Brief 5: Wickes Live Brief - First hand research

To gather as much as first hand research as possible to gain a better understanding of how wickes colour selection currently works we took a trip there. A few of the members of staff mentioned that some people spent to much time coming back and forth which can be quite a stressful experience. He also said the audience is often made up of people doing DIY work, families, couples etc. Usually workers/ builders will quickly pick up large tubs of magnolia. (This narrows down our target audience.)

There are a variety of finishes, satin, matte etc. which we never before realised. Dulux offers a mixing section however wickes do not. For smaller rooms we must consider the light + space feature which is on selected tins of paint that help enhance smaller space to make them seem bigger. The employees seemed to know a lot about the colour selection process but given that there is no expert as such in the area and the staff members are few and far between in the big warehouse, customers may not always feel confident choosing colours but also going home and painting their rooms.

We thought of a few functions that could be a part of our future ideas:

- Calculator to help dictate how much paint is needed depending on room size
- New systems for finding the colour
- An application which helps you narrow down your search quickly
- Taking inspiration from Rolls Royce experience a small room to help you decide
more space for actual testers and putting paint to paper. 

-An application which allows you to imagine it within your room.

After an interview with one of the members of staff, who seemed to be more managerial than the rest he mentioned that:

- The system in place currently is not the best
- Its expensive for the customer
- People have to come back and forth often which is stressful and expensive in both time and money
- Wickes don't have the same system as dulux which creates inconsistencies- Although there are Dulux rollers allowed to use in store, only some stores supply the means of testing these out such as paper.

- Tradesman doesn't choose unique colours, its mostly DIY families.

Ideas 

- As a group, we have decided to focus in on a bespoke experience for the consumer one which will allow them to engage with the colours through digital screens.
- An application will lead them from start to finished deciding on the colour scheme for there room. 

- The program will subtly understand their needs, paint types and amount of paint needed.
- The system will sit within a showroom set up situated in a cosy corner of the warehouse, away from the visual noise of the rest of the equipment.

Our idea focuses on a bespoke experience for the consumer.