Tom Ford Research

Here is a collection of images that I gathered as research for my individual brand-zine project on Tom Ford.

Lady Acland

Lady Acland, one of the leading models of the late 1940's and early 1950's, dies aged 85. During her modelling career, Myrtle Crawford appeared on the covers of Vogue and Harpers' Bazaar. Below are images from this time:

Here is an image of the newspaper article published after she died:

Tumblr

Below is a screenshot of my 'random inspiration' tumblr called 'Ciao Bella'. This is where I post all sorts of images that interest me regarding content, quotes used, colour choices and composition. I believe this tumblr blog will be a great research source in the future to help with creative ideas.
The link is www.whoamitocallyoucrazy.tumblr.com

Below is a screenshot of my 'fashion image research' tumblr called 'Bella Moda'. This is a much more fashion specific tumblr, however the contents is till fairly random. On this tumblr blog I collect any fashion images whether they be advertisements, magazine shoots, runway pictures or street style images. This platform allows me to create a 'board-like' composition of images as well as the archive which can help me pinpoint trends within specific time frames. 
The link is http://crazyaboutbeautifulfashion.tumblr.com

Feedback on Project Two

Here are comments that we received from peers and lecturers on the assessment day:

• "great enthusiasm for the project and brand"
• "clear identification of problem areas/room for improvement within brand"
• "sometimes more descriptive than analytical"
• "good visuals"
• "presentation could have benefited from more rehearsals, could have been better"
• "good timing in presentation"
• "outfits helped to enhance visuals"
• "survey monkey was a good idea"

Here is the peer and lecturer feedback from the day, presented in my sketchbook with the quecards from the presentation:

Here is the formal feedback we received for our project two brand presentation on Jack Wills:

STUDENT FEEDBACK FORM Course: Fashion Communication & Promotion Module title: Visual Awareness Module code:  FASH10105              Credits: 60 Project: Brand Presentations		STUDENTS:  Group 2 Team 8 Whitley Miller   Georgia Green   Courtney Welham   Amy Dennett  Alice Hoar
		TUTOR:  AF / SB
		ASSESSMENT DATE:  5th / 6th Dec 2013
Feedback on formative/summative assessment (Please delete as appropriate)
Tutors comments:                                                         Brand Jack Wills Areas of strength ·       New Concept – well justified.  ·       Very good on brand background and brand ambassadors ·       Ubiquity – identify the Superdry syndrome ·       Good to speak with a design students ·       Evidence of lots of research here, well done. ·       Good attempt to sell your pitch. ·       Well done for using Survey Monkey! Good primary research. ·       Layout of slides are simple, but strong. ·       New concept – a considered summary if rather ‘skirting’. ·       Good document of meetings and agendas. Areas to improve ·       Little mention of the cultural references associated to the brand– more analysis needed on these.  There was more a historical account of the brand instead.  ·       Visualisation moodboard needed to show the relationship between cultural connections to Vivienne Westwood and Jack Wills? Westwood seems odd match – she wouldn’t do it?!  Would media come to Chatsworth and would these celebs work with JW? ·       Need to provide references to facts and evidence on first slide.  This was a brief history, and did not include their influences or what inspires the brand – what are the cultural references they use?? ·       Brand essence - very small font. ·       Too much on retail – unbalanced. Communication touch points listed but more analysis needed, i.e. also incl. some stats. ·       More constructive criticism needed on competitors and consumers. ·       Spoke too quickly.  Too quick on perceptual map. ·       Generally need more detail and insight – less factual, more perceptive. Student self-evaluation completed:  no

Overall banding: Mid 2:2

Jack Wills Final Presentation - Project Two

Here is the final presentation from our group brand 'Jack Wills' project that we made for project two of our first module. 

