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Research, Strategy & Innovation

An ASX 100 client called us the ‘from and to’ people. We like that. It refers to our ability to help clients that have long delivered a product or service in a particular way to conceive, create and commercialise products and services and sell them to customers; existing and new. We execute end to end.

Customer Research Customer Interviews Market Research Ideation Innovation Strategy Design Thinking Workshops Innovation Execution Go-To-Market Commercialisation

Case Studies

Carzoos

An entirely new way to buy and sell used cars and a global-first in used car retailing.

Awarded Most Innovative Company of the Year (Global) at the 2017 International Business Awards.

My Big Tomorrow

Australia’s first useful careers website for high school students.

My Big Tomorrow has been awarded for its effectiveness, including 1 of 9 global User Experience Design Awards.

Thank You Australia

An Australia Day campaign for the NSW Government resulting in national attention.

“Engagement with the campaign content on social blew everything else we’ve done out of the water.”

Strategy

Growth doesn’t just happen. It’s the result of a very carefully thought out strategy married with the patience and courage to stick to it.

We help our clients create successful strategies for growth. Here’s how:

Understand

Get a clear understanding of the business plan and the commercial goals.

Research

Ask the right questions of the right people (customers, non-customers, sales staff, marketing – anyone who can shed light on the customer problem and the real needs of the customer).

Solve

Solve the real problem – i.e. discover and create what the customer wants to buy not necessarily what our client wants to sell.

The Village of Useful are a high quality, high calibre organisation with a superb ability to look at challenges through a different lens and come up with unique, innovative and pragmatic solutions. We have thoroughly enjoyed working with the team.

SG Fleet

Innovation

Corporate innovation means moving from an old way of doing business to a new way of doing business. From old products and services to new products and services. From a traditional customer experience to a new customer experience. From an existing customer to a new customer. We help companies make the transition and commercialise innovation. 

Some of our innovation clients utilise our full suite of services. Others just require one or two services, like strategy or user experience (UX) design. On the journey of conceiving, creating and commercialising new products and services, typical engagements include:

Conceive

Innovation strategy – Research and strategy for new products, services, experiences and business models.

Create

Bring it to life – Branding, service and retail design, large-scale UX, website and technology implementation.

Commercialise

Find the most efficient means of reaching the right customers – Customer experience, marketing strategy and advertising.

Results

  • Australia’s first useful careers website for high school students, created for the University of Newcastle after extensive consultation with students and teachers. This resource has been globally awarded for its effectiveness and is used by high school students, counsellors, teachers and parents Australia-wide.
  • An entirely new way to buy and sell used cars, and a global-first in used car retailing. Carzoos was named worldwide ‘Most Innovative Company of the Year’ in 2017.
  • A shift from price to lifestyle as the sales strategy for the Pacific Dunes residential estate, created for RCL Group after a customer research study. This strategy resulted in a 65% reduction in marketing investment coupled with a 104% increase in sales.