valyu: Design thinking promotes continuous innovation

The agency for communication and innovation valyu, Düsseldorf and Montabaur, which specialises in brand marketing, was founded in 2015. It works according to the principle of „human-centred brand marketing“: in addition to technical feasibility and economic viability, the focus is absolutely on one person - the consumer.

People, with their needs and behaviour, are the most effective lever for innovation. In order to constantly develop new, surprising and, above all, functioning Business solutions valyu works with multidisciplinary teams according to the method of the Design Thinking. „A good design thinking session is a better team-building exercise than any canoe trip,“ says agency head Marcus Schurf. „We have strong personalities in the creative industry in particular.

This is where creative people with extreme egos meet. Design thinking takes the confrontational out of creative work. You no longer lock yourself away in order to be creative, but instead works together of new ideas. It's still about the best idea, but no longer about who had it.“ The agency has not only applied its principles and working methods to the development of brands for clients such as real,-, Conrad Electronic, toom Baumarkt or Penny international, but also increasingly in all other communicative disciplines.

„Our principle works holistically“ explains Marcus Schurf, CEO and owner of valyu. „Whether strategy, brand design, product development or communication, whether B2C or B2B markets. In the ‚Connected Age‘, we network all specialists with each other regardless of the channel in order to achieve user-relevant value for our customers.“

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Innovation through design thinking

What is technically possible? What is economically viable for customers? These are important questions if you want to help shape innovation today. But the most important factor must not be forgotten: What do people want? Many challenges in the customer's business can only be tackled sensibly if they are viewed from a consistently human perspective.

Design thinking should actually be Innovation Thinking because it is a method for promoting continuous innovation. It delivers immediately realisable, innovative ideas and also shows that everyone is creative. Multidisciplinary teams develop innovative solutions for all areas of life in a repetitive, clearly defined process. Rapid prototyping and a focus on the user, or rather the customer, are what make this method so efficient. Design thinking is used at the Stanford University and on Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) in Potsdam, where the valyu team was also trained.

Sôi - Cosmetics brand with a magnetic effect

One result of such a process is the new cosmetics brand Sôi for the hypermarket operator real,-. In addition to the basic range - shower gel, moisturising cream and shampoo - the brand also offers special products such as body butter and shower sorbet.

The task: „Develop a new cosmetics brand with a high magnetic effect and a surprise effect on the shelf.“ The particular challenge for valyu in creating the brand was to, trust as quickly as possible to the customer. But what do women really want? After all, there is a kind of Girlfriend relationship. And emotional factors such as affection and trust in the brand often determine the purchase decision much more than rational criteria such as price or even a scientifically proven effect. As a private label generally receives little communicative support, the rule „the name is the game“ applies.

During the design thinking process, valyu discovered that the German cosmetics consumer is particularly French-sounding name a great deal of trust. That's why the Sôi brand name was developed and a brand design that attracts attention by means of colour codes. Each range has its own colour code. The decisive factor here is the consideration of the shelf effect: many packages next to each other result in brightly coloured areas.

Sôi shines out from the shelf and magnetically attracts customers. The Sôi brand claim „My beautiful self“ conveys the feeling that the brand is individual, high-quality and seductive. The highlight: the products radiate premium without costing premium. A feat that customers have honoured from day one.

Brand without a name - but with success!

In addition to Sôi, real,- also commissioned the agency to develop a completely different brand: the cheapest brand in Germany. A cross-range umbrella brand was to be designed with over 200 products from fish fillets to kitchen roll and coffee machines. And, as real,- demanded, the brand had to be talked about. Here too, the starting point was the human perspective: what do people expect from a discount brand that is supposed to be the cheapest in Germany? And what do they not expect?

The result: you don't need glossy product images, unusual shapes, colourful distractors or bells and whistles. They simply want to shop as well as possible for as little money as possible. You need the „Brand without a name“. Which dispenses with everything superfluous, but not with an attractive but equally simple design. As the claim so surprisingly and correctly says: „Without frills. Without expensive.“ The decisive factor: choosing the right signal colour to stand out immediately in the large real,- stores. This concept struck a chord with customers without cannibalising other exclusive real,- brands.

Prices thanks to valyu

In addition to a high level of industry attention, there was also widespread media coverage. Award for both concepts Whether premium product, value-added brand or even budget brand, the approach is the same everywhere, the results speak for themselves and win as a logical consequence Prizes. Both a product from the „brand without a name“ in 2014 and the „Sôi Suprême bath pearls Wild Blueberries“ in the „bath & shower products“ category in 2015 were honoured with the PLMA Award.

[infotext icon]Founded in 1979, the PLMA (Private Label Manufacturers Association) is an international trade association dedicated to the promotion of private labels and represents more than 3,500 manufacturers and suppliers from all over the world. The PLMA Award is recognised as the most important prize in the private label industry[/infotext].