Cluster Truck
Infusing Brand Throughout a User Experience
Clustertruck and Studio Science create a new industry standard
Entrepreneur, Chris Baggott, had an idea. While meal delivery services were beginning to take hold in major cities, the user experience was lacking. Cold, late, and low-quality food was the industry standard. And if you didn’t live in a major city, those services weren’t even an option. Chris believed there was a better way. By preparing the meal options in his facility, he could control the food’s timing and quality. He decided he’d create this concept in his hometown of Indianapolis, giving the city an option for meal delivery besides pizza.
Reinventing the Industry
Chris had an existing relationship with Studio Science from his days at ExactTarget and approached us for an end-to-end engagement to turn this concept into a reality. Studio Science would research the market, help map the critical kitchen-to-car vision, create the brand identity, messages, visuals, and perform all front-end development. Chris and his team would work closely with us through every step of the process. By involving Studio Science in every aspect of this project, we created and executed a one-of-a-kind brand.
We began with person-centered research, interviewing the kinds of people who would be likely to use the new service and visiting food truck festivals throughout the city, gauging people’s reactions to different aspects of the experience. We used this research as the foundation for our further work.
We named the new service that would become known as ClusterTruck. The visuals were reminiscent of the food trucks that had inspired the service and the significant shifts occurring in the foodservice industry. The result was an approachable and revolutionary brand. This brand was imbued throughout the front-end development and messages to make customers feel like they were a part of a community–a large part of why food trucks became so popular.
ClusterTruck’s web and mobile experience included innovative features like group ordering through a link or a phone verification sign-up process. The ClusterTruck ordering process is streamlined, efficient, and fun.
Creating a Cult Following
“Clicking through your order, you might start to feel less like you are talking to a computer and more like a very cute and engaging server wearing a denim apron has just visited your cubicle.”
Indianapolis Monthly, July 2016
ClusterTruck launched in 2016 and raised $3 million in capital in its initial round. The service was featured in Indianapolis Monthly and quickly spread to other midsized cities around the country. ClusterTruck has served thousands of customers and has inspired a fanatic core base of customers. Its most recent endeavor is a partnership with Kroger, in the form of Kroger Delivery Kitchen: Powered By ClusterTruck in Carmel, Indiana. This new service brings Kroger’s fresh ingredients with the ClusterTruck model. ClusterTruck continues to grow and redefine the expectations for meal delivery services.