campaign planning
INFINITI Cars
Differentiating the brand through experience
The strategic approach looked to identify areas of differentiation and brand opportunity to ultimately define a unique customer centric approach and service blueprint from awareness to ownership through new services and products, experiences, activations, and content. One that looked to the brand origins in customer experiences excellence as the catalyst for the future.
Key outcomes
Throughout my time working with Infiniti my input was pivotal in a collaborative cross agency and client transition plan for the brand, laying the foundations and the blueprint to achieve the 2030 goal:
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Research, data analysis, insights and market benchmarking to enable a greater understanding of the premium automotive market in multiple global markets
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Auditing the existing business capability to support and deliver the future brand position and service blueprint, to ensure the customer experience would meet the brand promise
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Determining and designing the global customer segmentation, providing cross market audience profiles that informed decision making and design decision making
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New conceptual thinking to outline new products and services through workshop led innovation programming
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Defining the future vision for the 2030 membership experience, road showing across the business through collateral and films
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Developing the multi-sensory strategy for connected membership to differentiate the brand from competitors through signature moments, introducing branded scents, sonic branding, digital hosts and in-dealer relationship managers
