Christmas Gift Ideas for Home & Design Lovers.

Just a few gift ideas if you’re looking for something a little different to give to a house proud friend or a design geek.

1.  Orla Keily teapot £55 - www.orlakeily.com.

2. ‘Deezen Book of Ideas’ and ‘London Design Guide’. ‘Deezen Book of Ideas’ is full of unique ideas covering architecture, interiors and design. The ‘London Design Guide’ is great for tourists or people wanting to explore the capital it identifies the hotspots you won’t want to miss out on. Get them both for £20 - www.dezeenbookofideas.com

3. A weekend away in one of Living Architectures amazing holiday homes. The Balancing Barn in Suffolk by MVRDV architects sleeps 8 people. Prices for a mid week break are around £759. - 

www.living-architecture.co.uk

4. Charles & Ray Eames Rocker can be found for around £400 – www.vitra.com

5. Is That Plastic butter dish £24.50 - www.theo-theo.com

Feel Good Final Advert - Storyboard.

I recently posted a blog about my groups final advert for 'Feel Good'. This is just a quick post to show our final story board images and a few images of the app we came up with that goes along with the ad campaign.

Using the 'Feel Good' app you can play traditional games such as pears and bowling. Here's how it could look on an ipad or iphone.

When you're a winner you will receive a ticket. Players go to the 'Feel Good' website to cash in their points to donate money to 'Maggies Cancer Research' or to get a token for money off a bottle of 'Feel Good'.

Mock up of website incorporating app.

Lastly I've included an image of our idea to make 'Feel Good' stand out in the supermarkets. The 'Feel Good' fridge.

Burger King – New Interior Identity.

Burger King Singapore has had a makeover. ‘Outofstock’ were commissioned by Burger King Asia specific to design a new look for the interior of their takeaways. The design was intended to be welcoming, appealing to families with children, teenagers and not alienate existing customers.

Whilst researching the Burger King brand the words ‘flame grilled’ kept reappearing. ‘Outofstock’ took these words as a starting point for their design associating this with BBQs, camping, family picnics they came up with the idea of the ‘BK Garden’. The interior was then designed to imitate a garden.

Exposed brick walls, metal framed wooden dinning tables, and sofas upholstered in outdoor materials have been used. Plants are scattered around the restaurant, a roof trellis hides the exposed services and posters of the food have been framed and placed on wooden shelves. Plant pots have also been used as pendant lights to add to the garden theme.

Whilst creating a welcoming atmosphere this new design also creates a new image for Burger King. The garden theme, through the use of healthy plants and natural wood creates an image of healthy eating. The pictures framed in the store show the freshest tomatoes, these little touches would make customers think the food they are eating isn’t bad for them. In today’s environment where people are becoming more conscious of the foods they are putting into their body restaurants like Burger King that don’t sell healthy food have to have a new image for customers to buy into. It might not actually be healthy but it certainly has to look it.

As I was looking at this design I came across some of ‘Outofstocks’ sketches of it. I really like this style even although the drawings are cartoons they still look realistic and explain their ideas well. 

‘Feel Good’ Final Advert Idea.

The ‘Feel Good’ brief asked us to create a campaign that communicates their brand name, what their drinks look like and that their drinks only contain natural ingredients. The main problem we found with the product is its childlike image. It’s too similar to the other fruit drinks at the moment and it’s too young for the people they are targeting, the 16-34 year olds. As a group we feel that the idea we have come up with fulfils the brief and addresses these problems.

Our advert will still be fun but in a way that appeals to the 16-34 age group. Instead of cartoons we have designed a TV. advert that involves a ‘Feel Good’ fruit machine being placed in a town centre. Passers by will then be seen going to the machine and pressing the feel good button where they will always win (you’re never a loser with ‘Feel Good’). They will receive prizes such as ‘Feel Good’ drinks, balloons, bubbles… The machine is intended to ‘spread the feelgoodness’. A crowd will gather around the machine and it will turn in to a street party of sorts. The final scene of the ad will show the ‘Feel Good’ drink on top of the machine with fresh fruit beside it, the background is blurry with people having a good time. An ideal channel to show the advert would be E4 or Channel 4.

Storyboard ideas 1

Storyboard ideas 2

The fruit machine will be colourful and will have the ‘Feel Good’ logo on it. The part that spins will link a picture of a piece of fruit, a drop of water and the words no sugar, to show what’s in the drink, this will be the winning combination. Also written on the machine will be ‘100% natural’.

Not only will this be a TV. ad but to raise awareness of the product several machines will travel around the U.K. being placed in different cities where people can participate in the fun.

The ‘Feel Good’ website will have a similar game on it where players can collect points which can then be turned into vouchers for money off their next ‘Feel Good’ drinks purchase.

