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.