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Barenbrug steps into the shoes of the end-user
The Challenge
Barenbrug is a global leader in grass seed in the livestock farming, sports, recreation and horse farming. For several years, Barenbrug has been responsible for the turf at the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championship. With over 100 years of history, the organization now has more than 800 employees worldwide.
Stay Future Proof and Barenbrug are no strangers to each other. In the summer of 2022, they collaborated to map out the Customer Journeys of different customer segments of Barenbrug Netherlands. This has helped Barenbrug Netherlands to add more value throughout the entire customer journey. Based on this positive outcome, it was decided to apply the basic principles of Customer Journey Design for Barenbrug worldwide.
Mirella van de Sant, Global Marketing Director at Barenbrug Group, has been organizing the Barenbrug Global Marketing Meeting for several years now. This year, all international Barenbrug Marketing Managers were brought together in Toulouse. Stay Future Proof was invited to assist this group for 1.5 days in applying the concept of ‘Customer Journey’ in practice.
Mirella: “We all know what the concept of Customer Journey is, and we can list all the phases of such a journey, but I wanted to take it a step further. I wanted to challenge the Marketing Managers to truly step into the shoes of the end-user and to critically examine our journeys from that perspective.”
For that reason, the Global Marketing Managers talked about an End-User Journey, instead of a Customer Journey.
Stay Future Proof's approach
The road to the Global Marketing Meeting in Toulouse started with an extensive and structured preparation, involving close collaboration between Barenbrug and Stay Future Proof. Stay Future Proof always works in co-creation. Together with Mirella, the challenges faced by the international Marketing Managers carefully identified. Subsequently, the global marketing objectives were discussed. The insights gathered during this process formed the basis for the content of the session in Toulouse, focusing on the End-User Journeys.
Mirella: ‘The alignment with Stay Future Proof was very good. The Strategy Designers constantly ask questions and regularly validate their assumptions to ensure they are on the right track. They continuously validate whether the steps they are taking align with what we are looking for.”
When organizing a multi-day session, the flow of the meeting is very important. This flow is also referred to as the Storyline, as the aim is to tell a clear, structured, and persuasive story. Therefore, the topics of the different days need to be interconnected, allowing for building upon the insights gained earlier.
The Barenbrug Storyline began with a digital kick-off session, bringing together all international Marketing Managers, Mirella, and Stay Future Proof to get acquainted. During the kick-off, the concept of the End-User Journey was briefly explained, discussing the importance of End-User Centricity and introducing the homework assignment. This preparatory task, which asked the Marketing Managers to map out the current End-User Journeys, ensured that the content during the Global Marketing Meeting would be more in-depth. It allowed for gathering the Jobs, Pains, and Gains of the end-users and documenting future opportunities based on these insights.
Mirella: “Stay Future Proof creates space for participants to experiment with the concept so that they can personally experience how to apply it in practice.”
Results
Stay Future Proof has helped Barenbrug to better understand its end-users. By stepping into their shoes, the Barenbrug Marketing Managers identified new opportunities to optimize the existing End-User Journeys and create more value for the end-users.
Mirella: “Stay Future Proof helps you realize that it’s really about the end-user. They help you make the connection with the Jobs, Pains and Gains by truly putting yourself in the shoes of the end-user.”
Additionally, the guidance provided by Stay Future Proof to the international Marketing Managers has brought about a new mindset. They now look beyond just the product and apply End-User Centric thinking in every phase of the journey. This helps identify new opportunities in each phase and create value for the end-user.
Mirella van de Sant
–– Global Marketing Manager | Barenbrug
