Case Study

Coral

brand + product launch, big box strategy, tech-disrupter positioning

When you’re launching a tech company, you have to ask what makes you different? Tech is an expensive field, and breaking through the noise is difficult. It’s even harder when you’re trying to disrupt an industry with a huge incumbent. This was the challenge I undertook with Coral.

Coral is a home robotics company. They make robots for the household. Our goal was to turn Coral into the leading disruptive brand for robotics. However, there was one large competitor that held the majority of the market share, iRobot (who had a marketing budget of over $200 million annually). Taking on the Goliath would be a monumental task. I teamed up with Coral to help them make a fairly adept slingshot.

A NEW Generation

HUMAN CENTERED

Coral had enlisted the help of several agencies to help organize a coordinated brand launch: Bruce Mau Design, Hello Design, Varick Media, and HL. Each had its own speciality for building brands, ranging from visual design to PR. However, to make sure that these agencies worked coherently, I was the point person in coordinating a single brand and creative direction with a team of 50 people.

The first thing to pinpoint was the brand's mission and the visual direction of the brand. Coral had to be a different type of tech company. Most robotics companies focused on the technological specs: speed, power, battery life, etc. However, they did not focus on the human aspects of the technology: human centered design, ergonomics, accessible pricing, sustainable manufacturing practices, ease of use, etc. Coral embodied all of these newer approaches to product design and landed on the following brand position.

Core technology philosophy at Coral.

The promise.

Then came the visual design. With the democratization and accessibility to good design, the brand landscape began to form a sea of minimalism “sameness”. Brands like Everlane, Warby Parker, and Away all had great design, yet their aesthetic approach was similar and blended in many ways. If you scroll through an Instagram feed of just D2C brands, all the images appear to belong to one user handle.

To be a clear differentiator from other new tech brands, I pushed for a bold and loud visual direction. It was clear that making a statement, even with the visual, needed to be compelling. Below is what we came up with.

This bold direction also carried over to the photography. Instead of just having the robot be modeled renders and feel stark and cold, I had the art department style the robot in a more integrated lifestyle environment, evoking more emotion in each still.

CoRPORATE STRATEGY

THE MANIFESTO

Building a new brand and a new company means unifying a team. With Coral being a sum of many parts (a manufacturing team in Taiwan, a sales and brand team in the United States, and several marketing agencies) it seemed difficult to have everyone work in alignment. However, if everyone had a creed that they followed, a core company manifesto with the same mission, values, and goals, working in tandem would be possible and encourage good communication.

I decided to create The Atlas, Coral’s company manifesto. It contains the values, mission, and design principles of the company that unify what Coral means. This Atlas was handed to every member of the company, from a freelancer to the CEO.

PRODUCT & PACKAGING DESIGN

CREATIVE DIRECTION & UX

Before I joined Coral’s team, the product and design team had already begun developing prototypes of their first robot: The Coral One. It was a robot vacuum that also doubled as a powerful handvac. It was autonomous, self-charging, and also the most powerful robot vac in the world. However, its initial industrial design was less accessible to a non-tech-oriented consumer.

To help make the Coral One more accessible to a wide range of customers, I worked with the design team to add inspiration from approachable tech influences: Apple and Pixar’s WALL-E. Both Apple and Pixar were able to use character design to create personality in the tech, and this is a quality I wanted the design team to harness. Below you can see the transformation of the preliminary prototype to the final product.

The 5th prototype of the Coral One.

The production model.

In addition, I wanted to elevate the demand of quality at Coral. For most robotics products and vacuums, including the high-end Dyson products, a cheap plastic was used. Although these plastics were barely robust enough to be used as daily household appliances, their quality paled in comparison to, say an Apple iPhone case. Working with the designers and core manufacturers, I helped hone the overall product design aesthetic to develop the same exterior and interior quality as any Apple product while maintaining a healthy profit margin per unit.

The user manual was another part of the experience I wanted to change. Too many tech products have manuals that are difficult to understand, encouraging people to throw them out before even opening the product. To combat this behavior, I developed a simple wireframe system for the user manual that echoed the design principles of LEGO and IKEA instruction manuals. You can view it below.

