Trends 2010 - Part 2

Following on from our article with Design Week, here is the second part of the upcoming trends for 2010.

Ease and Logic
This is going to be a big winner for big and small brands alike and simplicity is it's key.

Think of all the things that annoy you, frustrate you or generally waste your time when you're out and about. These are the items that brands are starting to tackle head-on as they have realised that if they can make it easier for us, we will show loyalty and spread the word.

We all like it when we feel that somewone has really thought about 'me' and made our lives easier. That's what 'Ease and Logic' is all about.

Take a restaurant for example, why is it that asking for the bill always seems so awkward? May be because it interrupts the fun that you are sharing with friends, you know you're going to have to potentially split it 5 ways, which is going to test your mathematical skills (never the best after consuming several bottles of red!) and it spells the beginning of the end of the night. So how does and brand tackle this as you can't just let guest walk out without paying? Up pops Inamo again with their interactive tables. You simply request the bill through the projection and whether you're paying individually or as a group and voila! over comes the waiter.



What about spending an evening in a bar/pub? What's the most frustrating thing here? Ordering another round perhaps? After all, you have to leave your friends, potentially miss out of the next joke and try desperately for the next half hour to catch the attention of the barman who will serve you when he is good and ready! Well next time you go to Amsterdam, visit Mini Bar. Here you get your own personalised minibar with you're own code, loaded with all your favourite drinks right next to you. At the end of the evening you simply hand back your code and settle your bill. Genius!



OK, something totally different, a toaster. Ever burnt your toast in the morning because you don't trust the dial and have popped it up too soon, only to put it back down then forgotten to recheck? If only you could see the toast as it is being cooked....Eureka!



For anyone that is a parent or has had the pleasure of baby sitting for the day, you'll know how important it is to get out and about. You'll also know how hard it can be! Public Transport, store layouts, even toilets can be a nightmare. John Lewis have for a long time realised this and have ensured it is part of their brand. Offering great changing facilities and generally being children friendly has made it a clear favourite amongst shoppers with children.

Consider new innovations such as Visa Contactless payments and Oyster. These offer new and easier ways to pay for products and services and could definitely speed up queuing times for both low and medium spends. But how else could they be used to create a unique experience that differentiates you over your competition?

Generally, ease and logic can be applied to every strand of a brand's touch points. People want larger, easy to read text so they can make their choices or navigate quicker. Brighter lights so they can actually see what they are eating or wearing. Hooks on the underside of a bar for customers to hang their coats on. Seats to rest on and toilets to... well, you get the idea.

Whether it's clever use of technology, retraining of staff, a change in operations or simply opening our eyes to the things we try so desperately to ignore, these can be quick winners with little cost implications that will help make your brand stand out. And more than likely, you're the one who needs to look around to realise what these opportunities are. After all, we all know our own businesses and probably already know the questions.

Remember, the best ideas always seem like they have been around forever and are so simple that surely someone must have already done them. Chances are, they haven't and that's why they are the best ones!

Trends for 2010

Following on from our article with Design Week on upcoming trends for 2010 we have expanded and added a few more and will continue to update these over the next few weeks.

This is the first:

Growth in digital elements
Digital development is massive! No new news there. Close your eyes for 2 seconds and the next big technology will pass you-by leaving you feeling like an 82 year-old talking about the good old days.

But this is the main problem when it comes to introducing digital into the real world of retail and F&B. It changes so quickly, by the time you've gone through the process of incorporating it within your business it is out of date.

Few have been brave enough to take the plunge though and they have created incredible experiences that go so much further than just a flat screen:

Inamo - for anyone who hasn't been, GO! Serving oriental fusion food in a fully interactive dining space, they have truly made the eating experience here unique.

Food Secret - a lunch time offering that has used technology to capture your attention as you walk by then wowing you with nutritional information as they make your bespoke lunch right in front of you!

At this point I'm struggling to think of any great retail experiences that go further than touch screens, games consoles and projections. Which, considering that the design industry has been talking about technology and retail theatre for the past 10 years it is amazing to think that there aren't more examples that pop to mind.

For those who have been visited the Decode exhibition at the V&A will agree it is surely only a matter of time before the high street as we know it will change forever.

The new technology on the edge of every retailers mind should be Augmented Reality. This technology in simple terms transforms a code, that when exposed to a camera will show expose what is hidden in the code as a visual delight on a screen! Watch the video below to see a great example.



But this technology has so much more to offer.

Imagine being able to offer your customers the opportunity to stand in front of an interactive mirror and try on any of your clothing range without having to remove any of their own clothing. This could be done through a shopfront which shows the customer in your clothing even without intending to shop and shop!

What is the biggest driver to a major propotion of retail purchases? Aspiration perhaps? Why not then make this connection at the point of purchase when your customer buy those new Nike trainers endorsed by Cristiano Ronaldo. When the customer checks themselves out in the mirror make him appear behind them as if standing right there in the store!

Of course these are purely for fun and a talking point to create excitement. But AR could also be used to help make informed decisions about products and compare them to other alternatives. The opportunities are endless.

So, who will be the first to take the leap and use AR in an effective way or will it again just pass us all by? We'll be watching and hopefully suggesting a few ideas to our clients.


PS To see the Design Week article, click this link and scroll down to the news article '12/09 TYC predicts the shop of the future' and download the PDF. Happy reading!

A work of art!

