Visit a popular store, like an Apple reseller, Nike, Levi’s, H&M or Ikea. The brand should be well-known, and you must visit a shop where their products are displayed or distributed. In smaller towns, you may not have access to these stores. In this case, you’ll need to find a section showcasing these items and view how they are displayed or laid out.
Before going to the shop, determine the following about their brand identity and, once at the shop, evaluate how they remain true or untrue to their brand identity. How is the brand identity enhanced (or perhaps, not expressed) at the point of customer interaction? Hand in a write-up with photos of the following:
- The branding element they are using in their logo (e.g. abstract mark or wordmark).
The brands using a wordmark logo in a sans serif typeface that says «H&M», its always bright red and easy to spot.
- What you think their brand positioning is.
HM is positioned as one of the leading fast fashion brands out there. Its a go-to shop for almost everyone, they have clothes and accessories for all genders and all ages. They are known for «cheap» and affordable clothes but usually good quality anyways.
- How do they remain true to their brand positioning within their shops and brand identity?
They remain true to their brand positioning by offering trendy and fashionable clothes to kids and adults to an affordable price. Even though most of the clothes are fast fashion (typically not good for the environment) they seem to save themselves with recycled clothes. They have a line called HM conscious for this.
- Evaluate the customer experience according to the brand positioning. (For example, if the brand positioning is ‘innovation’, do you get a sense of that when you visit the outlet?)
The store I visited was the flagship store at Karl Johan in Oslo. This store is over 4000 squaremeters and looks a bit more luxurious as other HM stores. It still has the same simple white canvas, such as the walls and floors which all the other stores have. It looks very tidy and clean. When you first walk into this store it might not look like they sell cheap clothing but that’s a good thing I suppose.
- Evaluate the visual display of the products according to the brand ideal. (For example, if the brand ideal is ‘value’, is this expressed in how they display the products?)
The products are displayed very neat and tidy, with the latest fashion trends everywhere. Even though their ideal is affordable and for all it looks a bit more high-end when you look around, but that’s probably because I visited the flagship store.
AHV design 