Mini Dream Team

Product Expansion
-Sub brand?
-Product range or collaboration
-Case Studies
   British, timeless
   10 key pieces
   Licensing - compare how luxury brands use perfume and other cheaper products to allow a wider range of conusmers to be able to buy into the brand, without the hughe pricetag.
  Zara, Mango, Burberry Trench,
  Diverse consumer - needs to be timely but appeal to everyone. So that each individual can personalise it in their own way. M&S-diverse range of ages.
-Cultured consumer so may appreciate more sustainable and ethical products.

Location and Experience
-Sub brand launch around country in pop up shops. 'Pop up event'. Campaign could appeal to everyone 'fashion for everyone'
-Nationwide event (rather than one single thing going on) allows everyone to have a feel for it (death of the flagship)
-Space utilisation
    Put clothing within a cafe (puma)
    Pie and mash shop, restaurant (gina talked about in london), Back in 5 minutes
    Boxpark - first pop up mall
    Afterwork shopping events
    Adidas interactive window shopping
-Interaction between dealership and pop up
-Interaction in store - experience. How could the new range interact within the store alongside other things going on?

VM
-look at pop up artists in vacant shops
-Museums, art galleries
-Fashion films
-Theatre design/ concerts/ live installations

cool hunter

Notes taken at meeting on Wednesday 28th November 2012
14:00 - 17:30


What do we want to do?

What are they missing?

What makes the mini consumer tick?

AIM:
We want to make the Mini lifestyle range more accessible and desirable. We want it to be an aspirational buy, creating brand loyalty, brand ambassadors (/lovers), brand awareness resulting in consumers eventually making a bigger investment by entering a dealership and purchasing a Mini. 

How are we going to achieve this?
> personalisation
> making shopping an experience
> product expansion
> move out onto the hightstreet and link it with the dealership, interaction between the high street store and dealership
> space squatting (pop up stores, maybe before a fully functioning store is set up)

Pop up stores/High street stores
Art installations/ galleries/museums
Window displays
Events
Fashion films
Theatre design/ concerts/ live installations
Collaborations
Having a high street store will bring the brand/sub brand forward, into a new market. The fashion/lifestyle market. 
We think that the products are lost within a car dealership environment, they're lost, have no purpose there, are pushed into a corner and not spoken about. They're an afterthought to the salesmen.
Unsurprising as they're not particularly desirable products anyway. 
CASE STUDIES: Hollister, A&F (experience when shopping)

Product expansion 
Collaborations - British design, to keep it British, timeless, statement pieces, not so trend driven, classic pieces, good quality, just a few REALLY good pieces.
Environmentally friendly.How people oare becoming more conscious. Brands need to be setting the example for consumers to follow. Make better choices available. If they're not there, the conusmer won't buy it if it isn't there. 
Suits the current, diverse consumer range
Competitors - someone who already is quite British. A British brand. Independent niche labels. Not high street brands.
Menswear - independent timeless pieces, transeasonal 
Invest in one piece (recession blah blah blah)
Authenticity - made or done in an original, traditional way, true or real. (is the a trend in itself?)
Mini only does one product range in a year - we need at least two to be taken seriously in the fashion world. 
CASE STUDIES: Hollister, A&F (types of product), Topshop collaborating with Mary Katranzou 

Personalisation - HOW DO WE IMPLEMENT THIS?
How people want things to be unique, customisable, indivual
Limited addition
Tailored
Sentimental value (*marketing* - telling a story)

Making a shopping experience
Consumer journey - take the consumer through the store as they would travel through a website, like an exhibition, so they're not bombarded by everything at the same time (need to research how consumers shop)
Link between the high street store and the dealership
Something new, not done before in this country: CASE STUDY, SHANGHAI - car dealerships within shopping centres. Why should they not be included?
The death of the flagship - we believe that all stores should be the same/very similar, customers are unfairly disadvantaged if they happen to live in Liverpool and a flagship store is in London

Space squatting (pop up stores, maybe before a fully functioning store is set up) 
Look into using retail spaces that are closed from 5pm, to open up a new evening shopping market
Holly's research to expand on this

The Drive for Differentation

Perhaps the principal response from high streets to changing markets has been to emphasise their distinctiveness. In the more successful examples, coordinated work has taken place to demonstrate that the high street has something different to offer and is a place to visit for leisure, culture and specialist shopping rather than for routine purchases. (BIS, 2011)

“We’ve entered a period of time when style on all levels is obsessed with heritage, realness and strength. For men, facial hair seems to represent all these things” (Pryce, J. D., 2012)

I have to price the cinema to be sustainable (it is openly commercial and receives no grants/income) but also to be affordable.  Value for money and the extra little touches or details are important.  It is not just going to the cinema.  I have teamed up with a local not for profit community arts project and a local storyteller and they provide an activity session before the film at our Kids Film Lounge. We have a range of organic refreshments at affordable prices (cheaper than the multiplexes and far superior products). (Bertram, N., stowfilmlounge@gmail.com, 2012)

It is not easy though.  I have to have four licenses per film per screening.  It is fair to say that there isn't a huge profit in this and that is why, in my opinion, the cinema industry is polarised into the big multiplexes who can absorb running at a loss sometimes and at the other end Filmclubs that are not for profit but only really focused on niche/art-house films.  Add in Love Film and Netflixs and you can see to be a small independent cinema business is not easy.  However, with the correct programming, good high spec technical set up, quality environment it is possible to survive and thrive. People are seeking these experiences out rather than going to the local multiplex. (Bertram, N., stowfilmlounge@gmail.com, 2012)  

Experience

Society’s attention span has been reduced and shopping has to compete in a visually oriented world. It has to be exciting to respond to that competition. (Coleman, P., 2006)
 
Over the past decade consumers have become more mobile and their attitudes and preferences have changed – they now seek more ‘experience’ and a greater choice. (BIS, 2011)

Each place needs to be collectively animated (not just planned or managed) in a way that is flexible, responsive to change, open to new ideas that enliven space, and able to seize opportunities. Our centres can become lively, creative, exciting and useful places that reflect the diversity of our communities – but not through retail alone. (Dobson, J., 2011)

Between us, we have many examples and ideas of how this could be and is being done. By bringing these ideas together we can create the ingredients that will allow local people to rethink their shopping areas as multifunctional, people-friendly places. (Dobson, J., 2011)

Wanting to go into town is different from wanting or needing to shop. It is about an experience. It is about sociability and relaxation, creativity and being part of something you cannot get at home or at work. This does not have to be expensive – much of this activity can be cheap and self-organised (Gehl, J., 2006)

I do think there should be a more diverse range of lifestyle things on the high street.  Cinema in particular is all about a shared experience, a community coming together to be entertained.  At our screenings friends/neighbours with kids intermingle and interact and at our first evening screening a couple met who found out they were neighbours!  The sense of ownership that people develop is quite interesting. It is as if the cinema is personally linked to them.  I think it transcends entertainment per se and becomes a really important tool for connection and social cohesion. (Bertram, N., stowfilmlounge@gmail.com, 2012)

“The idea of a successful public space is where the public feel like they’re welcome”, he said. - Roger Madelin, CEO of Argent: Building a new European hub in London. (WGSN, 2012)

 Pop-up Culture

I do think that councils have a big part to play in encouraging pop up culture amongst businesses. It is not easy and in the same way that empty properties are being highlighted for the homeless why not put the spotlight on empty shops for businesses. (Bertram, N., stowfilmlounge@gmail.com, 2012)

(more to come!)