18 www.thedesignermagazine.com Cover Feature
and Manhattan markets to the mix of editorial content and
ecommerce functionality on its website, Net-a-Porter has used
design to unify customers’ experience of its brand from their very
first click.
And it’s not only start-ups that can embrace design-led
thinking. Castle Rock Brewery in Nottingham was one of the UK’s
leading independent real ale brewers, but it knew it needed to
polish up its image. New products weren’t the problem: a range
of new ales had been introduced over a number of years. But with
no common thread to tie them together, there was no cohesion
when these products were presented to customers in bars and
pubs.
The company brought in design group Strangebrew – now
part of The Workroom – to examine its brand, visual identity
and portfolio of drinks. For a modest fee of around £3,000, The
Workroom brought into clearer focus the brewery’s overall identity
and developed a coherent range of different badges for its beer
pumps. Since the rebranding launched in 2007, the company’s
barrel sales growth has doubled to around 20 per cent year on
year – a full year ahead of business projections.
predicts that they will reach £600 million “A huge amount of what we’re doing now
High street music specialist HMV had to react to massive
in value by 2012, accounting for 13.5 per has come out of working with designers,”
changes in the way its customers buy music and video titles since
cent of the total music and video market explains Gennaro Castaldo, head of press
the arrival of digital files and the internet. It used design to create
in the UK. and public relations for HMV UK and
a next generation store and whole new brand proposition. When ➔
Ireland. “Once we understood that we
It has taken time for traditional retailers
needed to get closer to our customers
to realise what is happening and to
by using the emotional dimension of the
develop a response to it, but HMV is now
albums, films and games we were selling,
at the front line of those changes thanks
we were then in a better position to invest
to a substantial investment in brand
in a brand campaign. As a result of this,
strategy and design. Under chief executive
our stores are effectively becoming a
Simon Fox’s strategic plan for the group,
physical manifestation of that same basic
this design investment forms a key part
idea.”
of plans to revitalise its stores’ business,
chiefly by embracing the consumer shift A ‘whistles and bells’ trial store opened
to digital products and online social in Dudley in September 2007 under
networking. the Dalziel & Pow blueprint and sales
jumped by 25 per cent compared with an
Over the past couple of years the company
equivalent period pre-redesign. According
has worked with branding and design
to Castaldo, the Dudley store necessarily
specialists venturethree to define what
represented a major investment, so the
HMV should represent as a brand, and
company refined the format with a few
to determine what changes were needed
minor changes to materials, unitary and
to ensure the company stays relevant to
fittings in order to bring down the cost
today’s consumer. In developing HMV’s
without affecting the impact of the
strategy, one of the key aspects identified
overall design scheme.
by venturethree was that the company
should align itself more closely with Thanks to the strong performance at
people’s emotional relationship with music, Dudley, HMV decided to roll out key
films and games. elements of the new design across its
existing estate, as well as a number of
“A HUge AMoUNT oF WHAT We’Re
new stores, such as in the Liverpool One
and Westfield London shopping centres.
doINg NoW HAS CoMe oUT oF
Having launched in October 2008,
Westfield is one of the first ever retail
WoRKINg WITH deSIgNeRS”
outlets to offer direct in-store mp3 music
purchases – reinforcing HMV’s specialist
credentials.
This eventually led to the succinct “It’s a sophisticated multi-channel offer
strapline ‘Get Closer’, inspired by HMV’s where the design shifts the stores from a
new mission that ‘no one gets you closer functional retail outlet to become more of
to the music, films and games you love’. a social space,” says Castaldo. “We’ve had
This idea has since led to the launch of to adapt and change to what customers
a ‘social discovery website, getcloser.com, want, and working with design groups
and crucially, it has also informed the venturethree and Dalziel & Pow has helped
store design developed by retail specialists to give us a brand and store identity which
Dalziel & Pow. reflects those changes in the market.”
design in a downturn.indd 18 2/3/09 11:53:52
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