The BB&B Registry was a critical business driver for the company and a significant acquisition channel for new customers. The business focus, however, tended to be on products over experiences, and so while BB&B operated from significant intelligence on product assortment, the motivations and considerations that compelled consumers to these products was a black hole.

Partnering with the BB&B research team, Combo strategists developed an innovative research design that set out to construct the first quantified registry journey map the company had ever created. Beginning with extensive shop-alongs with consumers and robust quantitative surveys of prospective, current and former registry customers, the strategy team was able to construct a journey map that identified core friction points and areas of untapped opportunity.

One key finding of the research was that while the BB&B registry targeted engaged couples, the actual needs of this audience began two years earlier when they began cohabitation ©. Because BB&B was missing this window, it was also missing out on the fundamental role of the brand to cater to the basics of home building versus the “upgrade” mindset.

While the consumer still gained a visceral value from creating their in-store or online wishlist, more and more couples had already created their starter homes and were focused on investing in experiences more than products—an area that was absent from the BB&B registry.

While reinventing the registry was an objective, not all components of the registry journey were broken. Combo helped identify the three core areas of the journey for investment that would yield the greatest impact and then developed solutions that demonstrated the type of investment that could yield the greatest return.