client

Nested Bean

scope

audience insights
audience segmentation
brand positioning
workshop facilitation
product concept generation
brand guidelines

role

project lead
brand strategist
facilitator
communications design
writer

A short-lived connection to new mothers at an exhausting phase. Nested Bean grew rapidly from a single product brand into a trusted partner for new parents. Though well-known and trusted, the brand failed to hold onto audiences. Famous for their sleep sacks, new parents got to know the brand during the survival weeks of new parenthood, but as the child grew, the family distanced from Nested Bean.

To ensure continued scale, they had to address several key challenges; growing competition, increasing CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) and suboptimal LTV (Customer Lifetime Value), limited audience understanding and inconsistent branding and messaging strategies.

To understand the drop-off, I spoke to four cohorts—sleep deprived parents, expectant parents (prior children), expectant parents (first time), and gifters—to understand the emotional journey of parents and how their inner circle shows up for them.

challenge

Understanding that parents are quite busy, we shortened in-depth interviews and supplemented them with video and diary journals to foster self-expression and honesty. Faces have been covered to maintain anonymity.

We assume exhaustion is the worst thing new parents feel—for mothers especially, exhaustion gets in the way of their true ambition: bonding with their newborn. In-depth interviews with parents was deeply emotional; they openly confessed to fears and anxieties about measuring up, about isolation, about feeling disconnected from their child. A number of critical insights emerged:

  1. Parent-infant bonding goes through a transition— from survival and security to growth and discovery.

  2. Optimizing sleep environments alleviates the anxiety and stress of unknown challenges.

  3. Sleep deprivation intensifies feelings of self-doubt and isolation that inhibit bonding.

  4. The ambition behind restful infant sleep is bonding, where touch catalyzes connection.

insight

solution

Rather than focus on exhaustion, which connects Nested Bean to parents only during an emergency phase, we focused on the positive ambition of touch, rest, and growth—or, ‘rest’orative design, creating calm spaces for optimal sleep health. This framing aligns Nested Bean with meaningful connection. Instead of entering a customer’s life during a phase where they lack sleep, they enter to encourage sleep health.

To ensure insights were actionable and practical, I developed five detailed personas, accompanied by a journey map for each that shows the emotions, actions and decisions that happen during three key stages: nesting period, survival period, and thrive period. Using these tools, I facilitated a workshop where Nested Bean’s team generated product, event and campaign concepts in response to audience needs and emotional states. This expanded their product line and created a strong emotional hook for email campaigns, social media, and other external communications materials. I also produced brand guidelines that includes these tools, brand strategy tools, narrative guidance, and a set of values to guide brand behavior.

An example of a detailed persona, ‘cheat sheet’ persona reference, and a journey map that can be refined over time and used to make product and communications decisions.

outputs

Celebrating 10 years in business with a refreshed, connective narrative. Once our collaboration concluded, Nested Bean launched their 10 year campaign. Since then, their branding has shifted from capitalizing on exhaustion to championing sleep wellness.