A few of the case studies that we are proud of

1. A few facts
about us
• Since 2000 we have created c.$20bn of top-line value
for clients
• US$60m turnover
• 300+ people
• London, Manchester, New York, Hong Kong and
Shanghai
• Private company – all owners work in the business and
with clients
• Publications - How to start a Creative Revolution
(1998), Sticky Wisdom (2002), How to have Kick-Ass
Ideas (2006), Everyday Heroes (2006)
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2. A few facts
about us
Europe’s Best Place to Work –
Financial Times Survey
2004 & 2005
5
UK’s 8th Greenest company
2008 Survey
Our Ventures Team has launched 10
companies – 4 of which are trading
extremely successfully
We JV with large clients to bring
products to market quickly
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3. Our approach to
innovation

4. Case study
John Lewis Food Hall
The Challenge:
To bring together the best of Waitrose and John Lewis to deliver an inspirational food hall
at the flagship branch on Oxford Street. It needed to set the standard in terms of
customer experience as the market was becoming increasingly competitive.
The Solution:
Working with experts from both John Lewis and Waitrose, we immersed ourselves in the
world of food. Gaining insights from a wide range of customers, store partners and food
experts, we developed and tested a series of propositions to inspire the John Lewis
customer. The final concept celebrates the freshness and quality of seasonal produce in a
stylish environment, showcasing inspirational ranges served by partners with expertise and
passion for food.
The Impact:
The John Lewis Food Hall opened at Oxford Street, London in October 2007. Sales have
exceeded expectations and 10 more food halls are already planned. Brand Republic has
talked of John Lewis ‘raising the bar’ for competitors, and the World Retail Awards named
the format a finalist in the Innovative Format of the Year category
“?What If! were the obvious choice because they’re such great
collaborators. It’s vital for me to work in partnership with creative
agencies, and with ?What If! you are always deeply immersed in
both the insights and ideas you generate together to delight your
customer.”
Diana Hunter - Head Of Merchandising, Waitrose

6. Case study
Boots Pharmacy Only
Helping Boots medicine customers make more informed choices so they buy
better and buy more...
The Challenge:
Buying medicines is often confusing and uninspiring. Product choices are limited - it's
a 'sea of sameness'. There’s no common on-shelf/on pack language to engage,
educate or motivate. This leads to depressed sales and most importantly, customers
purchasing the wrong product for their needs. The category needed to be redesigned
to make sense to the customer, through clear communications, logical adjacencies
and compelling merchandising.
The Solution:
We ran a Go Live! trial over three days at the Reading store, building new
merchandising with the store team on the shop floor, and live testing the new POS
solutions. Having observed and interviewed customers at the fixture to gauge their
reaction to the new design, we then redesigned the communications and planograms
in store overnight, and re-tested the solution the following day. New categories and
even new types of product packaging (e.g. Herbal Pain Relief) were also tested.
Navigation was improved by focusing on the strength of the product, as well as the
active ingredient. Pharmacy Only Medicines (always located behind the counter)
were merchandised alongside OTC medicines through the use of dummy packs.
Improved on shelf communications highlighted major differences between products
e.g. fast-acting vs long lasting and benefits to the customer.
The Results:
Elements of the trial have now been rolled out across Boots within 8 weeks,
generating sales growth in a previously static market of 6%

7. Case study
Manpower
The Challenge:
Manpower is a broad scale recruitment business, and great talent is becoming a scarce commodity. They had
redesigned their physical branches, but the experience was still the same. We were asked to design a consistently great
(and differentiated) customer experience, plus the training for their trainers and their staff to deliver this globally. We had
6 weeks!”
The Solution:
We discovered that the key issue was the competitive nature of the recruitment market. The big driver in their business
was efficiency of interactions. Their process, whilst efficient left a very bad impression on the market. We re-oriented
their experience so it balanced efficiency with relationship building.
The Impact:
The new branch experience is being rolled out globally across 72 countries; it has been cited as one of the top three
objectives for the year by Manpower CEO, Jeffrey Joerres. It will be in all branches before the new design.
“The Candidate Experience Workshop
was dynamic, energizing, and fun. We
gave you the challenge of creating a
different experience for our people and
you delivered that and more. We
believe this will be a catalyst for
reenergizing our brand and re-igniting
the passion of our people. We are proud
to be partners with you.”
Mara Swan - Manpower SVP, Global
Human Resources

8. Case Study - Superdrug
Gotta Have It
•The business problem
•On top of a tough retail environment, Superdrug was losing market share. They needed to compete much more effectively with Boots
which had twice as many bigger stores, and supermarkets which were more convenient and often slightly cheaper.
•The challenge to ?What If!
•‘Currently we’re a crap version of Boots’ Euan Sutherland, CEO
•We need to find a strong competitive point of difference for Superdrug which we can implement across our business to drive growth.
•What was difficult
•The real difference was unlikely to be principally based on price (unsustainable v supermarkets), range (not the space to compete), or
convenience (store numbers / locations leave competitors more able to deliver).

