What if Williams-Sonoma stores teamed up with colleges to host cooking classes in the local college parks?
Give back to students learning not only in the classrooms but also learning just to keep themselves alive. This can also be a group-building experience; after cooking we would have a long table where everyone can sit and eat their delicious creations!
Project Background
Current Brand Strategy
Currently, Williams-Sonoma user demographics are slowly declining. With the lack of need for brick-and-mortar stores and malls. With malls being the company’s largest outlet and outreach, the brand needs to better connect with a younger demographic to not only ensure the growth of the brand but to also bring the brand into current times.
Connecting to the younger generations of adults will allow Williams-Sonoma to continue doing business and start consumer relationships with people at more pivotal times, and help them to learn skills that will not be forgotten. Making loyal customers is the way to keep businesses relevant, which in this case is very much necessary. We need to make people want to come into the stores for the experience and to do that we need to create that business-consumer relationship by bringing the experience to them.
Consumer Journey
See flyer around campus/hear about it
Sign up for the event on microsite
Get the tickets
Go to the event
Cook a meal with a trained chef
Eat the meal with some friends
Take home left overs (in reusable container) and the take home apron
Project Executions
1- Cookware Line Extension
To make this brand more accessible to the new demographic, we would also need to expand, and design a cookware line. It would be the best course of action to make the new line a lower-priced option specially marketed to this demographic. It could be marketed alongside the event as well.
We need to keep this line pretty minimal and keep to the basics. the line consists of a whisk, a mixing spoon, tongs, a spatula, a universal pot, and a universal pan.
2- Venue Design
We wanted to make the venue and event feel cozy and fun! The string lines allow you to see what you are doing, but also give a warm nostalgic vibe to the event! We also have two large screens next to the chef’s station to allow everyone to be able to clearly see exactly what the chef is doing during the presentation and be able to follow along.
mockup of event
table layout (2 people at each table)
take home goodies
event signage
3- Microsite
The microsite has a fresh and light design, with bold and colorful vegetables. The microsite has a smooth booking process for the events and shows you exactly what campuses have events and when. The site also advertises the cookware line extension and links to the main Williams -Sonoma page for easy purchase. The see the full microsite design click the button to see a full prototype.