Urban Inspiration: “Your Coolest friend’s new place!”

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Wandering around Urban  Outfitters, for its customers, is like wandering around your coolest friend’s  new pad – their bedroom, their living room, their record collection, their kitchen and most importantly their wardrobe.

 

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The defining attraction of Urban Outfitters is its distinct personality expressed through its often random but always eclectic mix of fashions, home accessories, music and novelties. It is impossible to resist  picking up things that you have not seen before or rediscovering old favourites that you just can’t help touching  again.

The total experience reflects the very  specific taste with innovative and unusual display techniques in a store environment which is all about curiosity and exploration. Store materials and fixtures are often unfinished or distressed giving a feeling of newness and anticipation.

That being said the Urban  Outfitters store is a successful commercial proposition which cleverly combines best selling and profitable lines with strategically selected curiosities, image makers and locally  sourced ranges appealing the regional taste. The brand mix is a careful balance of traditional good sellers such as Levis and Dockers and the more risky but eyecatching new brands which are the core of its proposition.

“Commerciality and novelty in a world of curiosity and exploration.” An inspiration for us all.

 

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“UFO lands in NYC!”: Uniqlo’s Universal Appeal

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Uniqlo is on an  international mission from its Japanese heartland to become truly an  international fashion destination. It is already the 4th biggest fashion  retailer after Inditex, H&M and the GAP.

 

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The new 5th avenue store is  as impressive a brand statement as you could ever wish to see. The store is  spread over 4 floors which are used to create a jaw-dropping entrance where the  full store height is awash with colour and excitement.

The customer is taken on  a definitive journey, firstly up 3 floors on an escalator into the sky. The  customer then enters the main store through an illuminated corridor where best  sellers, classics and image makers are presented with enticing graphics and  flashing LEDs.

The collection is displayed  through a series of rooms where the product grouping is still largely in the  traditional Uniqlo categories.

However silhouettes are brought together on  mannequins and focal displays and the collection also includes coordinated  themes for women.

Hero categories have special status such as the mezzanine  floor dedicated to the Uniqlo T-shirt and displays in museum fashion all of the  designs and characters that have been used on the T-shirts over its  history.

Uniqlo is developing a  multichannel presence where its focus is currently to create an international  fashion community.

On websites and mobile platforms an international audience  recommend and model inspirational ways that customers can mix and coordinate the  range of Uniqlo classics and new fashion pieces.

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Watch this space. you won’t be able to take your eyes off it!

“Gone Fishing!”: Satisfying Eddy’s Eclectic Taste!

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In one of the strongest  retail sectors in the world which has spawned such benchmark companies as Crate  & Barrel, West Elm, Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn with their precision space planning & slide rule  store presentation, there is another homeware retailer whose apparently chaotic store  environment masks an equally shrewd commercial strategy.

 

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Fish’s Eddy feeds the growing  appetite for vintage, individual cookware products as an antidote to modern mass  commercialism and product standardisation.

The company has grown from a raid on an  old china factory which offered a wonderland of sample plates, distressed and  odd pieces and unique seconds. The collection has grown with the addition of  cutlery, linens and an array of household jars, accessories and utensils.

Rather than dictate the  purchase to the customer – the number of pieces, the uniformity of the pack – Fish’s Eddy’s  store proposition is based around an eclectic “pic ‘n; mix”, an all pervasive ” mix ‘n’ match2 where the customer is free to  select across categories, styles, colours, periods, designs according to their  own whim and individual taste.

The freedom of expression is  mirrored beautifully in the vintage props and store fittings, the wonderfully  crafted messages painted lovingly on scraps of wood, or reclaimed tin signage,  and the distressed wooden store environment which provides the perfect shell for the wonders  that spill out over it, filling every surface with intrigue and  impulse.

 

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Listening Booths: Playing a Popular Tune for the Local Crowd

Minimising assortment for the same or increased sales is the deal that soothes many a headache for an over-stretched buying team. More for less is a wise choice, but a risky and brave one for the ill-informed.

 

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Grocery stores exhibit the ultimate and most topical examples of the tailored assortment as every brand clamours to convert from the massive megastores to the convenience and cost-efficiencies of the smaller format. However without the attraction of the wider choice, or the lure of the lowest basket price in town, many retailers must strive to add-value and benefit to the edited assortment through service, selection and the store experience.

