Week 6 - Market Research

Today we were introduced to market research and trends.

Primary research is original data, this can be collected by experiments, field study, surveys, prototypes and interviews. It's more complex than secondary but you get one to one information and focus's on prospect companies.

Secondary research is existing data, this can be collected from literature or case studies. It's easier to conduct than primary research, there's a broad understanding and it can help for preparation for primary research.

'Fashion used to come from one source at a time, be it the street, the runways or the entertainment business. The interesting thing about today is that influences come from high and low, everything from couture to target.' - Michael Kors

I really like this quote which was mentioned in the lecture, it is so true and shows how much the fashion industry has changed!

Long term trends include;
Political
Economy
Sociocultural
Technology
Environment
Legal
Demographics

Dominant Megatrends 

• globalisation
• digital
• environmental
• health & wellbeing

Social

• ageless society
• body perfection
• networked society
• personalisation
• globalisation/homogenisation

Technology

• mobile payment
• e-commerce
• price comparison
• QR codes
• wearable technology
• augmented reality
• 3D printing
• personalisation
• live participation
• social media
• apps
• interactive retail
• click & collect

Environment

• environment/globalisation
• closer to markets
• faster/reduced lead times
• more flexible - customisation

Short term trends include;
Brand
Consumer - street, celebrity
Competition - catwalk, in store/visual merchandising, advertising
Media - print, film/tv, music, photography, art
Product - colour, materials, prints, patterns, design

Week 6 - Analysis Of Writing Styles

In our lecture today we just went over how to reference, the London trip itinerary and how to document what we collect in London.

In the seminar we analysed an article called 'Fast Love' from The Sunday Times, we weren't told where it came from until we had finished the task.

What are the main points being made in the article?
Fast beauty for busy women

What key themes, issues or questions are addressed?
What do most women want and need?, Beauty & Time

Who is it aimed at?
Working/busy women

What was it originally published for?
Magazine or Metro Paper

What do you think about it?
A very promotional piece of writing, could be controversial, I think it's weird!

What research methods do you think they have used?
Primary research from the company advertised through interview. There were no consumer views.

Week 6 - Brand Handwriting

Today's lecture I found really interesting, probably because I'm very visual and the power point was very visual!
A brands handwriting can include; colour, pattern, monogram, signature, letter form/font, media/material and product.
We started at looking at brands that use colour as their main feature;

Elsa schiaparelli - Pink - Inventive, Controversial & Playful.
Tiffany & Co. - Blue - Cool, Luxury & Romance.
Liberty - Purple - Privileged, Rich & Rare.
Hermès - Orange - Well Travelled, Equestrian Prestige & Exotic.

We also looked at brands that use print as their main feature;

Paul Smith - Stripes - Eccentric, Witty & Playful.

Missoni - Chevron - Electric, Decorative & Bold.

Emilio Pucci - Paisley - Groovy, Flirtatious & Zestful.

Burberry - Check - British, Heritage & Young Aristocracy.

To end the lecture we looked at brands which use monograms as their main feature including; Coach, Gucci, Dior & Louis Vitton.

In our seminar we created compositions using powerpoint, we had to generate 6 layouts using few elements starting off with an image from clipart and then include blocks of colour and text. Here are the 6 layouts I composed.

Week 6 - Understanding Brand Values

In the lecture we looked at Brand Essence and Values. Brands need to live in the minds of the consumer, the consumer has functional and emotional needs. Brands are all weighed by their value and cost, the functional values are the practical benefits the consumer will be offered by the product or service.
We then looked at a brand essence model, here you can question or create a brand.
We looked at Adidas as a case study, looking at an example of their brand essence model of their different collections including Adidas Performance, Adidas Orginals and Adidas style.

We also looked at Brand DNA, this refers to a brand's distinctiveness, novelty, and attributes as compared to those of the competition. 

In our seminar we looked at our day in the life diaries we had been asked to do over the weekend, I went to visit home that weekend so mine was slightly different to my normal day to day life.

10:30am - Wake up - Next
10:35am - Have breakfast - Nestle
10:45am - Check phone - Samsung
10:50am - Check laptop - Apple
11:15am - Get changed - H&M, Newlook, Primark, La Senza
11:25am - Brush teeth - Colgate
11:30am - Check phone - Samsung
11:35am - Makeup - No7, Benefit, Bourjois, Collection 2000, Rimmel
12:00pm - Go to town - Volvo
12:30pm - Cafe - unknown brands
1:30pm - Shopping - H&M, Topshop, Newlook, Vodaphone, EE, Countrywide
4:00pm - Check Phone - Samsung
4:05pm - Go to grandparents - Volvo
7:00pm  - Go home - Volvo
7:30pm  - Dinner - homemade dinner
8:00pm - TV & laptop - Adverts, Apple
11:00pm - Brush teeth & change - Colgate Simple, Topshop
11:10pm - Go to bed - Next

There were still many brands that I interacted with throughout the day, some came up several times including; Samsung, Volvo, Newlook, Colgate and Next. In groups we looked at each others days and what brands also came up most in theirs. Between our group Colgate, Samsung and Apple came up the most. Until doing this day in the life, I wasn't really aware of how many brands I was actually interacting with in a day to day basis, it's quite scary!

Week 5 - Final Presentation

This week wasn't as normal, on the monday we had a lecture on learning outcomes and then on the tuesday Angi looked out our current moodboard ideas and gave feedback to help us improve them for our final presentations on the friday.

The image below is my final moodboard for the brand Maharishi that I presented on the Friday. Before this brief I hadn't heard of the brand before so I had to do quite a bit of background research on the brand, the main words that stood out to me were urban, pacifist and military. I used a mix of images; Banksy artwork, images of Maharishi's brand, camouflage material, military images and other pieces of urban art. One of my favourite images is the grenade peace sign as I found it very striking and really represented the brand to me.
As well as talking about my own moodboard and the rest of my group talking about theirs we also had to talk about commonalities between them. The brands were Maharishi, Monsoon, Roberto Cavalli, Dianna Von Furstenberg and Matthew Williamson, we noticed that they all used prints and patterns from different cultures for example Monsoon using prints inspired from India.

Week 4 - Segmentation & Targeting

Today we looked at segmentation and targeting, market segmentation looks at the competitor landscape and consumer segmentation looks at consumer landscape.

In our seminar we were given a made up case study about a coffee shop called 'Hot Coffee, Cool Clothes'. We had to read through the case study and discuss how the company could improve and possible change their markets as they weren't being very successful. We made comments about how they had the coffee shop and clothes all in the same room and how that could make the clothes smell and also it would be difficult to relax if people are walking around you looking at the clothes, so we thought that it would be better if they had split the rooms into two. The company did a silly idea of doing very little market research as they only really spoke to friends who are likely to be biased which created most the problems the company had.