Thermador Home Appliances

THE CHALLENGE

Transforming the Website User Experience

Thermador, an innovative manufacturer of premium kitchen appliances, sought to increase sales by targeting the emerging culinary enthusiast market segment. In order to appeal to this growing segment, they needed a revamped website that dramatically improved the user experience. First, their old website didn't convey Thermador's brand and product differentiation vis a vis their competitors; in other words, the "why buy Thermador" message was not being clearly communicated. In addition, trying to find specific product information on their old website was cumbersome and time consuming, requiring at least 4 to 5 clicks to get where you wanted to go. Then, once a specific product was finally located, users were confronted with up to six pages of information they had to sift through.

Thermador also wanted to increase customer loyalty by facilitating the numerous decisions purchasers encountered during the long sales cycle typical with high end appliances. Purchase of these appliances often accompanies a kitchen remodeling or construction project resulting in sales cycles of up to a year or more.

THE SOLUTION

	Starting with a No Compromises Development Approach to Ensure the Highest Levels of Functionality and Performance To achieve the level of functionality, performance and ease of use Thermador required, we needed to take a complete grounds-up approach to developing the new website. We developed a custom Content Management System (CMS) to streamline the manner in which the site's content, including product data, is reported, updated and presented. The CMS automatically feeds live product data from the corporate manufacturing system while still allowing staff to selectively add or overwrite content to better communicate product features and benefits.
	Creating an Intuitive and Easy to Navigate Interface to Optimize the User Experience To help customers quickly and easily find the information they require, we developed a unique drop down visual navigation and menu system that allows them to go more directly to the section they need. Thermador offers a wide array of kitchen appliances, and to help users quickly narrow their choices to those that best meet their needs, we employed Dynamic Filtering Mechanism technology. As a user selects various preferred product features and attributes from a menu, this technology ensures that the product choices displayed are quickly narrowed to those that best meet the criteria.
	Facilitating the Purchase Decision for High-end Kitchen Appliances Thermador wanted to ensure they provided assistance to buyers during the often lengthy sales cycle for high end kitchen appliances. Customers must deal with a wide variety of decisions during a major kitchen renovation or construction project, such as layout and design, determining which appliance features they want, finding qualified resellers, and obtaining price quotes. To help facilitate this process, we developed a web-based kitchen planning tool that walks customers through the various decisions that must be made, and offers guidelines and tips for each major decision category. In addition, we also developed a section entitled "My Thermador" which enables customers to create an online "scrapbook" in which they can save product preferences, photos, and any other information they might need to refer to during the planning process. They can also share this scrapbook with others, including kitchen designers and dealers from whom they might seek a price quote. By helping facilitate their customers' purchase decision, Thermador is able to build brand loyalty and improve the likelihood of making a sale.