Week 17- The Last Week

This week the focus was on tying everything together, finishing up my research folder, completing my portfolio and creating my 3D aspects. I had continued my research as I progressed with this project, printing as I went along so completed it didn't take me too long, it was mainly development of my promotional ideas. I wanted to include all the different designs I created to highlight that I tried several different ideas before picking the final outcome. When compiling my research and development boards I wanted to keep them as relevant as possible as in a lot of cases they are all people will look at to see where the idea has came from. The design is consistent across all 4 boards.

I got my 3D aspects and portfolio professionally printed on Tues 14th to give me time to fix up any mistakes I came across. I really like how my promotion looked when printed, the colours are really vibrant and I think they all work really well as a collection.

Once I had completed my 3D aspects (cut out, assembled etc) I had a play around with the design layout for my table. Since the artificial grass I am going to use is the right depth I marked out on the floor the proper width so i could see how much room I will have. I was unsure whether to leave white space either side of the grass but I felt it made the display look unfinished so I filled them up with the leaflet design. Front to the left and the reverse side to the right. i wanted to keep the whole display symmetrical as I feel it makes it look more professional. The cups will be placed in the middle of the table acting as the main focus.

I got the rest of my postcards printed on Friday leaving me the weekend in case I think of other parts to go in the research.

Now that the project is over on reflection I feel I have managed my time rather well, I think if I hadn't of kept up research throughout I would of been panicking more towards the end but from previous experiences I knew I wanted to keep on top of it. In terms of design I am quite impressed with what I was able to achieve.I wanted to keep it as fun as possible in a quite cartoon like manner which I think turned out well. I gave myself plenty of time between printing and actual deadlines so I could really check they turned out how I wanted to. I feel this project reflects my design abilities well and will hopefully work well in my favour when it comes to interviews.

Week 16- Art Board Completed and Sent

The main focus of last week was to complete my art board, get it checked and sent to print. I took on board the comments Paz said about what needed changed and sent him the final piece on Wed 8th ready to be sent on the 9th. My finished board layout I was happy with as I felt it showed of the work well without each item getting lost since it is all very graphic.

Now that it has been sent I have moved back to focusing on my research folder and 3D aspects. As I fixed up my research folder (mainly development of my promotional ideas) I took out the most relevant aspects to use them for my research and development boards. I didn't want them to look to messy so I tried to keep the text to a minimum. For the design of the boards I adapted the summer scene that is present in a lot of my promotion and used it as the header and footer of each board to keep the consistent and flow from one to the other. My aim is to get these printed on Mon 13th May allowing me plenty of time to change them if they don't look as good on paper and need a few edits.

The items I have left to do are the design the media and campaign plans on their A3 boards, complete the 3D aspects and finish up and last bits of research to make it all flow together. My postcards and leaflets are already designed and just need to be printed professionally to get the right finish on them. I will also start mocking up how I want my final table to look so it works well with the final board layout eg don't place the tall items in front of a design on the board.

On reflection of the last week I feel quite confident on how my work load is panning out. Especially now that the promotion has been sent to print, I feel that the final deadline is well within reach in terms of what I have to do and I feel I have the relevant time to get it done to the best of its ability.

Week 15- Art Board Layout

Now that the only thing left to do is the promotional aspects it is a lot easier to tie up all the lose ends that the marketing report has been handed in. The layout of the the art board is very important especially for me as all my designs are very graphic. I need to be careful when placing my images as I don't want them to get lost and start blending into each other. I originally want to include my website designs, 2 social media, Lush Times front cover, cup designs, van in context and the instruction foldout but discovered it makes the board far too busy. I cut back the promotion by taking out the foldout as it will already be on the table as one of my 3D aspects, I think I will just make more of them so they are still fully appreciated as a lot of design work went into creating them. To create more white space on my board I imputed the van with a plain white background along the bottom in its various forms.

