Category: <span>social savvy</span>

Toms “One-for-One” Love: Fashionable Philanthropy

Invention may be born from necessity but inspiration and originality comes from the addition of a commercial heart. In the rarefied atmosphere of true originality there are few names to pollute the pure air of …

Lush Pastures New: More than Merely Cosmetic

Simply as a concept Lush began its life as one of the most innovative and exciting brands ever conceived. In a world of copycats and unsubtle insurgents it’s easy to forget that the idea of …

Personalised Promotional Activity for OmniChannel Customers

What has always been the most important thing when communicating with customers? The answer is relevance.   A promotional message that is given in “the right place at the right time” is relevant to the …

Automotivation: Rockar’s Super Highway Hyundai Boutique

In a sector well overdue for its service, a new arrival in the market is taking off the handbrake on retail innovation and hurtling headlong into the comfortably parked parade of traditional car show-rooms.   …

Underground Connection: A New World in Old Street

In an area of London not short of innovation, and with retail delights and surprises bursting out of every industrial alley way and distressed doorway, the newest players are moving underground, taking residence amongst the newsagents and cobblers of Old Street Station.

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Just arrived on the Northern line, F is the new pop-up store from French Connection., tapping into the trendy clientele commuting from city central. F has taken up residence for seven months, shunting its newest fashions through the festive frenzy with an opportunity to extend should the spring sunshine be generous and favourable to this adventurous arrival.

F is a hybrid shop. It includes a small ladies wear edit collection in its hundred square metres or so, but strategically acts as a collection point for its express ordering service. Whether bought online or in-store French Connection promises to deliver into store for pick-up by five pm the same day, literally allowing customers to arrive as one person and depart back to suburbia fully fashion refreshed.

The F store is part of a wider trend to use transport hubs for ordering and collecting everything from apples and pears to denim skinnies and fashionable flairs. No longer the inconvenience of home delivery, but the lifestyle luxury of never missing a step, or loosing your strides, in the high speed roll-out of Omni-channel opportunities.

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Never an F word spoken, as cool convenience panders to the time paucity of the workforce movers, and French Connection plays to the plaudits and pockets the price indifference.

Do you sell in the most attractive and convenient way, in relation to your customers’ lifestyle and movements? Can they browse and shop with freedom to collect in a place that is best for them?

VM-unleashed monitors and celebrates best practice such as F by French Connection, to advise our clients and make then more profitable.

We have recently worked with one of the world’s most recogniseable  automotive brands on a multi-channel strategy to sell and collect merchandise linking online with retail stores.

tim.radley@vm-unleashed.com

Soho Alive & Kicking: The Jimi Hendrix Experience

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Soho returning to its roots as the 21st Century Jimi Hendrix experience returns to its streets, for a few weeks at least.

 

“People, Hell & Angels” is the latest and most authentic posthumous album from the 60’s guitar hero. And to launch the album a unique Pop-up shop has arrived just off Carnaby Street, in a music launch that captures the life & spirit of that bygone, psychadelic age.

The store is home to the entire Hendrix catalgoue collection, merchandise and memorabilia, but to really soak up the Hendrix experience visit the basement. Here Fender, the instrument of choice for the guitar great, has taken its home for 2 weeks, displaying its range of guitars, with hourly masterclasses on re-creating the Hendrix sound for any budding guitar greats.

A fitting tribute to Soho, and a fitting tribute to Hendrix, brought together again 50 years after.

 

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The Collaboration Club: Monaco Muses & Makers

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Credentials through collaboration, endorsement by association.

 

Club Monaco strengthens its reputation as the effortlessly stylish purveyor of timeless fashions by forming links with a select number of discrete and discerning designers and doyens of quality chic.

From exclusive jewellery and favoured footwear, to accessories for ipads, and facsimilies for footnotes , these hand-selected, hand-makers are the ideal complement to Club Monaco popularity.

Where rubbing shoulders enhances reputations, and creates destinations.

 

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Proof of the Pudding: “Rice is certainly not skin deep!”

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Cast away those pungent memories of school dinner halls – the world has changed. Scratch the surface and “rice is certainly not skin  deep.”

 

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Rice to Riches takes a  staple of world diet and explodes it into popular culture with imagination,  humour and a degree of good taste. If its possible to do so it communicates rice pudding with “its tongue …in its cheek” – don’t try that one at home!

Brand communication both in the stores and on  the website carries a “tone of voice” which is fun, friendly and a little  challenging at times. It succeeds in propelling the scourge of many a school  dinner into a desirable and versatile fast food.

The assortment offers many  imaginative and, it has to be said, delicious flavours and combinations with  fruit, nuts, preserves and sauces.The temptation to explore and experiment is  irresistible. Although don’t expect to be walking that quickly away from the restaurant t the end of your experience.

Rice to Riches is an  exercise in idea development. The concept is fully coordinated across channels  allowing customers to buy in store, click & collect or have the Rice  delivered to your door. Something to consider for Valentine’s Day perhaps.

The brand is beautifully extended across the format into  spoons, bowls and rice accessories to maximize completely a simple yet unique  concept.

Visit the Rice to Riches experience when you’re in New York and get your just desserts!!

 

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Pre-Rapha-lite Revolutuons : Art on Two Wheels

The Rapha showcase store in London’s Soho lives the beautiful life on 2 wheels and is a meeting place, a discussion point, a destination for reverence of the ultimate cycle brand.

 

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Customer experience is core as product excellence blends with expertise and adrenaline for an atmosphere of true-life experiences and coffee with conviviality as cycle life finds a new home.

Community clamour has already actioned a coffee recycling with an extension of the café, with wider menus, expanded capacity and more creature comforts to entice and entrap the curious cyclist and the engrained enthusiast.

Doing the doing, walking the walk, cycling the road and drinking the coffee have become the essential brand component in Selling the sell.

 

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