Case: Renewables

Case Study GRIPS Energy

GRIPS Energy is a renewable energy investor and contractor. They substitute fossil-based electricity supply with reliable, affordable, and pre-financed renewables-based systems for companies in emerging markets. Their goal is to foster economic growth and contribute to CO2 reduction worldwide, for which they won the 2016 Finance for Resilience (FiRe) Award sponsored by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

the Challenge

How do we communicate our new service to potential clients and the public?

  • Many new companies in the sustainable energy business offer revolutionary solutions that still need explaining
  • The general public, but also potential customers have not yet heard of such an offering before
  • Management and engineers have yet to look at company and product USPs (Unique Selling Points), value proposition and customer benefits from a customers perspective
  • If messaging is too identity or „mission“-based without a clear focus on customer benfits and CTAs, new companies will lose out on conversion.
  • Finally: Whether it’s completing a purchase, signing up for a service, or subscribing to a newsletter, well-crafted UX writing can influence users to take desired actions, directly impacting revenue.

The Approach

1. UNDERSTAND 

Define goals & target groups, perform competitor analysis

2. IDEATE

Create value proposition(s) & customer benefits 

3. DESIGN

Create and test sample copies & design IA and wireframes 

4. PRESENT

Handover to UI designers and developers

1. Understand

The Objective

Define USPs, customer benefits, and value propositions to create the first content

  • Many of GRIPS‘ potential customers are probably struggling to decide which provider or service is right for their situation. This can be confusing, if the product or service is new or not yet established in the market.
  • So at this point, we need to make GRIPS‘ offering easier to understand and more digestible to potential clients and users. Especially if you are disrupting the market, you should be focussed on customer needs and conversion.
  • Put simply, GRIPS‘ USP, and clearly defined customer benefits, distinguishes the company and their product from everyone else in the market. Customer benefits then need to be translated into concise messaging, UX writing and CTAs to improve conversion.
  • The unique selling point helps to attract and retain customers. This will enable you to tell the whole storyline through all of GRIPS‘ content marketing.

Stakeholder Workshops

In stakeholder workshops with management and engineers we worked on two things: First, all stakeholders work on a common company mission and built consensus around questions such as: What do we stand for? What’s our mission and our contribution to a sustainable future? Second, we defined specific target groups, i.e. potential clients. 

2. Ideate

Interviews

In moderated, in-person interviews with stakeholders with a maximum participation of five people we defined customer benefits and proof points for each previously defined target group.

  • Step 1: Describe your target group
  • Step 2: Explain the problem you solve for your ideal customer (customer benefit)
  • Step 3: List the most important distinguishing criteria
  • Step 4: Define your promise (Make it short and concise)
  • Step 5: Provide proof-points, i.e. demonstrate your benefits in a quantifiable way

3. Design

Test Sample Copy

In a next step, the first copies are created, which are then tested with stakeholders and users/customers alike. 

Stakeholders need to confirm: Do we see ourself correctly reflected in the copy? Is the copy factually correct?

Customers/Users were asked: Do you understand what the product is about? Are your needs and questions properly addressed? Does the product as described here solve your problem?


Low Fidelity Wireframes

A first information architecture and low-fidelity wireframes then provide guidance on how to use the new content in the desired online or offline channel (example here: the website). 

Usually, copy has to be adjusted yet again to fit space limitations, especially for mobile devices.

4. Present

The Result

In collaboration with developers and an additional UI designer, gaps in the content were filled and the final website was set up. 

Check out the final website 

GRIPS-ENERGY.COM