I have tried to keep the layout as stripped back as possible so it doesn't look too busy, I have booked a tutorial on tues to go over the design before it is sent for print on Thurs. On evaluation of this week I feel I am on top of the work that I need to do. I have created a list of what is left:

1. Sort out the layout 
2. Create and print postcards and flyers
3. Create 3D aspects
4. Print logo onto apron
5. Fix up research
6. Complete research/development boards
7. Print promotion for portfolio

My aim is to have all this completed by next thurs so then I have the weekend to fix up and lose ends that  will make my end result look as good as it possibly can. After thurs (9th May) I can focus on the 3D aspects as they will take up the most time to complete.

Week 14- Marketing Report Done

On Thurs, 25th April was the deadline for the marketing report. Up until then I focused primarily on that and made sure the promotional aspects I was including were at a high enough standard to show how the campaign will look. I got it finished in good time (Mon 22nd) allowing me time to check it over and get it printed before the rush happened the day before. Since I designed my report to be double sided I decided on a ring bind as the pages would be easier read this way. The overall printed copy turned out really well, the promotional aspects came out very vibrant and really showed off the detail in the design. I am happy with the outcome produced. In terms of time management of the report I feel I dealt with it quite well. I gave myself many targets to complete and I think this kept me on track up to the hand in date.

Now that the report is completed I need to go back and look at the promotion for the board. I feel that I have done enough promotion to work from for the board instead of creating even more. I will include more options in the research folder but the main aspects have already been designed and just need touched up and edited slightly. I have started creating mock up boards to try and see how it will all look. I like how I have kept everything consistent so when they are placed beside each other on the board it is obvious they are for the same brand and campaign. 

My aim this week is to finalise the promotion I want on the board and make the necessary tweaks to them so they look the best they can be. My over all aim is to get the promotion completed by the time we have the computer room booked in class (Thurs 2nd) as then all I have to do is the layout.

Week 13- 1 Month to go..

Today marks the 1 month mark until the whole project is handed in and third year is officially over. I feel confident I am on track to get all the work completed in time and to the standard I want. Over the past week I have focused on fixing up my marketing report and laying out my campaign and media plan. I brought these to tutorial on thurs to check I was on the right track and I got a few pointers to change but overall it is good. The hand in of the marketing report is this thurs (25th April) so this week I am going to focus mainly on the layout of the report. I want to print it double sided as it fits well with my design ideas. My aim is to get it finished this weekend and get it printed on Mon which allows me time to amend and print again if needs be. In terms of my promotional aspects I feel the pieces I put in my report won't need much changing for the boards as I have spent a great deal of time already making sure they look their best. If I do change stuff it won't be drastic and will still resemble what is in the report.

I need to make sure the overall report isn't too big to fit on the CD for the digital version. For the digital version I will need to change the layout slightly as it will be PDF and will not open like a book like the printed version will. They will still look consistent just the page numbers and titles changed slightly to fit better with the PDF style.

After hand in on thurs it will be back to focusing on the promotional aspects. I need to print off all that I have done so far and have a play around with ideas of how I want my board to look. Also need to start thinking of what I need to get to create my 3D aspects.

On reflection of this week I feel if I keep up the work ethic I have been on I will be well on track by Thurs to hand in my report confidently knowing I have done all that I could do. 

Week 12- Back in Preston

Now that I am back in Preston after the Easter holidays I feel I have achieved the amount of work I wanted to get done over the period of being at home. I am now at the point where the majority of my design is completed but some parts still need tweaking to keep it all consistent when it is displayed on the boards.

This week I have focused primarily on the promotional aspects as I wanted to get them read up so I can input the visuals into my report (due a week on Thurs) I changed the original cup design to look more like a smoothie cup by adding a dome lid. I have purchased several of these for the 3D aspect at my final show. I will have these displayed with the cup holders I designed.

I also created the Facebook and Twitter pages for Lush Juice, for the imagery I tried to keep it as summery and fresh looking as possible as it will be the main links. Instead of focusing on the campervan (like a lot of the other promotion) I focused on the cups themselves and displayed them in a typical advertising display, one large in the front with two behind either side. I think they turned out well and still hold the Lush branding.

