We have been asked as part of our course to explore a city of our choice and document how products are launched, shop layouts, promotions and anything we find interesting.
The majority of the group visited New York as a trip however as I had just been to New York earlier in the year I thought I'd save the pennies and sit that one out. Unfortunately this means that I have had my new home town of Nottingham as my city of my 'choice'.
I realised pretty quickly that there were no new product launches taking place in the range of shops that I looked around. I think this is because for new products the launches for England with a brand would be in London.
However I did document a range of shops promotions as most had sales on between the lower end high street shops right up to the higher end and designer.
I also took note of anything interesting I found with window displays and visual merchandising and how this related to and suited the city of Nottingham.
The majority of the designer and high end high street brand stores are in The Exchange, a small centre for these shops located in the heart of Nottingham city centre. This partitions off the more luxury brands from the low end high street shops.
As you can see the collection of brands within The Exchange tend to promote their sales in a more minimal and understated way to in keep with the brands prestige and high quality.
There are however some exceptions which mirror the promotional style of high street shops such as USC, Debenhams and JD sports, all of which contain designer brands but who all promote their sales in a very bold and eye catching way. I believe the reason for this style of promotion in these particular shops in Nottingham is due to their location. As these shops are located along a high street in Nottingham the idea is to catch the passing consumer's eye. This is not necessary with in The Exchange so the shops that have promoted for example with balloons etc have done so out of style choice which may suit their brands style.
Even along the high streets in Nottingham the more up market shops such as Jack Wills advertise their sales but not in a bold manner like many other shops. I think this is to in keep once again with their brand image. Some of these shops for example coast have their sale signs in colours such as dark pink or other shops use window vinyl's to advertise their sales.
Surprisingly Debenhams advertise their sales in a lower end brand style with huge yellow bold sale signs with bold fonts and capital letters.
On the other side of the city there are multiple vintage shops. One of my favourites is Back Lash, a small vintage clothing shop with worn and unworn vintage clothing accessories and shoes. The way that Backlash advertise offers is much more refined compared to chain stores which stays true to being a vintage store. The offers are hand written in black pen and placed in the wonderful window display that entails an old scooter, vintage dolls and vinyl sleeves. This in keeps with the shops image and style and looks interesting and appealing to the passing trade who are interested in a more quirky shop with individual pieces.
This quirky style is also used in the beautiful shop in central Nottingham called White Stuff.
As you can see the interior of the shop itself is really different. I personally love the individually tiled stair case, I think it adds to the shops quirky image. The promotions for the shop sale is also fairly understated and unusual for example the mannequin wearing a t-shirt and a notice stand outside the shop.
The fitting rooms are the best part of the shop as they are individually decorated to look like different hallways each decorated with different items. This reminded me of the style adopted in the vintage store Backlash as retro collectables are dotted around the shop to achieve a retro look.
The window displays are humorous and different. This particular display has pieces of bark, potato bags, spades and window vinyl's with 'sow happy' this word play is used in true White Stuff style to promote their relaxed outdoors range. This natural and outdoors theme is consistent throughout the shop. The shoes are displayed on fake grass.
Shops like Ted Baker use multiple communication pathways such as Facebook groups, twitter pages and blogs. Their website is displayed on the front windows of the store along with signs to alert customers about a free Wi-Fi cloud available in the store. This is an approach taken on by many brands now as a way to create an alternative way for the consumer to view the brands collections and to purchase from the brand.
