3M Customer Innovation Centers
Unlocking customer value across the globe
From Sweden to South Africa to Saudi Arabia, we’ve designed eight customer innovation centers for 3M, translating the brand values of the technology giant to each culture and market, while staying coherent with the global 3M brand.
Creating Customer Innovation Centers
A Customer Innovation Center is a space where the public can enter and interact with our client’s brand. A strategic narrative is designed to evoke a dialogue through storytelling and hands-on contact with technologies. Our tailored customer innovation centers are executed in an integrated approach using persuasive design, interaction, and interiors to orchestrate customer inspired innovation and a lasting memory for guests. DGI expressed 3M from its core, an innovator that links products, technology platforms, and science with people’s needs. Our goal was to express the brand through an informative and interactive process. DGI has designed eleven Customer Innovation Centers for 3M. Although each CIC has identical 3M values, brand pillars, and technology platforms, they differ as they are culturally adapted for their location. The CICs create customer inspired innovation by actively engaging customers through the use of demo tools and storytelling in order to create remarkable experiences.
For every individual CIC we focused on a three-part narrative strategy that enabled 3M to connect with customers on various levels.
- 3M Works – A dramatic presentation area of discovery to spark curiosity and build anticipation.
- How 3M works – A main innovation space to embrace play and physical interaction. This space allows for interaction with the brand while generating memorable shared experiences.
- How 3M can work for You – A collaborative space to foster open dialogue and design around customer needs.
3M Customer Innovation Center
Italy
In Italy, we worked together with 3M to create both their Customer Innovation Center (CIC), Customer Tecnology Center (CTC) and the shop. These experiential spaces are tools for 3M to engage with their customers, and in transforming their perception from supplier to partner. The Innovation Center highlights the new innovative technologies that 3M is known for. The Technology Center is where companies can develop custom solutions together with 3M. The shop was redesigned to also include a display area. Presentation materials are managed and highlighted with lighting through an iPad by the host.
The spaces were inspired by the experience of exploring a centre of a little historic Italian town. After walking through narrow streets, discovering exciting things along the way, you find your way to a piazza, where you sit down for a cup of coffee and a conversation.
Physical demo tools designed and manufactured by DGI allow visitors to experiment with 3M products directly. By placing objects on the desk, video content starts automatically.
3M Shop
The 3M store is part of the 3M Customer Innovation Center Italy. The 3M store acts as the last stop on the 3M CIC tour to close the loop of the journey. The main space divides into three market areas: Office, home, and leisure. The attention to detail and use of materials gives a feeling of entering a design store and allows visitors to discover 3M as part of their daily lives.
3M Customer Innovation Center
Romania
The 10th 3M Customer Innovation Center designed and implemented by Design Group Italia. The 3M Romania CIC is an interactive journey for guests to discover 3M technologies, products, and market applications that are found in our everyday lives.