This week coming I am going to set aside the promotion again and focus mainly on the report as the deadline is approaching. I need to check over all the information I have included and start developing the creative format I want to present it in.

Week 11- 10,000 words

This week I had a solid week of work as I wanted to get as much done as possible before heading back to Preston on Sunday. I focused mainly on the festival scene as I knew it would take a while to look the way I wanted it too. I had a play around with adding people into the scenario or just leaving it without, I prefer without as I think it makes the main focus on the camper van, I will make my final decision when I show my designs when I'm back in uni. 

The other design aspect I looked at this week was the  Lush Times front cover and article. I made the text very fun yet informative to keep it with the usual style of writing found in Lush Times. The article design still needs development to decide what works the best. I like how the apples can act like hearts for the front cover, double meaning. 

I finished the Place part of the report and focused on the Vectors. I need to get them checked over as I am not sure I have covered the right details for each of the 4 sections. I have reached 10,000 words but theres still parts I need to add in. By next week I want to get all the information I want in the report included and then start going back and taking out parts thats are irrelevant to make sure I am within the word count.

Also this week I want to go back over all the different design work I have already done to see what bits I want to use and develop and what parts won't work as well. Then I can really start finishing up the loose ends.

I feel confident with where I am at the minute with my report and design. I feel I will get the work I intend to do done over the next few weeks in time for hand in.

Week 10- Design

This week I split the days to progress with both my marketing report and my design elements. 

In terms of the marketing report, I re-read what I had already done to check for grammatical errors and to make sure I have included all the quotes I had previously got through research. After this I looked over the vectors powerpoint again to make sure I understood what information I had to include I then progressed with the report adding in a persuasion table on how each form of promotion will target the right customer. I think this makes it easier to see why I am doing the promotional techniques I have chosen. I also completed the Vectors section of the report. I am now at 8,600 words. The bits I still need to finish are the summary and include more information about each festival in the Place section. Mainly focusing on why I have chosen that particular festival and what makes it suitable for the launch of Lush Juice. 

Design this week I focused on the information leaflet about growing an apple tree that will be found on the inside of the cup holder. I really wanted to make it as graphic as possible and to make it fun and easy for children to understand. Through research I found that it is a nice aspect to promote the tree in a way that represents the child growing up, as in the tree will grow up with them and it will be the first living thing they have the responsibility to look after. Overall I like the design so far, it will be made up of 3 slides back and front and will fold nicely making it compact enough to fit into the envelope on the cup holder. I think this is a better idea than the flipbook as it is keeping everything together instead of handing out a flipbook as well as the drink. I am going to get it professionally printed to see what further alterations I need to make in terms dimensions and how clear the text is.

I also had a look at placing my branded camper van into the actually festival scene it would appear at. I tried super imposing it into a field setting but didn't think it gave the design justice. I decided to create a complete graphic festival scene so the campervan would look right in place. This will be my main focus on my final board as it makes up a nice scene.

I also photographed various fruit and vegetables to see if I will use them in my designs. I have had a play around on photoshop with the colours and style. I like how vibrant I can make the colours, this is something I could use for the postcards. 

My plan for this week is to continue with the festival scene graphics and print them to see what way it would look on the board, also start my designs for the Lush Times front page and article. 

For the marketing report I am going to get the place section completed.

Overall I feel I got the work I wanted to do this week completed and I feel I am on track in terms of getting all the designs done on time.

Week 9- Time Management

This week I organised all the different aspects I still have to do by making lists and sorting out my time management so I am using my time efficiently to get all the different parts done in time to the best of my ability.

In terms of design I have placed the blenders into the pop up to start on the design of the actual juice bar equipment for the campervan. I also started looking at various postcard designs for the instore promotion. Fruit textures have so many natural designs that if I combined various ones together I could form a special unique pattern that could be used for various different aspects of my promotion. I had a look at the 'Original Source' brand for more inspiration into design ideas, ingredients in their products are very important to their promotion ideas so looking back at their various campaigns showed me nice ways to approach the right target customer. 

