Rebranding a Financial into a
Social Impact Consultancy

WEB RESPONSIVE

Company: Cèdre (consultancy)

Role: end-to-end designer

Project for Designlab UX Academy

Overview


Cèdre, once a versatile Financial Consultancy firm catering to diverse businesses, embarked on a transformative journey under the visionary leadership of CEO Roberta Coutinho. 
Embracing a newfound commitment to social impact, the company is now resolutely dedicated to empowering social impact enterprises.

Challenges

  • Establishing a Niche

  • Building Visibility

  • Building Trust

Goals

  • Understand Cèdre's New Business Model

  • Define Target Audience and Reach Strategies

  • Redesign Website for New Positioning

Creating Cèdre's new brand Identity

NEW FOCUS, NEW LOOK.

Process


Discovery

Cèdre's transformation journey is a work in progress, guided by CEO Roberta Coutinho's quest for the ideal business model. 
Following insightful internal interviews, we have crystallized the company's newfound purpose:

Helping businesses to be financially sustainable to change the world

Challenges

Defining Cèdre's
Identity

Attracting the Right Audience

Scaling with
Excellence

This project primarily tackled the initial two challenges, with a primary focus on creating awareness for the reimagined Cèdre.

Creating Public Awareness

I've categorized awareness into three pillars - customers, strategy, and content.

1



Customer Journey Map and Persona

Previous cases

Past successful engagements 

and case studies

In alignment with our prior discussions, Roberta Coutinho and I have crafted a customer journey map while pinpointing the persona she envisions as an ideal future client: social impact startups in need of specialized support to manage cash flow complexities.


Affinity

A strong rapport and alignment in earlier interactions.

Social medias

Articles Sharing

Self-promotion

Collaborative Alliances:

Forge partnerships
with complementary entities to amplify
reach and impact.

2


How to become known?

Strategy

Competitive Analysis

I conducted market research to gain a comprehensive understanding of how other social impact consultancies position themselves.

Key takeaways

Case studies displayed

“I need to trust the consultancy will solve my problem”

Pedro, startup CEO

Through a series of in-depth interviews with C-level executives and entrepreneurs, I identified four key factors influencing their decision-making process:

Use of color and images that evokes Social Impact feelings

Good use of CTAs

Information well structure at the homepage

Solutions or methodologies well displayed

In an interview with a Marketing Strategy expert, we explored strategies to enhance Cèdre's visibility and credibility. Key takeaways included:

Market Understanding:

Knowing the niche audience facilitates targeted and effective actions.


SME Interview

3

Customers

Whom to show Cèdre to?

Customer Interview

What and where to show?

Content



References

Recommendations 
and word-of-mouth endorsements.

Case 

Development:

Identifying ideal customers and offering flexible payments is a winning approach

Content and channels

Cèdre's website

From Customers and SME interviews, I identified what content can generate credibility, trust, and attract customers, and which channels should be used to achieve potential clients:

Previous cases

Cèdre's Methodology

Testimonials

Cèdre's Expertises

Technical Expertise

Demonstrated
proficiency in

relevant areas.

Clear Value Proposition:

Continuous validation
of Cèdre's values is
crucial as new cases emerge.

Designing Cèdre's new website

PROFESSIONAL, SUPPORTIVE, RELIABLE

Design

Design Process


Task flow and Feature Roadmap

Cèdre's intricate customer journey has been streamlined to focus on initial interactions, aligning with the goal of gaining recognition and attracting clients.

A feature roadmap maps out content and CTAs to enhance public awareness and trust, ensuring an effortless website experience.


Wireframes


Style tile

Derived from a Mood board, we carefully selected the imagery, colors, and fonts that best encapsulate Cèdre's revitalized identity.

Usability Test


Goals

  • Evaluate user perceptions of the new Cèdre website.

  • Uncover any overlooked content or information


Participants

Cèdre's CEO

1

Target audience

4

General audience

4

Website's tone

Trustable (1)

Friendly (4)

Professional (4)

Visual designer

1

Suggestions


Outcomes

First impressions

It is a social business (7)

It is a humanitarian org (1)

It is a donation website(1)

Utilize positive outcome-oriented images.

Implement empowering customer-centric text.

Delivery

Final Version


Homepage

For the final version, I offered Roberta some design options meeting UX/UI standards. I structured content to highlight Discovery stage insights, aiming to build credibility, trust, and customer attraction.


About Us page


Our services page


Our cases page


Curatorship page

Conclusion

The project reaffirmed our progress toward our goal: fortifying our new positioning and introducing Cèdre to prospective customers.

The redesigned website incorporates fundamental elements to engage and retain new clients. Cèdre is currently shaping its business plan, with Roberta leading the content development for the site.