Yesterday, as part of research for our reading week tasks for uni, I made a little trip into Birmingham to see what interesting ways of visual merchandising, points of sale, and branding that the shops had to offer.
Now, usually I’m not that much of an anxious person, but the thought of going into a busy city by myself taking photos scared the crap out of me, to be honest. It’s not the business that scares me, it’s the taking photos. I don’t know what it is but the dread of knowing people are going to look at you when you take pictures of things around you scares me; that unwanted attention. However, I was determined to go and do this by myself to step over my little fear (shout out to Mia for offering to come with me though, thanks bro).
Here are some of my pics from things I liked in shops at the moment:
There was a lot of floral going on, which was unsurprising to me after all the research I did for my previous project, finding many types of floral are major trends for Spring/Summer. I liked how Topshop displayed this, putting their mannequins in boxes full of different types of flowers. This immediately made you look and start to see all the floral accents of clothing throughout the store. This was also used in River Island, with plants included in their mannequin displays. I think this is a clever way of visualising the prints and patterns used in clothing by using objects to reference them, making what could be a simple outfit on a mannequin look so much prettier and eye-catching.
H&M Home had a beautiful display of fresh flowers that you could actually buy instore. I didn’t even realise Birmingham had a big H&M Home store, but it was a really lovely shop. Flowers were dotted all over the shop floor, making it bright amongst the dark wood décor, and made it feel just like Spring. I liked the fact there was an actual florist there who would prepare the bouquet for you, adding a nice touch of displaying the floral trend.
One of my favourite shops to go into when I’m in Birmingham is, Monki. I really like their clothing as well as their brand identity and visual merchandising. Their window displays are always that extra little step, making the display more eye-catching with the mannequins wearing bright orange wigs covering the faces. Their changing rooms have different coloured curtains for each one making it playful and fun, with these kind of trippy mirrors, being able to see your fresh outfit from every angle. The changing rooms also had a couple of promotions in there, one with a QR code to access 15% off through the newsletter, as well as a 3 for 2 offer. Something I thought was really good was that you can recycle your old clothes at the checkout to get a 10% off voucher. I think this would be quite effective because people tend to be more likely to do something if they get something out of it.
Birmingham has the world’s biggest Primark, five floors complete with a Disney-themed cafe, a barber's shop and beauty studio, as well as being filled with Primark's clothing. I just think it’s interesting how the brand has turned shopping into a full-blown experience, where you can have some food and your makeup done, as well as buying some new fluffy pjs, all in the same place. I believe this is a good USP for Primark, especially as they don’t sell their product online at all. By creating a space like this, people travel from all over to visit.
And so, I did it! I managed to go into Brum and take pictures on my ones. Don’t get me wrong, I felt so anxious that my heart hurt, but I took the photos I needed and got a bit of fresh air walking about. It might sound small to some, but I was quite proud of myself. Yes, I did get looked at oddly for taking pictures, but hey ho, I did what needed to be done and I’ll never see these people again so, so what!
This has made me feel a bit more confident next time I need to go and take pictures for primary research, so hopefully soon that nervousness will be long gone!
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