Camp Organic, Las Vegas, USA
`Many tools analyse customers, but do we really understand them?. We observe customers from a distance, through two/way mirrors or in black and white PowerPoint presentations. Too often we read the statistics, make assumptions, and produce. We don´t observe, think or most importantly feel. We´ve stripped `empathy` from our vocabulary... we feel we had to go the next step, and really challenge our people and our way of thinking. We found Cynthia Hathaway to help us.` Mark Kingdon, CEO, Organic
Hathaway Designs provides creative consulting services to companies in search of new methods and insights for product development and how to connect to existing and new customers. Designing custom-tailored lectures and immersion exercises, Hathaway provides companies alternative tools for customer research and marketing whist also providing ways to develop customer-centric corporate cultures.
With Organic Inc., a North American leader in Internet Marketing, Branding and Communication, Hathaway developed Camp Organic, a two-day creative boot camp in Las Vegas — also the epicenter of consumer desire. Hathaway designed a dynamic program of persona development, empathetic branding strategies and immersion exercises for employees from all five locations and departments of the company. Various support products were designed by Hathaway, including a workshop booklet, with 50 pages of inspirational material on design, trend forecasting and communication strategies. Teams of 8 were assigned one of the “seven deadly sins” and a demographic target. Each team had 36 hours to rush around the city Las Vegas (including its suburbs) to find people who fit the profile. And as they say, truth is stranger (and more wonderful) than fiction, incredibly a person that fit the profile was always found. Once they understood their target, team members were asked to consider how the sin drove consumer behavior and used that insight to develop a marketing plan for a product like a car, a watch, or a lifestyle magasine.
In this case, what goes on in Vegas definitely does not stay there. For example, the findings
of Camp Organic influenced the 2005 interactive campaign for Daimler Chrysler’s Jeep Spring
Sales Event in Canada, where Organic used casually shot videos of real people talking
about why they loved their Jeeps.
It's success continues, and `Camp Organic´ has been active since 2005, sending more than 150 employees per year to Las Vegas.
Thanks to those amazing "Campers" at Organic, including Mark Kingdon, CEO, Troy Young Head of User Experience, Colleen DeCourcy, Chief Creative Officer and Cara Masucci, Senior Coordinator Marketing Events Organic, and Organic's many outstanding employees who certainly earned their Camp Organic badge!
www.organic.com