Discover the City

Discover the City is a project which aims to connect new residents with community based businesses in the Washington, D.C. metro area. It is all too easy to move somewhere new and instead of taking the time to learn the neighborhood and its offerings, just go to Target or Walmart to do your shopping.

Discover the City aims to change this behavior, by providing new arrivals with sample baskets of products, in-store events, and custom guidebooks, all tailored to individual tastes. By providing connections to merchants and the community, Discover the City is more than simply a welcome wagon. These baskets do not include coupons, instead they include real products and gift certificates for services in the new resident’s neighborhood.

Based on the principle that business transactions are composed of three steps – visibility, credibility, and ultimately profitability-  Discover the City aims to tackle the first two. The baskets provide small businesses with the visibility they need to the constituents that have the most to gain – new residents. Credibility is achieved through three sub-decisions: is the merchant honest? are they competent? am I inspired to purchase? By trying out the offerings and meeting the merchants, Discover the City helps the new arrival make these determinations, leading to follow-on transactions.

Full project report available upon request.

Date: Fall 2009
Class: Experience Studio
Contributed to: Secondary Research, Writing, Analysis, Financial Analysis, Concept Development, Ideation