Another important user touchpoint is the packaging. Even though we normally throw away the box after we get something new and shiny, we have an intimate and memorable experience with the packaging. From the “fffff” sound iPhone boxes make, to the glorious open-book box encasing a Hermès bag, you remember the special moments to reach your purchased goody. To create a magical opening experience, while keeping a low manufacturing cost, I sketched a few concepts that considered these factors. The design team created prototypes and we worked with the packaging manufacturer to get it right. After several iterations, the final packaging was completed.

Preliminary concept drawings.

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Iteration.

3D mockup.

Final packaging design.

LAUNCH STRATEGY

PR, AD CREATIVE, EVENTS, EXPERIENTIAL, & INFLUENCER MARKETING

Starting with 0 brand affinity, Coral needed to make a big splash. In reality, making a big splash means making several splashes. The beauty of the internet and social platforms is that you can pick highly targeted methods of splashing to form the largest wave.

On the PR front, Coral needed to have one of the major publications announce the debut of the company and its core product. Working with HL Group, the team was able to secure an exclusive with Gizmodo. Next, Coral needed to have as many tech magazines out there to review the product. I worked with HL Group on a 3-city press tour to present prototype units to top editors at Conde Nast, the New York Times, Forbes, and more to build hype for Coral as well as guaranteed review spots for the highly chaotic Quarter 3 tech season. The tour paid off, gaining a quote from WIRED:

“Gorgeous, easy to use, and powerful… Thoughtfully designed.”

Another avenue to gain buzz was with working with influencers. With a limited budget, I had to cherry-pick influencers who could hit the core demographics of potential customers for the robot. Working with HL’s Influencer team, I coordinated a 6-influencer PR plan over 8 weeks, generating stills and live media content that had a reach of over 51 million uniques. These efforts prompted magazines such as allure and Harper’s Bazaar to feature the Coral One on their holiday list.

As the final glue with all of the online efforts, Coral needed offline events. Working with a suite of partners, including Eataly, the New Stand, WeWork, Westfield, and Momofuku, we launched in-person public and private pop-ups in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City.

Pop-up at Brookfield Place with the New Stand.

Pop-up at Via 57 West with the New Stand.

CES & THE GATEway to big box

CREATIVE & BUSINESS STRATEGY, SALES

With the combination of developing the brand, product experience, PR accolades, social hype, and in-person buzz for the brand, I unveiled my secret plan to the team of why we did all of this— to win the CES Innovation Award. CES is the biggest gateway for any brand to enter the tech market. Since its inception, thousands of companies from around the world have attended CES to meet new clients, vendors, distributors, etc. It’s a place of business, but more importantly, it’s a place of opportunity. If Coral could win one of the coveted awards, it would lead to prime placement in an otherwise crowded environment that would have demanded hundreds of thousands of advertising dollars to grab any attention.

Within 2 months of launch, Coral received the CES 2019 Innovation Award in Robotics.

With this accolade and all the accomplishments in Coral’s arsenal, Iwas able to establish key stakeholder meetings at CES with big box buyers from Best Buy, Walmart, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Kohl’s, QVC, and Amazon. Within 3 months of debuting at CES, I organized a 2 week-sales tour to meet with all of the big box reps and buyers, negotiating contracts and sales terms for Coral. Within 3 months from debuting at CES, I was able to secure online and in-store placements of Coral’s products in all of the big box retailers.

At the end of 2019, Coral reported $22 Million in sales.

E-Commerce and Web UX

CREATIVE, UI, UX

Despite Big Box retail being a huge sales funnel for Coral’s core business, e-commerce on its own personal platform was just as important. With the rise of D2C, educated and brand-savvy consumers are used to and sometimes prefer purchasing directly on a brand’s site. This brings a wealth of challenges, both on the e-commerce side, and logistics.

After working with the first iteration of its D2C platform, Coral needed to repurpose its website to become a high-powered content delivery site to inform a consumer, as well as a converting shopping site for new sales. Working with a lead developer, I led the creative direction to as what is now the Coral website. The site emphasizes and highlights the striking photography and visuals of the product, as well as motivates the user to explore and shop Coral’s products.

MEDIA - ADVERTISING

CREATIVE & ART DIRECTION

Below are 2 national media campaigns I launched with Coral. The first video is the disruptor campaign. The second is a fundraising campaign.