The explosion of health is so hot right now! Betterment is a macro trend, Athleisure is killing it on the runway, lycra is trendy and every corner now has a juice bar on it!
At the same time, you have the overwhelming success on malls over the high street. Convenient shopping destinations that offer most aspects of modern day, social life within a huge expanse of urban space.
So it was only a matter of time that the two worlds would collide. But how and where?
With the announcement that Toyko has been named the number 1 city for Quality of Life by Monocle, its no surprise that this collision has happened first in Japan. The Osaka Air Track is a development pioneered by the Tokyu Fudosan Holdings Group where a 300m running track has been suspended above and built as an integral part of their new Q Mall!
And oh my, how they have smashed it in every sense!
Opened in April 2015, the project was a result of the property group working with local residents to understand the needs of the local area. The outcome is a mall with Sports & Fitness at its core. Macro trend No.2; Local Love, tick! Love the neighbour, include them in the process and they will come.
And this isn't it. Oh no; Futsal courts, climbing wall, fitness centre, swimming pool, all necessary facilities and of course a plethora of retail stores to support this way of life.
The track itself is the main attraction and visually puts the mall on the map, quite literally: the green astroturf standing out beautifully against the surrounding cityscape. Whether you're in the walking lane pushing a buggy or putting in your PB, the track welcomes all and encourages quality of life with the convenience of everything else the mall offers all in one place.
At TYC we often talk about the trend of Status Stories, and how experiences are starting to hold court more so than material objects in social circles. What more of a story could a mall hope for than this? Its uniqueness gives it visitors a wealth of experiences that don't just involve stores taking their hard earned cash.
Sure, UK malls have the odd gym and health food store, but is this something we should be considering? Consider that 67% of men and 57% of women in the UK are over weight, could malls have a major part to play to help improve the health of the UK public?
With major new developments on the horizon at Croydon and Brent Cross, perhaps these could be the first UK malls to embrace health at its core. After all, The Wellthy consumer is using peak physical and mental health as their status symbol and what a better way for malls to become central to that status.
Times are a changing. Time to get fit.
PART #1: BRAND CREATION
From
the very first moment that we met Carli we were completely smitten by her
charming character and undeniable energy and drive. Amazingly Carli has been
building her business offering over the past five years by providing personal
training services supported by nutritional advice and more recently providing
healthy meals and drinks as a full solution for healthy living.
This is
our story of how TYC and entrepreneur Carli Wheatley have worked together to
take her business to the next level and land on the British retail landscape
with a BOOM!
We
first met Carli on the 12th Feb 2015 and from the outset it was clear that her
persona needed to be at the forefront of the brand, cleverly she had already
surrounded her self with a great team but the focus needed to be distilled. We
discussed our suitability to work together as a team and decided it was a great
match.
Week
1 - Project kick off (20th May)
To kick
off the project we organised a creative day where we had great fun getting to
know Carli and her opinions and beliefs in regards to health and fitness.
Phrases such as "you are your home" and "do it for
yourself" kept reoccurring and Carli shared that she had stopped trying to
be someone else pleasing others and instead decided to be true to herself. A
strong message to convey.
By no
stroke of luck Carli had already secured not one but two retail units in the
sought after Canary Wharf shopping mall with some serious backing. Feeling bang on trend with the current Wellthy and Sweat Equity movements
we set about designing a brand that would take Carli's message to a health and
fitness orientated customer demographic.
Week
2 - Brand workshop (1st June) and Brand review (3rd June)
So the
team had chance to think things over and now was the time for the ideas to hit
the paper; the first step was for the team to set about brainstorming brand
name options, taking the insights that Carli had given us about her brand on
the creative day and looking for names and strap lines that embodied those
defining factors.
After
pages of options and a workshop with Carli we settled on a name and tag line
that represented Carli's ethos of being true to yourself and putting your
health and well being first; "Protein Haus; your body is your home".
Next
step was to create a logo mark that would visually convey the message and again
we designed a several options from the colourful and contemporary to the
sleek and polished. Again following a brand review with Carli a clean design
was chosen that was bold and strong.
Week
3 - Brand presentation and approval (8th June)
The
final element of creating the brands graphical presence was to take the logo
and apply it to other business communications such as menu boards, product
packing and staff uniforms. The simplicity of the logo allowed the secondary
graphics to be fun, bold and exciting but also changeable in the future whilst
keeping the core element of the brand consistent.
All of
these final ideas for execution of the brand were pulled in to a brand
presentation that was presented to Carli and the main stakeholders of Protein
Haus, with approval of all brand components being gained from just 3 weeks
from the start of the project.
The
next phase of the project is designing a physical environment for the brand
that gives it an explosive start from the blocks. The brand will be applied to
both an external and internal kiosk, website and packaging.
Follow
our blog to read the next part of our journey creating a brand and UK retail
presence for Protein Haus.
