Wednesday, 18 April 2012
FMP Interview...
One of the final outputs for the FMP has to be a business interview with a key figure in the fashion retail industry. It needs to be presented in a format similar to that of a fashion business magazine.
As a subscriber & avid reader of Drapers I made the decision early on that this was the magazine I wanted to tailor the interview to – more specifically their ‘This Fashion Life’ weekly feature – which interviews a figure of industry & questions their role, issues they may face & trend info.
To compliment my project & be of real use to me it was clear I would have to speak to a John Lewis Menswear Buyer, who could hopefully give me a real insight in to the way the business operates & what is the ‘John Lewis way’. My first thought was to interview Peter Ruis (head of John Lewis Buying) and a name everyone in fashion recognises. I constructed a short list of questions & attempted to get in contact – several times! As a John Lewis partner I’d hoped this would give me the upper hand & I was able to email him direct. However after two weeks & three attempts to contact him I realised it was a lost cause. He’s a busy man & admittedly it was a long shot thinking he’d have time to answer a student’s questions. So I researched other John Lewis buyers & I found Carsten Skovgaard.
Carsten is the Men’s Casualwear Buyer, & with a history at John Lewis as well as Harrods I knew he’d know his stuff! He replied to my email the very next day & provided in-depth & at times humorous responses that have given me a real insight in to the John Lewis Buyer’s way of thinking. Below is a screenshot of my final interview copy, which at this point is the sole final output of this project I have completed – it can only get better from here!
Now on to the next...
Tuesday, 27 March 2012
Slow Progress...
Just a quick update on the FMP, which admittedly is coming along slowly at the moment due to the lovely weather - & lack of motivation. I seem to be stuck in a rut due to knowing what I want the outcome of the project to be, I just can't bring myself to get there right now.
My last tutorial of the term was on Thursday, & whilst it did prompt me to consider ideas and things that need to be done soon-ish, nothing has quite materialised yet. There seem to be so many other aspects of the project as well as the final outcome, ie. producing a poster, completing a professional interview, a reflection log etc. it's all become a bit daunting. But after a day or two of reflection and list-making I think i'm about ready to get back in to the project.
My aims for the next couple of days include completing sketches for the new concession design, producing some mock-ups of possible poster designs & exploring new forms of technology that could be incorporated in to the brand. This should keep me busy!
My last tutorial of the term was on Thursday, & whilst it did prompt me to consider ideas and things that need to be done soon-ish, nothing has quite materialised yet. There seem to be so many other aspects of the project as well as the final outcome, ie. producing a poster, completing a professional interview, a reflection log etc. it's all become a bit daunting. But after a day or two of reflection and list-making I think i'm about ready to get back in to the project.
My aims for the next couple of days include completing sketches for the new concession design, producing some mock-ups of possible poster designs & exploring new forms of technology that could be incorporated in to the brand. This should keep me busy!
Monday, 12 March 2012
Mr. Porter
Whilst attempting to fully enter the development stage of my FMP, I have decided to get more organised. Whilst I know what I want to achieve & i've been thoroughly organised throughout the first stage of the project - the research - I guess I took my eye off the ball & didn't put much consideration in to the development phase & how i'm going to get to where I want to go!
Today has been put aside to make some sort of plan. A timeline has been requested from a tutor, & whilst it has induced major panic, I admit it's a logical idea & is starting to really help me. Now whilst the timeline is still in it's early stages, ie. only taking me up to the end of the week (because I got excited & distracted as per usual) already the panic has died down a little & I am much more focused.
Today has still involved research, even though the key aim is to develop my ideas. The point of focus today is the new concept for the website. One final output of my project I want to achieve is redesigned web content - to differentiate the brand from others on offer at John Lewis. There is one key menswear etailer that is a personal favourite of mine, & one that I look at regularly even though I can't purchase anything! That website is Mr Porter, which at only one year old has become phenomenally successful & changed the way in which men can shop for fashion.
