Santa gets a new office: A case-study in using storytelling and service design to redesign a brand anchor

ABSTRACT | This paper presents results from the redesign project of the Santa Claus Office. Following the findings of Prideaux and Glover (2014), this paper finds that while the religious significance has diminished, the celebration of Christmas (in connection with Santa Claus) remains an important tradition and in fact draws visitors from more nations than ever before. This paper further explains how the process of re-designing the Christmas experience, and the physical customer journey touchpoints of the Santa Claus Office at the Finnish Lapland evolved, using a service design approach, combined with storytelling techniques.

Keywords: service design; Santa Claus Office; Christmas experience; storytelling

Lub, X. D., Hover, M., Tuominen, P., Neveu, V., Marée, G., Ouwens, F., Sievers, K., Ascencao, M. P., & Moilanen, T. (2017). Santa gets a new Office: A case-study in using storytelling and service design to redesign a brand anchor. Paper presented at the 4th World Research Summit for Tourism and Hospitality, 8-11 December, UFC Rosen College of Hospitality Management, Orlando, FL.