From visual language to a system of valuable services for people
Can complexity be communicated and translated into service in a simple, accessible, and personalized way?
This was the challenge of MWMEMPHIS, a bold visual language that revolutionized HR services for MediaWorld’s more than 5,000 people, across all channels, and which today is considered a corporate standard.
MediaWorld, Italy’s leader in electronics retail and part of the international MediaMarkt Saturn Retail Group, has more than 5,000 employees and over 120 stores: in 2021 it celebrated thirty years of activity in the Italian market and confirmed its commitment to the growth and development of its people, receiving the Top Employer 2022 certificate of excellence for the quality of its many initiatives.
The MediaWorld MEMPHIS project was born to confirm this direction and broaden corporate horizons: together with Human Resources, we rethought services for training and people development, in what we might call a holistic perspective, which required not only imagination and creativity but also a deep understanding of all employees’ needs. The core principle is that people are at the heart of the business.
The corporate philosophy
MediaWorld has always considered it essential to base its market competitiveness and success on people, constantly investing in far-reaching phygital projects to foster:
- The personal and professional growth of every resource;
- Talent attraction;
- Passion for the Brand.
Every initiative for the company population is built on 4 pillars:
- Simplicity
- Accessibility
- Variety
- Personalization
Design is considered a strategic element for implementing every action in a functional, attractive, and memorable way at the same time. From these premises, the story of the MEMPHIS system came to life.
The birth of MediaWorld MEMPHIS
Inspired by Ettore Sottsass’s Memphis design, the concept allows each individual’s personal and professional growth path within the company to be visualized and explored in the form of a personalized work of art. Design is called upon to shape the form, services, and values of a profound change, launched in 2021, that involves the mindset and corporate culture of the entire company population.
A divergent leap in discontinuity with the past
Design was put at the service of Learning Management to create a disruptive experience that went beyond the traditional approach to corporate training: the result is an academy that is always available and accessible without constraints, filters, or barriers for each of the more than 5,000 employees.
The Learning Programme takes the form of multiple training initiatives and development paths made available by the Company through agreements with specialized firms, management schools, training centers, or internally developed projects. The choice of one’s own growth experience is completely customizable.
One of the great innovations introduced by MEMPHIS, in fact, consists in complementing corporate paths, customized based on the needs of each function or professional family, with the ability to freely select the courses to attend: a choice that each person can make based on their own needs, ambitions, or even simply their personal interests.
MediaWorld’s offering also includes courses not strictly related to professional topics but which offer people the opportunity to enrich their knowledge and skills: from mindfulness to healthy eating, from English to Portuguese, Arabic, or Chinese. This too realizes the holistic vision of the person, according to which well-being in one area of life positively influences all others.
The design of a global and pop-up intervention
The design intervention aimed to transform an “infinite” and diversified training offering into a system with simple fruition, online, based on the customizable and immediately understandable visual metaphor of a work of art.
The MEMPHIS Learning Programme was conceived in EYE-CANDY mode through a bold and vibrant visual language inspired by Memphis Design, the international style created by the design and architecture collective founded in Milan by Ettore Sottsass, which has been a source of inspiration across all generations from the 1980s to today.
MEMPHIS is based on the combined use of bold shapes and colors that represent the 4 fundamental assets that make up MediaWorld’s Training and Development Plan, functional for the development of people and business:
- Thematic strands: Milestone, Innovation, Mindset, Women, Diversity, Internationality (colored backgrounds)
- Training paths: local and international (curved and linear paths)
- Training content: mandatory training, product and service, technical, role skills, behaviors, and international (basic geometric shapes)
- Training tools: special experiences of mentoring and sharing (“special” red shapes)
Through the targeted layering of these 4 assets, it is possible to compose different artistic scenarios, tailored for each individual, within each professional family of reference.
Triggering the process of corporate culture change
Starting from this visual coding, it was possible to build an entire system of services and value offering for more than 5,000 people, initiating a profound change in mindset and corporate culture, to put every resource at the center and give everyone the opportunity to develop their interests and talent, without any filter.
The establishment of the new communication standard, in just a few months, gave rise to a complex system of initiatives, still evolving and growing today.
The online platform is accessible and open to all, on any device and at any time, by typing mwmemphis.it and includes the “infinite catalog” of classroom and online courses, accessible in person, via live streaming, and/or on-demand.
Each year MediaWorld delivers approximately 300,000 hours of training, which corresponds to about 8 days for each of the more than 5,000 employees, to which are added – thanks to the MEMPHIS Learning Programme – an additional 3,000 online hours and 5,000 classroom hours available for each person, not counting language courses (over 10 languages) always available to everyone on-demand.
MEMPHIS as an evolutionary system oriented toward the future
A few months after the project launch, following a series of internal checks and positive feedback from the entire company population, the flexibility of the language and its strong identity naturally accompanied the birth of new variations of the concept, giving rise to a true ecosystem, a multiplier of corporate initiatives ranging from the physical to the digital realm.
The visual language, initially used as inspiration for the training system, was adopted as the basis for many aspects of corporate life: it became the design concept for furnishings, materials for daily operations, information totems, onboarding kits, and even a distinctive element for events such as aperitifs and moments of celebration and sharing.
The MEMPHIS system was born, still evolving today.
A lasting value for people
The MEMPHIS system and its evolution are the result of collaboration by a diverse and cohesive team of more than 20 people, which included producer and designer in a synergistic work process that has been underway for more than a year.
The innovation of the design solution emerged from the diversity of skills employed, from the enthusiasm in designing unprecedented solutions, but above all from the boldness of constantly questioning the rules of the game to create lasting value around the individual.
Cultural change is not just about processes: today more than ever, people engagement is a fundamental pillar for organizational growth.
Companies are not abstract entities, but thrive thanks to the commitment of those who work every day to achieve shared goals. MEMPHIS is a catalyst for change at the service of enthusiasm and the desire to learn, a meeting place between those who promote the service and those who benefit from it, because through exchange and participation we can only grow and improve.
This is the starting point for making change happen, but design is nothing without the will, mind, and heart of people!