Company
$15m+ revenue
400+ employees
Travel
B2C
UK
Launching a new travel brand
Kuoni have specialized in luxury holidays across the globe for over 100 years. A leading provider in the high-end travel sector they noticed growth in a particular area – tailor-made travel.
Several competitors had popped up in recent years focusing on this market, and so Kuoni wanted to experiment with targeting this new type of customer with a new proposition via a dedicated sub-brand brand. From this Alfred& was born and a team was needed to help bring a new MVP to market and test out the new offering.
Perfect for us.
User research
Kuoni already offer tailor-made holidays but it makes up a smaller portion of sales. The new brand needed to be differentiated from the parent offering and more focused on just this type of holiday.
With an impressive level of repeat business from happy customers it was essential to talk to a few regulars who had taken advantage of the bespoke experience.
Booking in calls with happy customers helped us understand the value that Kuoni brings. We also spoke to sales staff who were invaluable for explaining the needs of this persona in detail.
Learning from the competition
With a couple of competitors making great strides in this sector it was really important to work out why they were so successful. We reviewed their products, checked out their reviews and feedback online and reached out to actual customers to discuss their experiences.
We also phoned them up to enquire about some imaginary holidays (sorry, guys!) Direct experience of how they sell and manage their customer onboarding proved one of the most effective ways to learn how they were achieving such impressive growth.
Sadly, we couldn’t afford the dream holidays we planned. 😭
UX exploration
Several rounds of brainstorming had us discussing ways in which we could make Alfred& stand out. We wanted the new site to reflect the Kuoni ethos but use a different tone of voice to get prospective holidaymakers excited about this customised offering.
Kuoni’s competitive advantage is the people who help customers plan their holiday and look after them while they’re at their destination. It’s a big reason why people book time and time again. This needed to be reflected in the design and messaging of the new brand.
We decided to step away from the tried and tested imagery of landmarks, beaches and vistas, instead bringing a human element to everything on the site.
Showcasing experiences
Days spent in relaxation mode, exhilarating activities for thrill-seekers, fancy meals at some of the world’s best restaurants or seeing some of the rarest wildlife in the world a few feet away. The options are endless.
Showcasing them all was massively important. Introducing ways to favourite and share these experiences meant we could get customers interacting with the options before they picked up the phone to speak to a sales person.
The intention was to show the amazing experiences on offer and sow the seed that you’d be creating memories that would last forever (and give you bragging rights at your next dinner party.)
MVP launch and beyond
Going live with three destinations allowed us to test the water.
As with anything new you only start really learning once customers arrive on the site. Our build and plan was ready to adapt to user behaviour with a team waiting in the background to add more content and destinations whenever we were ready to start scaling.
☀️Plan a dream trip with Alfred& ☀️