Here is the script we had with our presentation:

• Jack Wills was founded in 1999 by Peter Williams and Robert Shaw in Salcombe, Devon.
• The brand took British heritage-inspired goods and designed them for the University crowd.
• They aim to make distinctive connections between the old and the new, bringing them together to make a statement about what it is to be young and “fabulously British” 
• They take inspiration form the best of British; sporting, history and country pursuits.
• The brand claims to use the finest of quality materials and techniques in tall areas of the process from design to consumer.
• They focus on selling the lifestyle of a young, upper class University student, living the life of a socialite and sporting ‘blues’ at the likes of Oxford and Cambridge. Jack Wills reinforced this by launching their second, third stores in these famous university towns.
• The brand now have 80+ stores, which includes locations near America’s Harvard and Yale University campuses and more recently, even in Hong Kong.
• The company summaries this by saying “Jack Wills creates fabulously British goods for the university crowd. Drawing inspiration from Britain’s rich history and culture”  All of these core ideas about the brand lead to their brand essence, “Fabulously British”.
• We are now going to go through all the different sectors of the brand’s essence. The design equation of Jack Wills includes ideas about tradition, British culture; Union Jack, university lifestyle, the brand signature, the well known pink and navy stripes and the pheasant logo.
• The brand values are stated by Jack Wills as: British, entrepreneurial, innovative, responsible and excellence.
• The brand personality, we feel from Jack Wills, is that they are a high status, upper class, preppy, young brand.
• The brand truth is that they are hitting a younger target audience then they aim for and this is may be harming their reputation as a university brand.
• The attributes and benefits of Jack Wills are that once you purchase from them you almost become part of an elite ‘group’, this is demonstrated with the use of the signature clothing for example JW on a jumper. We feel that this relates to the society idea that universities use.
• The brand promise reassures consumers with quality clothing whilst still maintaining the British heritage.
• All of these ideas lead to the brand essence of Jack WIlls which we feel is being ‘Fabulously British’.
• The brand does not necessarily have set iconic products, but is instead know for there items labelled with the brand signature and well known navy and pink stripes. Providing consumers with these types of products creates brand ambassadors that freely advertise the brand name. We feel that this has benefitted the brand as they only believe in advertisement via word of mouth.
• However, more recently, these items have begun to give the brand a less desirable image and reputation, as the tracksuit and smaller items are becoming more and more popular amongst the younger generations and, in particular, secondary school children as these are the only products from the brand which are retailed at a more accessible price.
• Therefore Jack Wills’ reliance on word of mouth could be an issue for them when their target market of university students is put off by the idea that the brand is more popular with younger people as this makes the brand appear to be less sophisticated.
•  Jack Wills has always had a strong focus on heritage. The brand sees this a important part of being “fabulously British”, and uses it to reinforce their own true and traditional British roots.
• One way in which the brand communicates this idea to the consumer is within the visual merchandising of their stores. Using everything from window displays and in-store layout to even the choice of the building itself. Many Jack Wills stores have even been intentionally placed within buildings that have some British history and heritage.       
• An example of this is the Jack Wills store in Oxford, situated in the perfect location for targeting upper class University students. The building that houses the Oxford Jack Wills store dates back to the eighteenth century and was originally home to the Banker Mr. Edward Lock and his son Sir Joseph Lock, who both also served as the Mayors of Oxford in the late 1800’s.
• The stores location here has been vital to the brands success and expansions. The store here and in Cambridge have helped with the brands extension into sporting, allowing them to create their varsity sports matches within rowing and polo that bring together these two universities for Jack Wills events.
• These events also have an impact on the store décor, as many stores have pictures and advertisements for these hanging on the wall…The image here shows an example of this from within the Nottingham store. 
• The brands own heritage also plays a key role within their stores. They do this by using small details to reference the brand’s essence, core values and heritage. As you can see within these images the hangers contain the address of their first original store at 22 Fore St in Salcombe, Devon; as well as the brand signature/logo.
• Here we have created a perceptual map to indicate where we see Jack Wills in the current market compared to its big competitors. 
• Here is a list of Jack Wills competitors. Starting with Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger, we feel that they are competitors because they have similar brand values, visual merchandising and target consumer.