9. Case Study - Superdrug
Gotta Have It
•A bit about our approach
•Starting inside the organisation, we identified what Superdrug believed about itself and then, working with consumers and external data,
exploded some key myths and identified real truths. Gaining the CEO’s belief and passion for the output of this project was key to
galvanising the organisation and making it happen. So, we engaged him throughout the process - for example, meeting with potential
Superdrug customers and even rummaging through their handbags (with their permission of course). The final brand strategy was
translated into a rallying cry that whole organisation could get behind, and the stages of the customer journey that would lead people to
the Superdrug tills. Each stage of this journey was the subject of an Action Generation workshop, developing tangible initiatives internally
and externally to make the brand really deliver.
•The results
•In beginning to action the ‘Gotta Have It’ strategy, Superdrug has turned declining sales into double-digit growth.
•‘All the key beauty categories are showing significant growth and we are definitely eating into Boots share in these areas.’ Gerry Murphy
– Marketing Director ‘Gotta Have It’ concept store in development (2008 news). There has since been a 10% growth across 600 stores.

10. Case Study - eMap
Womens’ Weeklies Go Live
•The business problem
•We helped bring Emap and their customer J Sainsbury together to run a category management and shopper insight programme to
increase distribution of Emap’s key Women’s weeklies magazine titles. The insight, ideas and subsequent impact testing identified an
opportunity for Sainsbury’s that is worth £18m annually.
•The challenge to ?What If!
•Emap wanted to increase sales of women's weekly magazines in Sainsbury's and ‘trade customers up’ to the higher value Emap titles of
Heat, Grazia, Closer and First.. We wanted to attract new magazine shoppers from J Sainsbury’s existing customers, but how could we
also entice shoppers to buy more, better and more often?
•What was difficult
•One of the critical success factors of this project was to bring the expertise from Emap (brand owner), Frontline (Distributor), Sainsbury’s
(The Buying & Marketing Teams) together to achieve something that was possible for all parties to benefit from.

11. Case Study - eMap
Womens’ Weeklies Go Live
•A bit about our approach
•We developed a set of small, but very tangible and powerful ideas, combining a series of small steps that could deliver significant change
in both customer and colleague behaviour. During the course of a three day live in-store trial we were able to test the optimum mix of
these changes with up close observation and having the ability to allow change to happen in a heart beat using our in-house design team.
•The ideas ranged from creating a bespoke magazine holder for your trolley - to get rid of the notion of a crumpled magazine and deliver a
treat to flick through back at home with a cup of tea to creating a 9ft replica of a magazine at the Sainsbury’s store entrance, derived from
the insight that multiple grocer shoppers are on autopilot and just want to get the job of shopping done. On top of this, shoppers
positively avoid what they think of as the 'no-go zone’, and we had to make the diversion into non food slick, good value and and easy
addition to the main shopping mission.
•The results
•In 54.4% increase in volume sales of Grazia, Heat, First and Closer when compared to the last month’s average sales.
•61.4% increase in value sales of Grazia, Heat, First and Closer when compared to the last month’s average sales.
•“These are definitely interesting figures - especially when we learnt that this was not a big week for stories (e.g Posh didn’t leave Becks!)
and that they compare to a 2.93% decrease in women’s weekly sales across the rest of the J Sainsbury estate”.
•‘Customers amazed me that they just don’t get what we get and so much of their shopper process is subconscious’ Phil Melling, Head of
men's, music and retail, Emap.

12. Case Study - Argos
Reinventing Argos Jewellery
•The business problem
•Helping Argos Jewellery reclaim their credentials by redesigning the in-store experience.
•The challenge to ?What If!
•Having eroded its value for over a decade, Argos Jewellery sales were showing steady decline and the brand was losing relevance fast in
an increasingly competitive landscape. Jewellery was a category that had fallen off the radar both at head office and in store. But when a
research report identified that Jewellery was 3x more profitable than any other category at Argos – a battle cry for change was born.Argos
asked us to re-design their Jewellery Experience in a way that truly valued, inspired and forced reappraisal from both existing and new
customers. We needed ‘to stop the rot’ and return Argos to the accessible, quality Jeweller it used to be.

13. Case Study - Argos
Reinventing Argos Jewellery
•A bit about our approach
•We immersed ourselves with 3 generations of consumers and observed their shopping behaviour for all types of jewellery, from
throwaway fashion to lifetime symbols of love. We saw first hand how Argos’ trusted ‘get in, get it, get out’ process, while conducive to the
main store experience, was detrimental to the Jewellery business. Buying an engagement ring and a lawnmower simply demanded two
different experiences!
•Our immersive insights led to several shop-ready ideas that were brought to life in a three day Go Live.
•Here, we re-branded the customer experience to ‘everything you expect from a specialist jeweller (pride, expert service and knowledge,
high quality) – ‘with everything you know you can get from Argos’ (unbeatable value, choice, convenience).
•We recommended they meticulously design a few iconic gestures, including bringing the famous Argos Catalogue to life through a 3D
catalogue that customers could shop, browse and be inspired from.
•The results
•12% sales uplift post trial in test store
•70% of all our ideas have been implemented and will be in 100 stores by year end (2008)
•1 new concept store, 2 refits and 4 refreshes
•As of March 2008, jewellery sales are up 11%. This looks to increase nearer to 22% now that the catalogue has been redesigned. Our
ideas are so easy to implement that they can refresh existing old fashioned jewellery departments for about £5k and Brand Director,
Siobhan Fitzpatrick estimates that 70% of our ideas are being implemented.