Image ©Melissa Lukenbaugh for The New York Times
Teaching Walmart Communicators
About Their Employees
Immediately following segmentation, the team was asked to bring the findings to life by creating an unconventional tool and companion video that would teach Communicators — those within Walmart tasked with dispersing internal information to Walmart Associates on both a local and global level — about the three distinct segments within Walmart’s Associate base and the relevant insights to best communicate with each group. Communicators were from all departments within the company.
This new tool would be translated into 9 languages and distributed to Communicators worldwide. Given that Communicators’ working conditions varied greatly (e.g., very small spaces, unreliable signals, etc.), the tool would need to be efficient to produce and ship, self-contained, and not reliant on internet access. With these unique and exciting restrictions, I developed the following two ideas.
The Communicator’s Cookbook
Like music and art, food — and the act of sharing a meal — can transcend cultural differences to become a uniting force. Plus, language surrounding food (e.g., freshness, flavor, what you bring to the table, etc.) could provide a warm vernacular to draw upon.
Inspired by a love of cookbooks and knowing this piece would be translated and distributed globally led me to the idea of interweaving employee recipes and stories among the research findings to add interest, variety, and personality. I created the concept, design, and copy.
A Story About Storytelling
Since the findings shared the story of Walmart’s Associate base and would enable the Communicators to become their narrators, the idea of storytelling naturally came to mind. I wanted this concept to feel warm with artistic touches (e.g., hand-drawn illustrations, watercolor textures, whiteboard-esque video storyboards, etc.) to inspire the creative juices and nod to the Communicators’ artisan craft. I even convinced the client to include a notepad and set of pens.
I created the concept, design, and copy for this idea and tapped our talented in-house illustrator to whip up the custom drawings. Walmart chose this piece, and it was produced, translated, and distributed as planned.