Supermarkets will be given displays which will be set up in store for a period of time so that the product stands out to customers. The displays will be in the shape of the machine so that customers recognise it and link it with the TV. ad.

Sketch of possible supermarket display.

This campaign is fun in a grown up way which will appeal to the target audience. As it’s not too childlike it won’t be a problem when trying to introduce their new cocktail range. It makes the product known as the adverts will create a buzz and have people talking about it. The message of what’s in the drink comes across through text and pictures in the ad and the drinks bottle is clearly shown. Those who get the chance to play the machine will get to taste the drink. The ‘Feel Good’ brand will be associated with ‘feelgoodness’ hopefully making people want to drink it.

'Feel Good': Personas

Who drinks 'Feel Good'? As a group we came up with a few different personas of the type of people who drink 'Feel Good'.

Gary
Age: 19

Occupation: Politics Student

Hobbies: Mountain biking, jogging and going to the gym regularly.

Gary enjoys socialising with his friends and getting good grades at uni. He enjoys his politics course. He's always trying to keep his family and friends happy.

Louise
Age:25

Occupation: Accountant

Hobbies: Shopping, reading a good book in her local park, going to the gym and going out for dinner with friends.

Louise has a busy lifestyle, she's a recent graduate and has just started her first job working as a trainee in an accountancy firm. After work she has a glass of wine to relax or invites friends over to her flat which she is currently renting in the city center.

Sue
Age:27

Occupation: Full time mum

Hobbies: Entertaining friends and socialising with other parents at family groups.

Sue is extremely health conscious since becoming a mother. She does her best to cook healthy meals for her family.

John
Age:30

Occupation: Electrical Engineer

Hobbies: Socialising, going out with friends for a few drinks, watching football.

John has his own house and lives on his own. He tries to be healthy but feels he doesn't have enough time. He gets the occasional take-away. When he's not working he's spending his money on the latest gadget.

'Feel Good': Competitor's Adverts

I've been trying to get some inspiration for my groups 'Feel Good' advert. So I thought I'd look at some of its competitors ads.

'Drench'.

This advert is for 'Drench' water, its fruit juice ad is quite similar as it's very random and focuses on the fact you can perform better after drinking it. I really liked this ad featuring Brains from 'Thunderbirds' just because I found it funny. I remember seeing it at the time but didn't realise it was for 'Drench' so I'm not sure it was effective in doing its job properly since I have never had 'Drench' before. However it would get people talking about it.


'Volvic Touch of Fruit'

A colourful ad showing people enjoying themselves and full of energy it's implied that this is because they drink 'Volvic'. A clear shot of the 'Volvic' bottles and freshly cut fruit shows the viewer exactly what the product is, what it looks like and what it contains (although this may not be the whole truth added sugar isn't mentioned). I like the way this is the final image as the viewer isn't left confused wondering "What was that ad for again?".

'Tropicana'

I love this ad just because it makes me feel happy, I'm not sure why. Maybe because it reminds me of holidays and perfect breakfasts. I'm a 'Tropicana' drinker. 'Tropicana' have the advantage of advertising this way because orange juice is more of a breakfast drink. Targeting people by focusing on 'Feel Good's' USP will hopefully help us.

Music features heavily in these three adverts and I think it gives a friendly, upbeat, happy vibe. So maybe our 'Feel Good' ad should have some music to it, we are trying to make people feel good after all.

'Innocent'

This ad is very simple but effective. The 'Innocent' carton is shown in natural surrounding on healthy green grass. It's then joined by what the drink contains showing viewers what it is.The last shot is of its different packaging so viewers will then recognise it in the shop. The whole ad sums 'Innocent's' brand.

'Feel Good': Ideas Wall

We have now started to think of potential adverts. We gathered around a blank wall then sketched whatever ideas came to us and added them to the wall.

We then selected a few of our favorite ideas that we felt we could work on a little more or help generate new ideas. 

 Some of our ideas....

'All you need is  Feel Good'. Person pictured with a bottle of 'Feel Good' having a happy life. shows the joy it brings.

An apple on a date with water having fun when a bottle comes out of nowhere and squashes them together inside. This creates the juice in the bottle. 'Capture those Feel Good moments'.

'Feel Good Fridays'. This ad would show an office situation where the workers are drained of energy. A 'Feel Good' drinks trolly passes by a desk hands a drink to an employee. After he drinks it his grey face changes he now looks energised. The whole office is now buzzing. 'Thank Goodness for Feel Good Fridays'.

We were still thinking of staying with the cartoon style that 'Feel Good' already has as they do want it to be cheeky and fun. However we think that it shouldn't be as cute as it is at the moment as this seems to be aimed at much younger people than their target audience.

