SimpleTire.com Brand Architecture and Product Strategy

Challenge

Shopping for tires sucks. It’s a convention driven industry and unless you have repeatedly changed your tires or are a self proclaimed ‘car guy’ to know dimension specifics, the buying experience is frustrating as hell. When the SimpleTire team approached Mechanica, we broke down the problems to solve:

Tire replacement is a fragmented and complex experience as consumers transition between online and offline research.
Tire replacement is inherently a low interest, convention driven category. It ain’t sexy, folks.
Audiences are divided, possessing varying levels of knowledge making it difficult to create a one size fits all experience.

SimpleTire’s brand ambition was to challenge the wrongs of tire replacement and gain household recognition.

SOLUTION

Create transformational change within a low interest category defined by imitation, distrust, uncertainty and complexity. To do that, we rearchitected the brand to push the industry forward: Tire Replacement 2.0. Then, committed to designing a world class digital experience that is inherently easy to use and distinctively, different than any other site.

“The only way to be confident in your tire choice when replacing them is through the investment of time. And the only way to alleviate the investment of time is at the expense of confidence. ”

— Guiding brand insight

Process

Prototype user flow design. Click to expand.

Complete brand immersion:

stakeholder interviews
moderated consumer sessions
partner/installer interviews
prototype tests

Stakeholder brand and communication pillar mapping exercise leading to content strategy and tone.

Our research, in partnership with Fahrenheit 451 led to the discovery of 6 different archetypes to target in design and communications. The common element: they use technology to get things done in a better way.