Booths supermarkets serve local communities and limited catchments increasingly from decreasingly sized stores, with a focused offer built from sales analysis and customer research in a continuous virtuous cycle of refinement and replenishment.

The icing on the cake of popular demand is whipped together from price comparison promises, outstanding fresh-counter service, in-store exclusives, product tastings and demonstrations and the advantages of the store loyalty card.

Complete the creation with a sizeable portion of history and heritage, and for the correct customer loyalty and patronage can be bought for the right price, the value-added price, which makes the lowest price no bargain at all.

 

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From Knightsbridge to Airbridge: Flying the Harrods Flag

Something has changed in the retail offer at Gatwick airport, South Terminal, as part of the enormous investment in the airport. Centre stage of the new development is Harrods.

 

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In the extensive store there are plenty of brands attracting the attention from Longchamps to Swarovski to DKNY but it’s the clever commercialisation of the Harrods brand that catches the eyes and opens the wallets.

Fabulous food creates the destination wall from traditional teas to tempting treats, personalised puddings to branded biscuits. The packaging steals the show building on the original green & gold into a ornate array of pastels and plums, monochrome magic to seasonal scarlets.

Centrepiece the iconic Harrods bag, blocked in the traditional hues, but also resplendent in pink for the feminine soul, and stylish in black for sophistication.

A veritable lesson in empowering an identity to travel to any destination.

 

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VM-Unleashed monitors, benchmarks and celebrates best practice to provide the most relevant and expert analysis & conclusions.

Extra-Sensory Perception: Selfridges Sniff an Opportunity

As part of the recent Hello Beautiful event extravaganza at London’s Selfridges customers were invited to explore the world of personalised perfume at The Fragrance Lab.

 

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Individual profiling promised each participant a unique scent, created from the smells and aromas of childhood memories and adult experiences all combined, bottled and labelled with love. Dedicated window spaces and part of the Wonder Room were taken over to create a personal space that was to be, for one month, forever everyone’s own intimate part of Selfridges.
The Fragrance Lab, as always with London’s most imaginative retailer, was part of a much wider series of shows and collaborations celebrating with wider wonders of sensory beauty.

Concepts on a grand scale and experiences of an individual level, the clever combination that always make Selfridges so much more than just a 3-day eventer.

 

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VM-Unleashed monitors, benchmarks and celebrates best practice to provide the most relevant and expert analysis & conclusions.

Sweet Sounds for UrbanEars: Colour in a World of White Noise

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A simple store speaking louder than words makes the action of listening a pleasure and an experience.

 

UrbanEars is a concept in listening from Scandinavia, an ergonomic and aesthetic sound sensation for all the world to enjoy. The concept is based around colour , sound quality and the pleasure of wearing headphone in the office, on the train, commuting on your bike or on a plane.

The store presents its product as individual heroes, each which its intrinsic features and sound philosophy combined with a rainbow of colour tone, or a sound block of blue and red or green.

The hero presentation is complete with a spectrum of distinctive and desirable boxes creating and delivering colour in a world of white noise.

 

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Colour is always considered the most powerful visual display tool.
Here Urbanears uses the familiar spectrum of colour developed by Apple and taken up by a myriad of retailers and brands from Mini to Morphy Richards.

Is there an opportunity for colour in your business?
Do you live in a grey world?

 

VM-Unleashed monitors, benchmarks and celebrates best practice to provide the most relevant and expert analysis & conclusions.

Insuring Success: Selling in Any Event

At the risk of being boring….

 

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John Lewis outstanding performance never misses a trick to tempt and attract customers into spending in the UK’s favourite emporium. Once criticised for being static and staid, the retailer has built onto its enviable reputation for reliability and trust a new role as multi-channel leaders and a destination for newness, ideas and seasonal inspiration.

An average days heralds a showcase of design classics, new seasons styles, value ideas for new kids on the University blocks and the additional reassurance of trusted insurance for all your precious purchases.

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Do you need help making the most of event opportunities?

VM-Unleashed monitors, benchmarks and celebrates best practice to provide the most relevant and expert analysis & conclusions.