Hmm... still more work to be done I feel. Group meeting later so hopefully some more ideas will emerge.

What makes you Feel Good?

As a group we did a quick brainstorm on what makes us feel good then what makes us feel bad. We did this in the hope that it would help us come up with some good advert ideas. It did in fact loosen us up a bit before we began on our ideas wall.

                                     

Family, friends good food, t.v and home comforts were the main thinks that make us smile.

 Surprisingly thinking up things that make us unhappy was more difficult. Bad drivers, annoying people, spiders were a few of these.

‘Feel Good’ USP.

What is the Unique Selling Point of ‘Feel Good’?

Other drinks as well as ‘Feel Good’ give you one of your five a day. But ‘Feel Good’ is different from the rest as it is 100% natural and contains no added sugar. As a juice drink this is uncommon. Competitors that look like healthy fruit drinks such as ‘Vitamin Water’ and ‘Drench’ contain way over 20g of sugar. Check out the Donut-O-Meter below.  

‘Feel Good’ doesn’t disguise itself it is what it is, fruity

‘Feel Good’ …Research.

Meeting up with my group again we decided to do some more research.

Questionnaires were made up to give us an idea of the lifestyles of people who drink juices like ‘Feel Good’.  We asked their name, age, occupation before asking them; to tell us a few words that describe their lifestyle, what they do to keep healthy, if buying healthy drinks is important to them and which one they buy and why. We also presented them with a sheet of paper that showed the ‘Feel Good’ logo and the logo of its competitors to see what they recognised the most and if they’d ever heard of ‘Feel Good’. The majority of people we asked said they mainly drank water or orange juice if they were being healthy. If they were to drink any other type of drink it would be ‘Innocent’ as they think it’s good for them. A few people had tried ‘Feel Good’ before as it happened to be there when they were buying a drink. However no one bought ‘Feel Good’ on a regular basis even though those who had tried it enjoyed it. I still feel the main problem is that people can’t easily get their hands on a ‘Feel Good’ drink. Something I’m interested to look at next is how other juice companies started, how they managed to get retailers to stock their drinks and become well known to the consumer…

As a group we drew up another perception map this time looking at a drinks price and its quality, high-low. This again showed ‘Feel Good’ in a crowded area.

The ansoff matrix was used to help us identify how the product stands at the moment and where or what opportunities there are for it.

Advertising and Branding Exam Brief.

As it’s getting to the end of the semester we have been given our exam brief for the Advertising and Branding module. We were asked to choose one subject out of a selection which included ‘Heinz Salad Cream’, ‘i newspaper’ and ‘Peacocks’. After looking at all the briefs my team and I decided that we would work together on ‘The Feel Good Drinks Company’.

‘The Feel Good Drinks Company’ offered two different briefs; we have gone with brief one. Brief one ‘Make us Famous’  is to create a campaign that makes the brand well know by communicating the brand name, what the drink looks like and that the drinks are full of natural, tasty fruit. It has to be done in a unique, memorable way that makes people laugh. We all agreed on this brief as we thought it seemed like a chance to do a fun advertising campaign with an interesting product.

We started  by doing a bit of  individual research, then getting together to brain storm the ‘Feel Good’ product and company. Looking at their website and previous adverts we see that they have a childlike cartoon style which we feel is overdone in the healthy fruit drinks sector. Their target audience is 16-34 year olds but it seems their adverts might appeal to a much younger group of people.

Finding a bottle of ‘Feel Good’ is a difficult task unless you go to a large supermarket but even then there are just a few flavours stocked. On a trip into the town centre the product was only found in ‘Costa’.

The taste test… I enjoyed the drink however it wasn’t what I expected. As it’s advertised to be made from real fruit and an advert I watched showed the fruit being squashed into a bottle, I expected it to taste more like a smoothie. It tastes like diluting juice or flavoured water. Maybe exactly what the product is needs to be shown more clearly in its advertising, this may attract those who don’t like smoothies but like a healthy fruit drink.

SWOT Analysis and a Perception Map were then undertaken on the information we had collected.  We found its main strength is that it’s a healthy fruit drink that doesn’t contain sugar. Weakness is that not many places stock it. An opportunity could be found in point of sale, having it widely available and in a place customers will notice it. Also they could change their bottle to stand out from competitors as they have similar bottles. A crowded market is what threatens this product.

Our Perception Map was drawn up based on drinks, pricing High- Low, and how healthy it is. The healthy fruit drink market is quite crowded at the moment we need to target the market in a different way from ‘Feel Goods’ competitors to stand out.

What’s Next: more mapping, analysis and surveys. 

Christmas Smells & Sounds = Buy, Buy, Buy!