 This week coming I will focus more on this aspect by photographing various fruit textures inside and out to play around with on Photoshop to develop various designs. I will apply these designs to the main body of the camper van to see if they work better than just keeping it green. 

I have now reached the halfway point of the marketing report, before I continue with it anymore I am going to print it out and re-read to make sure I have all the relevant quotes in place. The 6 P's need most of the attention as they are the main body explaining why I am doing what I am doing, especially the Promotion section. 

My plan for the week ahead is to have a look at the fruit texture design idea and mock up several different promotion ideas to see if it is something I would like to use, continue with the marketing report with at least another 1000words done.

Week 8- Interim Crit

This week on the run up the interim crit I tried to get as many visuals done as possible so I could talk about my promotion ideas and get the best possible feedback. Since the pop-up juice bar is the main aspect of my campaign I drew it from a variety of different angles keeping with the colour scheme of the Lush Logo. I redesigned the Lush logo slightly to come up with Lush Juice logo. It keeps with the same font as the original logo to keep it consistent and familiar to the original Lush customer.

I made a trial version of the flipbook to see if I was doing it the right way, I only did slides for the seed growing out of the ground. Other ideas I had a play around with are the large fruit art attack that would be photographed for different print forms of promotion.

At the interim crit I got good feedback for my designs so far, I just need to keep the styling consistent throughout, don't change the layout of the logo etc and have a look at other ways I could brand the van as at the minute it is just green, maybe add a texture or something. 

Now that I am home for Easter the next step is to try and get all the basic designs completed by the time I return and majority of the actual marketing report so then I can have the time after Easter to try and fix up parts and focus on the creative format of the report.

Week 7- Promotion

Since last week I have been away to Barcelona on the third year research trip. It was a good opportunity to experience a different culture and get ideas into my promotional aspects for my campaign. The part I found most useful was the food market. They had an array of different fresh fruit and veg but displayed beautifully. The stalls never looked empty, practically overflowing with produce. The arrangement was cleverly done. I thought this was good research as I the ingredients are a big selling point for my product. The market also had several juice and smoothie stalls that arranged them via colour. It did make the stall very appealing to the eye. Some also had stick placed about the drinks with actual different pieces of fruit attached to show customers what the ingredients were in each drink. This is an aspect I could adopt for my own juice bar.

When I got back I primarily thought about my promotion as I wanted to get a start on my designs before the interim crit. I began with the pop-up. Since I have decided against an actual stand alone pop-up made from reclaimed wood, I am going with the VW campervan as the juice bar. It will be a recycled old campervan done up with the Lush juice branding. Through research of different take away transport I found a campervan style that opens at the top to become a bar. I thought this would work best for my product. Also makes the pop-up easily transported from festival to festival. 

I found an image of the campervan style I liked and drew round it on illustrator to make my own. I modified it to fit with how I wanted and aapplied my colour scheme (achieved by various in-store images of the Lush stores, packaging, logo etc)

On reflection of the work I have done this week I feel my illustrator pen skills have definitely improved as I am happy with my design work so far. It is only beginning but I am happy I have visuals to show my promotion ideas at the interim crit. 

This week I am going to try and get the cup design started as it is one of the main promotional items of my campaign. I will try several different designs regarding the seeds in the cupholder idea and see what fits the best.   

Week 6- Intro done, back to promotion

After the tutorial on Thursday regarding the introduction I had to change a few grammatical errors and add in a few sentences but overall Steve was happy with it. I sorted out my Contents List, instead of going by the general marketing report guidelines I change around some of the titles to make the report a more interesting read instead of completely structured. I will still be covering all the required aspects but not under the same headings. (Mainly just for the market segment)

Now that the introduction is done I went back to thinking about the promotional aspects I am going to use to really sell my new product. The promotion ideas really work alongside the report so I need to get my ideas solid before tackling the 6Ps. 