• We also feel that Abercrombie and Hollister are fellow competitors due to the fact that like Jack Wills they do not advertise and are also aiming to sell a lifestyle as well as clothes. All three fall under the same price range for similar garments.
• Zara, Topshop and River Island are at the lower end of the market (price wise) but are successful in reaching university students, this makes them a competitor to Jack Wills.
• Here we have created a Consumer profile from the brands perspective, an ideal individual who is “Fabulously British” and would consume the brand because of their brand values and personality, as described within the brand essence model.
• This type of consumer would encourage others in her social group to also wear Jack Wills, and would therefore be a brand ambassador.
• Here are a list of communication touch points used by Jack Wills. As the brand rely on word of mouth many of the communication touch points come from social media.
• To see where there was a need for change, expansion or re-marketing for Jack Wills, we decided to first look at our own opinions of the Brand. As we are within the target market of Jack Wills, we understand that our opinion was valid for this project.
• However we still though it was essential to carry out a survey for some market research. We used survey monkey to collect our data and used this to come up with our conceptual idea.
• We carried out a survey and asked 48 university students questions about their shopping habits and fashion choices. The results here show that the majority would not choose to shop in Jack Wills and are more inclined to shop at their current competitors‘stores and the lower priced high street stores.
• This has allowed us to see where the brand’s problem lies as they are not in the same market position as their competitors, even though this is where they believe they are.
• Our concept idea is therefore to change this by moving the brand’s position in the market to place them in line with Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger as an elite outfitters.
• This illustrates our ideas of moving Jack Wills further towards the high end market.
• We have decided that we think a way of getting Jack Wills in to the correct sector of the market that they should make a collaborative collection. We feel that this collection should be with a famous British designer for example Vivienne Westwood.
• We also feel to keep the brand up and coming that we should collaborate with a University fashion design graduate. Creating a new collection with an edge that designers such as Vivienne Westwood could create for the brand, would help to give the brand an original and a unique selling point.
• We feel that by doing this it will create a new perspective for the brand and will create publicity, which will enforce the brand’s idea of using word of mouth as a powerful marketing and advertising tool. It will also help to reinforce the brands idea of British heritage and will target University students.   
• We will launch this new collection by holding a launch party event.
• We think that perfect location for this sort of event would be a country house such as Charsworth House in the Peak District or even somewhere closer to Salcombe/Devon where the brand started out. we think that this location is a  good idea because it steers away from predictable locations in London that would be the obvious choice for a British brand.
• The event would have two halves… with different event: day/night. The day time events would include events such as: varsity polo, rowing, a hog roast, a fair, afternoon tea, clay pigeon shooting and croquet.
• The evening events would include things such as: bands playing, fireworks, a Ferris wheel and other visual effects. The main event would be the catwalk show of all the new collection from the collaborations.
• For the advertising campaign we would begin by adverising in High end magazines such as Vogue and Hapers Bazaar as this would help to raise the brands profile.
• The new campaign would begin with adverts of the new collection which would help to raise awareness of the other clothes aside from Jack Wills’ iconic products.
• We feel that the brand would benefit if the PR department sent out clothes in the respectable sixzes for celebrities such as Emma Watson, Keira Knightley, Ed Westwick and Robert Pattinson. This is because we think they are ‘Fabulously British’ well-known celebrities.
• The advertising campaign, that we believe Jack Wills needs to invest in, could really help change their image and perception from the consumers’ perspective. To do this Jack Wills needs to raise the bar and present themselves as an elite and sophisticated brand with a more accessible price than the likes of Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger, who could easily become their competitors. 
• However, to then sell themselves against these high end competitors, Jack Wills really needs to focus on their brand essence of being “fabulously British” and their values of heritage and innovation. This mixture could be the perfect selling point up against the British-mimicking brands such as Ralph Lauren.
• This development of a stronger image for Jack Wills is something that can be worked on as a future project for the brand through several magazine advertisements.
• There is also the potential to run a new collaborative club each year, in line with an annual launch party to keep up a strong, current, powerful, sophisticated brand.