Below are some screen shots of the website;
The website contains a great deal of additional content alongside the products on offer, such as a weekly magazine, essential products, style advice, classic style icons etc. I believe this content gives such a lot of added value & provides the consumer with a feeling of a real shopping experience - something that can be very hard to achieve as an online retailer. Mr Porter offers an extensive amount of help & guidance to the consumer, without being patronising or condesending. The layout is simple yet still evokes a feeling a luxe - I really love the design background being black text on white, yet additional content reflects an old-school gentleman's club vibe.
I would certainly like to take aspects from the Mr Porter site & somehow implement them in the redesigned area of the John Lewis website. I particularly like the way the brand has attempted to provide a multi-channel experience to the consumer - through the site, print and an Iphone app - even though it has no physical store presence. I believe that the customer I am targeting would appreciate this added value to a brand.
Today has been put aside to make some sort of plan. A timeline has been requested from a tutor, & whilst it has induced major panic, I admit it's a logical idea & is starting to really help me. Now whilst the timeline is still in it's early stages, ie. only taking me up to the end of the week (because I got excited & distracted as per usual) already the panic has died down a little & I am much more focused.
Today has still involved research, even though the key aim is to develop my ideas. The point of focus today is the new concept for the website. One final output of my project I want to achieve is redesigned web content - to differentiate the brand from others on offer at John Lewis. There is one key menswear etailer that is a personal favourite of mine, & one that I look at regularly even though I can't purchase anything! That website is Mr Porter, which at only one year old has become phenomenally successful & changed the way in which men can shop for fashion.
Below are some screen shots of the website;
The website contains a great deal of additional content alongside the products on offer, such as a weekly magazine, essential products, style advice, classic style icons etc. I believe this content gives such a lot of added value & provides the consumer with a feeling of a real shopping experience - something that can be very hard to achieve as an online retailer. Mr Porter offers an extensive amount of help & guidance to the consumer, without being patronising or condesending. The layout is simple yet still evokes a feeling a luxe - I really love the design background being black text on white, yet additional content reflects an old-school gentleman's club vibe.
I would certainly like to take aspects from the Mr Porter site & somehow implement them in the redesigned area of the John Lewis website. I particularly like the way the brand has attempted to provide a multi-channel experience to the consumer - through the site, print and an Iphone app - even though it has no physical store presence. I believe that the customer I am targeting would appreciate this added value to a brand.
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
Trip to London
In order to conduct some primary research myself & a coursemate decided to take a daytrip to London. The main reason for my trip was to visit the recently revamped formalwear section of the House of Fraser Menswear department in Oxford Street.
I'd read about the revamp in Drapers & seen pictures - it looked incredible! The theme was an old-school 'gentleman's club' and I was interested in seeing how they had achieved this. The department has had rave reviews in industry articles, and House of Fraser have decided to roll the concept out to more stores, with Glasgow already completed. I was interested to see whether the shopping environment could create such an experience and added value that the customer enjoyed visiting the store and wanted to purchase there.
There was a lot of information to take in, more than I can put on here, so I took my tutor's advice & decided to do a Drapers style shop report. This will mark out of 10 certain aspects of the department such as product mix and visual merchandising, and take an indepth look at what works and what doesn't. The shop report is coming together nicely (ie. it's almost done, seems to be taking far longer than expected - as everything FMP related seems to do) Below are just a few images from the department - I particularly loved the lushious deep brown leather armchairs, mahogany furniture and mirror plated chest of drawers...
Everything from the wallpaper to the lighting emitted a feeling of old fashioned luxury, and the products were well displayed and easy to navigate. This kind of department layout is definitely something I could take inspiration from - I want to redesign a concession area in John Lewis and this kind of thing, to me, is super exciting!
I'd read about the revamp in Drapers & seen pictures - it looked incredible! The theme was an old-school 'gentleman's club' and I was interested in seeing how they had achieved this. The department has had rave reviews in industry articles, and House of Fraser have decided to roll the concept out to more stores, with Glasgow already completed. I was interested to see whether the shopping environment could create such an experience and added value that the customer enjoyed visiting the store and wanted to purchase there.
