Tommy Bahama
Journey Audit and Mapping / Experience Design / Merchandising
Their Hawaiian button-up may be forever, but their F&B strategy is a moving target. That’s where we came in.
The full-service Tommy Bahama restaurants have a legacy in hospitality and craft, creating an oasis for fresh, quality food in mall destinations across the country. As the brand grows, it seeks to create a more casual, bar-centric F&B experience for its guests, where both shoppers and locals can grab a quick drink and bite in a fast-casual format. And so the Marlin Bar was born. But a limited-service model was new for the company, and guests at the flagship location experienced confusion with the concept and procedures. In close partnership with Tommy Bahama, we worked to design a guest experience strategy for future Marlin Bars that is just as seamless, oasis-inspired, and mai tai-motivating as their legacy precedes.
The Opportunity.
Our Insights.
The success of Marlin Bar hinges on delivering the feeling of vacation and relaxation but in a fast-paced, dynamic environment. There was an inherent dissonance between the level of hospitality and ‘sit-back-and-relax’ ethos Tommy Bahama is known for and the level of effort and participation expected from guests in a bar-first, order-at-the-counter concept.
Our Activities.
We conducted a comprehensive guest journey mapping exercise to identify the major pain points in the Marlin Bar experience and the opportunities for evolution. Then, we created a series of guest ‘interventions’ that can be used in the space to facilitate the journey — i.e. signage, product merchandising, culinary theatre and freshness cues. To prove the concept, we championed the interior design strategy and architectural sets for a prototype location in Las Vegas, leveraging the learnings from our robust guest journey audit to design a truly immersive Marlin Bar oasis.
The Results.
Today, the Marlin Bar has grown from an experience to increase customer dwell time, to a business that rivals the retail units themselves. Our designs for the customer journey have been implemented in multiple units across the system, bringing island spirit across the USA. Aloha!