I want to keep my promotion as Eco-friendly as I can to fit in with the Lush brand ethos. Through research I think the pop-up should resemble a very natural looking environment. The structure will be made out of reclaimed wood with a lot of natural produce about to really emphasis the ingredients in the products. Maybe in a treehouse style? Very open plan to make it approachable.

Another idea I had was to do a similar idea to the eco-friendly swingtags levi's did a few years back, where customers could plant their swingtag to grow a tree. For my juice bar I thought it would be a nice way to get children involved since the pop-up will be at family friendly festivals. Either the cupholder or a compartment at the bottom of the cup will have seeds in it so they could grow their own apple tree after they have finished their drink. Good for the environment and giving children the incentive to want one.
It will be accompanied by a illustrated book of instructions showing how to look after the tree etc.
In Mondays tutorial Louise gave me the good idea of making a flipbook to accompany it, its a nice form of promotion and I feel would work well with the overall style of my promotion. If I make illustrations for the flipbook those graphics could be the basis of the rest of the promotion.

For next week I am going to get all my promotional ideas set in stone and start working on a few designs. On reflection I want to have a good start on my promotion to show at my interim crit (11th March) so I can get the best feedback possible.

Week 5- The Customer

This week I have collected more research about organic products and sustainable methods different brands have took to reduce their carbon footprint. I have decided to put the campaigns Lush are involved with on the back burner and focus primarily on these two aspects as I feel they will be more beneficial when it comes to promoting my idea. Campaigns Lush have promoted in the past can be a bit overwhelming and off putting for customers whereas I want to promote my idea in a fun welcoming way.

The main thing I got finalised this week was the target customer of the Lush Juice bar. 16-35 age range, 70% female/30% male, AB primary and C1C2 secondary.
To make it clear I have included a detailed customer profile of a typical primary customer. I had this checked in a tutorial with Steve to clarify I am targeting the right audience.

As mentioned in my last post the introduction checks are this Thurs so I began writing my report. I went back through my research folder picking out the relevant quotes to make the introduction as interesting and informative as possible. The key points I wanted to get across are how health and convenience are an ongoing trend and how organic is set to make a turn around in 2014. 

On reflection of this week I feel I am set to continue with the writing of the report although I will wait to see if my introduction is right before I continue with the rest. In the meantime I will research more into the promotion I am thinking of using to promote my idea. 

Week 4- Animal testing or Organic?

Last week I decided I needed to further my primary research so I conducted a questionnaire and sent it out via different digital means to get a variety of different age ranges. I sent it out via email to the older population and through facebook and twitter to get the younger customer, which I feel will be the target customer for my product but the results in the questionnaire will make this more clear. I asked a variety of different questions about the Lush brand, thoughts on organic products and if they feel there is room in the market for my idea.
To get as many responses as possible I will repost several times before calculating my findings.

I revisited Mintel to get a better idea of my customer as that is what we were discussing in class. I looked at reports surrounding Organic produce and Healthy lifestyles. This made me come to the conclusion that the customer I am targeting will be under 35, both male and female but main interest lying with female. AB socio-economic, living in an urban environment outside the city. They would have a healthy lifestyle and diet. They care about the environment and try their best to do right by it, even if it is just recycling their old products packaging. They take care in their appearance and what they put on their skin. Are vegetarian or have an interest in vegetarian cooking. This is primarily the core customer but with a product like a juice bar the customer appeal is quite vast as in terms of just the organic aspect there are loads of reasons why people buy into it e.g. its fashionable to purchase organic products.

I had a tutorial with Steve to try and get my research in order as I felt I had loads but needed direction into narrowing it down to fit my campaign. We discussed breaking it down focusing on pro's and con's of each aspect. The main contenders where the animal testing campaign that Lush already do a lot of back for and Organic products. 

From carrying this out I feel the organic route fits best especially since Mintel state that consumer behaviour towards buying Organic products is meant to make a big return in 2014 so it makes my campaign have grounds to stand on.