There was a lot of information to take in, more than I can put on here, so I took my tutor's advice & decided to do a Drapers style shop report. This will mark out of 10 certain aspects of the department such as product mix and visual merchandising, and take an indepth look at what works and what doesn't. The shop report is coming together nicely (ie. it's almost done, seems to be taking far longer than expected - as everything FMP related seems to do) Below are just a few images from the department - I particularly loved the lushious deep brown leather armchairs, mahogany furniture and mirror plated chest of drawers...
Everything from the wallpaper to the lighting emitted a feeling of old fashioned luxury, and the products were well displayed and easy to navigate. This kind of department layout is definitely something I could take inspiration from - I want to redesign a concession area in John Lewis and this kind of thing, to me, is super exciting!
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
Research Research
I guess the starting point for any kind of project, if you want it to have any real relevance, is to conduct different forms of research. Secondary research is a great (and fairly easy) place to start - to see what other people & organisations have already found out. Primary research can be where it starts to get tricky, yet rewarding if the research does in fact back up your view that what you're doing is correct!
My FMP is all about menswear. Why men buy what they buy & why they shop the way they shop. What motivates them to purchase? Do they want something that isn't currently offered to them? The starting point of the project was to re-brand a menswear brand within John Lewis - currently named 'John Lewis & Co' (I say currently because I think it's a brand name with no imagination, it's too wordy & shouldn't contain the name of it's owner brand!) At the beginning it seemed fairly straight forward - re-brand it. Make it more interesting, change the instore layout & design. Simple. But after researching for what seems like an eternity it has become apparant to me that simply changing these small details won't make a great deal of difference to the male shopper. So much more needs to be done to interest the male consumer & excite him. So now there is much more scope within the project to explore new technology, new marketing methods, new product possibilities etc.
Primary research gave me a great, albeit slightly concerning, insight into the male mind. A questionnaire was the starting point for primary research, a quick & simple way to question a wide range of consumers free of charge! The questionnaire gained 50 responses & was then closed to enable me to read the results easily - although one quesion only has 49 answers which is proving to be a nightmare to calculate % responses!
The second method of primary research undertaken was a focus group - which I am now in the slow process of attempting to write up & make relevant to the project. Five male friends & co-workers were kind enough to give me around an hour of their time wednesday evening last week to help me understand a little more about the way in which men shop. Their ages ranged from 17-26 which in turn provided a difference in opinions & ways of thinking. The participants, as we now shall name them, also differed in occupation - from college student to retail manager. Each participant cited a different brand as their favourite place to shop, & each had their own opinions & reasonings as to why they shop the way they do. As tragic as it may sound the evening honestly was so interesting & insightful - & is now proving to be a great help paired with both my previous primary & secondary research.
It is now seeming to all come together quite nicely, thankfully! Another key research method undertaken last week was a trip to London - which will be explained later....
My FMP is all about menswear. Why men buy what they buy & why they shop the way they shop. What motivates them to purchase? Do they want something that isn't currently offered to them? The starting point of the project was to re-brand a menswear brand within John Lewis - currently named 'John Lewis & Co' (I say currently because I think it's a brand name with no imagination, it's too wordy & shouldn't contain the name of it's owner brand!) At the beginning it seemed fairly straight forward - re-brand it. Make it more interesting, change the instore layout & design. Simple. But after researching for what seems like an eternity it has become apparant to me that simply changing these small details won't make a great deal of difference to the male shopper. So much more needs to be done to interest the male consumer & excite him. So now there is much more scope within the project to explore new technology, new marketing methods, new product possibilities etc.
Primary research gave me a great, albeit slightly concerning, insight into the male mind. A questionnaire was the starting point for primary research, a quick & simple way to question a wide range of consumers free of charge! The questionnaire gained 50 responses & was then closed to enable me to read the results easily - although one quesion only has 49 answers which is proving to be a nightmare to calculate % responses!
