As mentioned in my previous blog post, our recent project was all about the ideas process and ensuring we had a solid understanding of what ideas actually are. The brief stated:
‘You are part of a creative agency who are working to a brief set by your client, a key department store.
Your team will work with the same trend story from the Contexts brief.
Your team will work together to generate ideas for how the store would use the trend story in conjunction with an end outcome.
You will create a 10 minute presentation which will be a pitch to persuade the client about your ideas. You also need to show your idea generation process.’
Being given this brief of having to present a pitch, my head instantly went to ‘The Apprentice’ kind of pitch where it’s super formal and super scary. I started worrying myself with the word pitch until I realised it’s essentially the same thing as we did in the previous project, just some public speaking about an idea. Simple? With a racing heart and shaky hands, just have to fake the confidence and go with it.
So, our trend story was ‘active’, a fashion topic I enjoyed researching previously, focussing on the history of athleisure and fitness fashion. We found that there isn’t really a clear differentiation nowadays between athleisure and everyday fashion, whereas previously they were two very different categories of clothing. We resulted this to people now needing more practical clothing for their fast paced and active lifestyles, as well as needing to be comfortable. This remained a clear thought in our heads when it came to fitness fashion, putting it into context of our designated store.
Our store was Liberty, a large department store in the West End of London selling pretty much everything you’d need, from women’s clothing, to stationary. However, we noticed a gap in the market when it came to looking at the brands they stocked, with there not being that many activewear brands. This could be due to it just not matching their target market, middle class people of the older generation. The store has quite a traditional aesthetic, tying into British Heritage, as well as having recognisable floral and graphic prints. These were things we wanted to play with when thinking of ideas for the pitch.
Our outcome was digital, something that is becoming more and more popular as the years progress. We instantly ruled out the outcome of a website as it is boring and has been done so many times; we were after a unique and exciting idea. In my previous blog post I mentioned we jumped straight ahead into what we thought were ideas, when in fact, they were outcomes. The ‘ideas’ we were coming up with could easily be visualised, therefore we had essentially skipped the ideas stage and jumped to the outcomes. I won’t repeat myself with the intricate details of what an idea actually is (you’ll have to read my last blog post to get caught up) but we fell into the outcomes not ideas pit and nearly couldn’t get out.
Our initial outcome (which we thought was our amazing idea) was to create an instore changing room with a digital mirror to help those of an older age to see their clothing, especially if they have trouble getting changed. This would be created by the new advanced technology that is Augmented Reality (AR), an interactive experience of a real-world environment. AR is becoming increasingly more popular with the fashion and beauty world, with Dior creating an Instagram filter to mark it’s A/W 2019 Ready-To-Wear show in Paris, and Moschino and H&M celebrating the debut of their collaboration with an interactive runway presentation. The digital mirror would have a touch screen feature where you can select a typically British sport (shooting, cricket, tennis), and be shown clothing that would be appropriate for it. There would be no need to physically try these clothes on, AR would do It for you in a much quicker and easier process. Once you have chosen the items, they will be packed and ready for collection at the till when you are ready.
This ‘idea’ was what we based our entire pitch on originally, designating the majority of the pitch to describe it. However, this would have been very, very wrong. Luckily, saved by a conversation with our lecturers days before the presentation, we had to quickly turn out project around and take a few steps back into our ideas. We decided to take a different approach with the word ‘active’, linking it to more leisurely activities, but where the individual is still staying active.
The topic we landed on was gardening. We felt this matched with the target market of Liberty, with the older generation having a keen interest in gardening, with 49.5% of adults considering gardening as a free time activity. By completely changing our idea it made it easier for us to focus on the new approach. We had to be able to answer the question of ‘but, why gardening?’ in a confident manner, meaning we had to do thorough research to back up our points. We looked at the health benefits of gardening, mentally and physically, as well as how it could be shown in Liberty.
IDEA STATEMENT
‘To make exercise more appealing to the older generations and help better their wellbeing.’
We now had a clear focus and could present a pitch based on a single idea, with a mention of how it could look in Liberty’s store. We followed the same lines as our initial AR outcome, where we would have an interactive screen in an in-store garden where you could pick garden-wear in Liberty’s famous prints, as well as buy your own plants for your garden. This tied in Liberty’s aesthetic with our new idea, meaning we were now answering the brief.
We received positive feedback on our pitch, saying we presented confidently, with a good analysis of the word ‘active’, by looking at it from a different angle. We were also congratulated for looking back at the history of the store to know their ethos, creating a clear idea with an interesting focus. Our reasons why choosing our idea were backed up with relevant evidence, giving the idea much more authority. We were also given points to improve on, presentation wise, try to lose notes when speaking by memorising your points. We could have also made more of an obvious link between each point made by making a slide to tie everything together, perhaps with a moodboard or a consumer journey.
Overall, I am actually quite grateful we fell into the trap of mistaking outcomes for ideas because it means I will now be extra careful when coming to the ideas stage of a project. It will make me think twice about my idea and if I can sum it up in a statement, or if I am able to visualise it, which in that case I’ve gone wrong. I’m excited to move onto the concepts stage, creatively interpreting ideas through images and words. I’ll keep the blog updated with my progress!
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