On reflection from what I have done last week I feel I have carried out the right type of research and now have it organised with the vital parts noted to make it easier when it comes to writing my marketing report.
Since next thurs is the introduction and contents checks I am going to start writing my report this week.

Week 3- Continued Research

From last week I have continued with my research to try and narrow down exactly what my idea is going to be. We had proposal submission tutorials to help make my idea clear. From discussion with Louise and Paz we felt that it is best that my idea is launched outside the existing stores as the scent present could inflict people purchasing the product. 

My original plan for this week was to go to the Liverpool Store/Spa but situations didn't allow me to carry that out, I went to the store in Preston instead. 

I decided last week I needed to branch out my research into more primary research to really show the need for this new product launch by Lush. I went instore to the Preston Lush store and the staff where very helpful. I asked one of the younger staff members Heather a few question about the store, brand and her thoughts on this new addition to the brand. Overall I got some good quotes to back up my reasoning. The main point I took away from the interview was she made me aware of Lushfest, a festival that happens every year in Poole. From researching into it it made me think that launching the juice bars at festivals is a fitting idea as I could definitely see it as another addition at Lushfest. They currently have outside companies come in with different healthy food options so if the brand had their own drink products on sale it would benefit the brand.

On reflection of this week I still need to get more primary research so I am going to conduct a questionnaire aimed at the age group the juice bars will be aimed at to find out their interest in the product, finish up my proposal and get it checked before sent on to Tracey and continue with my research. 

Evaluation of the week: I feel I am at the right stage of research for the timescale of the project as I feel what I am finding is still really relevant. I think I will start writing in the next week even if it is just my introduction. 

Week 2- Research/ First Tutorial

Now that I have decided on the route/brand I am taking I can start my relevant research. To begin I looked into the actual brand Lush to find as much as I can about their ethos, campaigns involved in and what promotions they have done before for an insight into how the brand works.

I have also looked at reports on Mintel about the brand, its direct competitor at the minute (bodyshop) and its competitors in the juice/smoothie market for ideas of whats already out there. From looking on Mintel there is definitely enough of a profit made my Lush to expand their business with my new idea. Mintel even stated they feel there is room for expansion so it backs up my idea. I also looked at reports about healthy living and organic products to see what the market is like for such items at current times.

On reflection of this I feel I need to find statistics that clearly back up the need for more healthy take away options like a smoothie bar to show the demand is high.

From looking on Coolhunting, trendhunter etc I have found several articles about sustainability in products now. I think this is something I should really focus on as it fits well with the Lush brands ethos.

During my tutorial with Steve we discussed the sustainable idea and connecting it with the campaigns Lush support to help the environment. We felt this is a worthwhile route to go down as it can appeal to customers emotionally.

The next stage is to further my research with this idea, see what is already out their in terms of sustainability in similar products or find an idea I can adopt to work for my idea. Also going to visit the largest Lush store in the world (Liverpool) to get more primary research.

Week 1- The Beginning..

Brief received..
FM3022- Final Promotional Campaign

We received the brief on Mon 21st and went through all the details to make us understand what we needed to do. Originally when I submitted my proposal with my PDP project my idea was to launched the Irish drinks brand West Coast Cooler into the English Market. From discussing the 5ITs in class about that idea I had a re-think as I didn't want to produce just another run of the mill campaign. I want it to stand out and get me the best mark possible. On further reflection I researched broadly into what is happening in the marketing world and just the world in general to try and spark and new more innovative idea. From this time of year I came across a lot about healthy living, exercise etc so considered stemming something from that craze.

The idea came to me when I was looking at product reviews on blogs. The brand Lush have always been very passionate about natural organic things with all their products handmade and full of natural ingredients, because of this it made me think about expanding the brand to open a juice/smoothie bar with all freshly made drinks. The interior will be similar to the store keeping everything as environmentally friendly as they can with recycled cardboard for cups and POS etc. 

On evaluation of this idea I think I could do so many things to make it innovative and the design aspects opens so many opportunites.

The next stage is to further research into the brand and to see what similar services are out there at the minute.