The second method of primary research undertaken was a focus group - which I am now in the slow process of attempting to write up & make relevant to the project. Five male friends & co-workers were kind enough to give me around an hour of their time wednesday evening last week to help me understand a little more about the way in which men shop. Their ages ranged from 17-26 which in turn provided a difference in opinions & ways of thinking. The participants, as we now shall name them, also differed in occupation - from college student to retail manager. Each participant cited a different brand as their favourite place to shop, & each had their own opinions & reasonings as to why they shop the way they do. As tragic as it may sound the evening honestly was so interesting & insightful - & is now proving to be a great help paired with both my previous primary & secondary research.
It is now seeming to all come together quite nicely, thankfully! Another key research method undertaken last week was a trip to London - which will be explained later....
Tuesday, 21 February 2012
Lets Crack On...
Yesterday was another catch-up seminar - to monitor progress with tutors. And I was so pleased to find that it has left me full of motivation & willing to 'crack on' & do well. This week will be a productive one!
The project as a whole is still really in first gear - research is still taking up the bulk of my time but i'm now starting to will it all to move on & get the opportunity to be a little more creative. The project is all about rebranding & so i'm now feeling the need to stop reading info on a screen & start sketching & colouring in!
This Friday primary research will move to London, where i'm excited to go & visit the Menswear department in House of Fraser, Oxford Street. The formalwear section was renovated at the end of 2011 in to the style of a 'gentleman's club'. The images i've seen have really prompted me to think what other department stores could do to make the male shopping environment more appealing. My visit will involve taking lots of sneaky photos & observing the kind of customer shopping in the department. I'm fairly convinced that in some respects i'll take the way House of Fraser has done things & mould the ideas into my own project.
Exciting stuff!
The project as a whole is still really in first gear - research is still taking up the bulk of my time but i'm now starting to will it all to move on & get the opportunity to be a little more creative. The project is all about rebranding & so i'm now feeling the need to stop reading info on a screen & start sketching & colouring in!
This Friday primary research will move to London, where i'm excited to go & visit the Menswear department in House of Fraser, Oxford Street. The formalwear section was renovated at the end of 2011 in to the style of a 'gentleman's club'. The images i've seen have really prompted me to think what other department stores could do to make the male shopping environment more appealing. My visit will involve taking lots of sneaky photos & observing the kind of customer shopping in the department. I'm fairly convinced that in some respects i'll take the way House of Fraser has done things & mould the ideas into my own project.
Exciting stuff!
Wednesday, 15 February 2012
The Start of Something New...
This blog now represents the beginning of the end - how scary. The idea is for this little page to compliment the 'Final Major Project' which has now become the main focus of life. The final element of third year & the last piece of work to be completed at university - good lord.
Although not to get bogged down in details & the scariness of it all - the beginning is the exciting part. Being able to construst a project solely of our own making, writing our own brief & doing, simply put, whatever the hell we want. The only real rules I have taken from what needs doing is...
It should be something you enjoy; something that can showcase your talents & passion for a subject. All key skills should be demonstrated & perhaps even new skills should be learnt.
Exciting stuff. And for me the idea behind the project was always obvious - MENSWEAR. Something that in the past year, mainly through being employed as a Sales Assistant in a Department Store Menswear section, I have grown to really love. Men's clothes now fascinate me, everything from the cut, colour palette & classic style. And what I really want to do, because I always think I know best, is design - or redesign - a Menswear brand, so that men are offered what I think they want & need.
Although not to get bogged down in details & the scariness of it all - the beginning is the exciting part. Being able to construst a project solely of our own making, writing our own brief & doing, simply put, whatever the hell we want. The only real rules I have taken from what needs doing is...
It should be something you enjoy; something that can showcase your talents & passion for a subject. All key skills should be demonstrated & perhaps even new skills should be learnt.
Exciting stuff. And for me the idea behind the project was always obvious - MENSWEAR. Something that in the past year, mainly through being employed as a Sales Assistant in a Department Store Menswear section, I have grown to really love. Men's clothes now fascinate me, everything from the cut, colour palette & classic style. And what I really want to do, because I always think I know best, is design - or redesign - a Menswear brand, so that men are offered what I think they want & need.
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