This has just been sent to me and I am truly amazed this morning. So much so, it's word-for-word as the article states. Min-Kyu Choi, we salute you!

The Royal College of Art's graduate show has opened, and this year, the show-stopper was actually - a plug. Min-Kyu Choi impressed every passerby with his neat, apparently market-ready plug that folds down to the width of a thin mobile computer. "Many of today's mobile computers have become wafer thin but here in the UK , we still use the world's biggest three-pin plug," says Choi. Enter Choi's slimmed down British three-pin plug wonder.






Choi's plug is just 10mm wide when folded. To unfold it, the two live pins swivel 90 degrees and the plastic surround folds back around the pins so the face of the plug looks the same as a standard UK plug.

The idea produced a spin off, too. Choi created a multi-plug adaptor, which is a compact standard plug sized unit with space for three folded plugs to slot in, as well as one that charges USB devices.



The multi-plug adaptor has an ultra-compact sandwich design that enables three compatible plugs to cohabit side by side to take up a remarkable small amount of room.



The USB-pluggable three-pin plug adaptor. It's so plausible and so obvious a product that it should produce a few red faces; how many more years are we going to endure attaching our palm sized mobiles and wafer thin laptops to an object that's barely been touched since its first design in 1946? Choi picked an everyday product that most other designers might have found too mundane to dabble with and drastically improved it - exactly the kind of thinking that we should be celebrating right now.

A very clean and elegantly simple solution to an age-old British problem. Choi's full menu of uber-ideas for revolutionising the archaic British plug.

Something different

On a day-to-day basis its rare something stops us in our path and makes us pause. Whilst on my last trip to Rome my attention was well and truly caught by Nara Camicie, a shirt shop for men and women.

In fashion retail, statistics show that you will sell 10 times more product when displayed on a mannequin than the same product hung on a hanger. So what have Nara Camicie done....not a hanger in site!



Fair enough, it is a boutique and they don't have quite the volume of say TM Lewin but the design is clever and most importantly eye-catching. Each bust is attached to a frosted door panel that opens up as a cupboard stocking all the sizes behind it (very reminiscent of the Levis concept on Regent Street 8 years ago). The VM is fantastic and really has that Italian crispness that we have come to expect from our Roman friends.

A look ahead to 2010

Retails sales post increases in LFL and profits for the first time in what feels like a long time. Is this the turn of the tide?

Back in April we posted our video about 'Weathering the storm' and for most 2009 has been just that. As 2010 approaches we have seen a change in the weather with positivity in both the media and our direct clients, old and new. Sales are up for most and reinvestment is now essential to build upon the foundations of what most have managed to retain.

At The Yard Creative, we have a feeling 2010 is going to be a good year for all those who are serious about succeeding. With the right approach and understanding this is now a time where anything is possible.

We wish all our clients old and new all the best for the upcoming year and to achieving remarkable goals that 6 months ago seemed impossible.

Have a great break, have fun and here's to 2010!

Cheers
Steve

Pop-up marmite marketing

Pop-up stores, like the new Marmite one, are the new marketing tool for brands to spread the word in a new and exciting way. They spring up without much warning, cause a media storm and then vanish before they have a chance to go out of fashion. The well timed Marmite pop-up store on Regent Street opened on 3rd of November and will be around for 1o weeks over the Christmas period, stocking over 100 Marmite inspired products (100?...how?).

This new type of pop-up store (another recent one being the Central Perk coffee shop) comes across more like a quirky exhibition than a money making scheme. In fact it's a very clever way of luring people in with the excitement of 'an experience' or a giggle with their friends rather than 'a purchase' but once inside they find it hard to resist buying a souvenir.

Now is the perfect time to be popping-up too, with low rents and vacant retail outlets, landlords are more open to taking short-term leases. Well worth a try too as they're an amazing marketing tool, none pass by without causing a media stir which is great publicity for any brand.

These new temporary stores are also a great way for brands to 'test the water' either in terms of popularity in a certain area or for an online brand to try a more face-to-face approach with it's customers, or simply to get a brand in the public eye in a fresh, exciting way.

The Marmite store has taken their pop-up as an opportunity to show itself off as a lighthearted fun brand.

The store's dotted with quirky, tongue-in-cheek props like a Marmite jar in a bird cage, a Marmite pyramid and a Marmite styled couple eating, yep you guessed it...Marmite, at a breakfast table. So once the shop window display has tempted customers off the street to get a closer look inside they can go upstairs to the 1950's style tearoom where you can buy Marmite on toast and a cup of tea! A perfect finish to the customer experience and a great way to get people spreading the word to their friends and colleagues, whether they're lovers or haters.

The return of Jeeves?

Is our current economic and employment structure going to be enough to sustain the growth of the UK in the years to come?

Currently the public and private commercial sectors support the majority of the financial growth but we’re wondering whether we will see a trend of ‘people-employing-people’ (PEP) to help support the system.

With the increases in population would we ever get to the point that there just aren’t enough jobs for everyone? Even though we all strive for better education and healthcare perhaps it would get to the point whereby a percentage of the population would end up work for the ‘people’ rather than organisations.

This trend already exists with many more career driven couples using nannies to look after their children whilst at work. People are using at-home chefs for dinner parties and even a handyman. These types of roles have been around for centuries but as we have developed they have remained only for the richest of society. How long would it be before these luxuries become everyday to ensure economic success and the elimination of unemployment?

Would we see a new modern-day-extended-family style of employment coming directly from the people to support the economy?