For as long as I can remember Christmas has been associated with scents and sounds. From the angels singing while the wise men gave baby Jesus frankincense and myrrh, to the smell of cinnamon and the jingle of sleigh bells today. As it’s coming up for Christmas shops have started to decorate but it’s not just for the warm fuzzy feeling and the enjoyment of their customers that they do this. Most retailers depend on strong Christmas sales every year and by dressing their store up they increase their profitability.

‘It’s beginning to smell (and sound) a lot like Christmas: the interactive effects of ambient scent and music in a retail setting’ an article by Eric R. Spangenberg et al. looks at the effects of ambient scent and music on a customers evaluation of a store, it’s environment and merchandise. The article compares customer reactions in a mock retail setting where no Christmas scent vs. Christmas scent and no Christmas music vs. Christmas music is applied. They found that Christmas scent buying effects are moderated by music. Customers react better when scent and music are combined equally. Where there is scent but no music stores evaluations are lowered. Shops need to keep scent and sound consistent or there will be no affect on a customer’s behaviour. Therefore it is a wise choice for shops to evoke the spirit of the Christmas season by implementing environmental cues and creating a welcoming, pleasant atmosphere.

“results suggest that wise retailers can act upon this lesson by blessing their customers with synchronized sound systems and scent diffusers, and in turn receive the blessing of strong holiday sales.”

It would be interesting to see whether or not this theory works for other holiday seasons such as Halloween or Easter. Also if it’s not Christmas would Christmas scent and sound still make you buy? Probably not as other factors would be missing such as, time of year and general holiday spirit. However different scents and sounds may be capable of increasing profit. In the ‘Hollister’ shop for example there is a distinct smell and music is played loudly throughout the store. Most people enjoy this especially the smell. You can smell the store before you see it so it is instantly recognisable, the clothes inside are sprayed with the signature scent so when you buy something and wear it for the first time you remind other people that recognise the smell of the brand. The shop then has extra items to sell as customers can buy bottles of perfume or the CDs that are played.

Scent and sound is a very clever non intrusive way to encourage people to buy, most of the time you won’t even notice you’ve been affected. I guess it’s the same as when you smell a Starbucks coffee then suddenly have to buy one.

Do Store Interiors Make You Buy?

I’ve currently been reading articles about the interior design of stores and whether or not it increases sales. Does a shop layout, environment, visual merchandising and interior design make people buy? It has been proven that it does. In today’s market where competition is fierce the design of a shop is where some companies would be able to gain an edge over their competitors. A shops atmosphere can attract customers and keep them coming back.

Andrea Groeppcl-KIein and Dorothea Baun test this theory in their journal ‘The Role of Customers’ Arousal for Retail Stores- Results from Experimental Pilot Study Using Electro dermal Activity as Indicator.’ They agreed with other experts such as Donvan and Rossiter that a pleasant store environment generates arousal and pleasure in the customer which in turn increases; shopping enjoyment, time spent in the store, a willingness to talk to personnel, chances of customers spending more money than planned and their probability of returning to the store.  However they felt that other articles simply measured this on a verbal scale which may not generate accurate results. They propose to use Electro dermal Activity (EDA) to measure a customer’s arousal in a store. EDA is a sensitive indicator that responds to the smallest variation in a person’s arousal.

They set up two different grocery stores in Austria both selling the same products, of the same quality and price.

Store 1 took into account environmental psychology. The fruit and veg were presented in a large scale in deep carriers and separated according to colour. Some products were placed on islands in the middle of the store. Exotic fruit, flowers and fresh herbs were used as eye catchers. The store was bright, spacious and high ceilinged.

Store 2 did not take into account environmental psychology. It wasn’t very bright and there was no extraordinary product presentation unlike store 1. Shelving was put along side the wall and display tables were in rows squeezed within long narrow aisles.

As they thought Store 1 created a higher arousing environment.

So, why does a more pleasant environment make us want to buy or revisit a shop?  Well an interesting and provocative store design affects the part of the brain involved with filtering sensory information from the central nervous system. All sensory information enhances arousal which therefore causes activity and reactivity in the central nervous system. This increases outer and inner stimulation which leads to higher activation and activity. Basically a pleasant store atmosphere evokes positive feelings which will then be associated with the shop and the brand. Stores with clear and simple structures make people feel relaxed therefore more comfortably in the store. When we are comfortable, relaxed and enjoying ourselves we are open to buying.

I know that I’m definitely affected by a stores design there are some shops I dread going into and rarely buy from because the shop is messy, unorganised and overcrowded. Shopping is more pleasurable for me when it’s a calm experience. I like stores that aren’t busy or noisy, that smell nice, have their items laid out clearly, and changing rooms that aren’t claustrophobic. This makes me want to buy; the whole experience feels like I’m treating myself from the moment I walk in to when I leave with my item nicely wrapped and bagged.