Image Credit : Tom Debenham
Project Overview
It was time for Harris Scarfe to get a new look that focused on their core customer. This was part of their overarching strategic objective of making a GREAT store, even more appealing to customers and to eradicate the identifiable core issues around customer movement/wayfinding and navigation through store. As part of the wider store arrangement/layout refresh undertaken by Harris Scarfe parent company Pepkor Asia Pacific; Best. Design to Life were engaged to undertake physical audits of key stores nationwide, report findings back outlining the key customer challenges in the physical retail environment, and provide a new strategic framework for change in the store. The final product is a new hierarchical signage strategy that is underpinned by a suite of custom drawn and refined category icons. The use of iconography by Harris Scarfe is a first in this style of communication design for an Australian retailer. The results speak for themselves; including customer research (focus groups) that solidify the strategy and deployment of this creative as making them 'want to shop' at Harris Scarfe.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Jacob Burke, Director Projects/Creative
Roy Hansen, Project Manager
Nick Pickering, Senior Communication Designer
Tom Debenham, Communication Designer
Yebina Kang; Illustrator
Project Brief
With a new management structure; Harris Scarfe knew that their store network was tired and needed a complete refresh. Despite being Australia's most successful promotional retailer; the offer wasn't resonating and converting enough and change was needed for the business to meet growth objectives as part of their strategic framework. Best. Design to Life were engaged as lead consultants to undertake physical research (live) in the existing environments; to watch customers and their physical behavioural attitudes towards the store and how they navigate once within the lease line. Based upon this, we were challenged to provide a strategic movement framework and design solution that would fundamentally change the way customers perceive the Harris Scarfe experience, make it easier to navigate, propose a new ticketing system that complemented the strategy, and deploy to 12x initial sites across Australia. The solution (when approved, tested and endorsed) will be rolled out progressively to their 75 stores nationwide in conjunction with the refresh program together with being applied to new store builds.
Project Innovation/Need
Department store experiential design is fairly 'same-same' across the board in Australia. Once the audit data was in and rationalised for Harris Scarfe as the initial stage of the process, it was evident that we needed to ideate and craft a design and strategy framework that would send a dramatic signal of change to the customer. Armed also with recently endorsed customer profiling data for the brand's 'core customer' - we confidently worked through the deployment of iconography right from the outset. Iconography is a globally accepted identification mode of communication design; and it perfectly aligned with the repositioning of the brand to target their newly identified core customer. In first presenting this creative direction (in context of the wider hierarchical signage framework) - there were mixed opinions. However, once we had endorsement to proceed; the crafting of custom illustrated (by hand) icons for each of the category departments to align with the form, shape and colour of the Harris Scarfe brand suite - it quickly came to life in vector form and was embedded in the internal thinking of Harris Scarfe. This solution really is 'new' for department store experiential graphic design for the retail landscape in Australia.
Design Challenge
The challenges of this project were many; stakeholder engagement and management, varied thoughts and ideas within Harris Scarfe about what the 'change' solution needed to be, timing and of course cost to implement (it is retailing after all). Best. Design to Life always works in a collaborative manner and immediately applied our trusted project management process to the project and effected clear stakeholder responsibilities - imperatively combined with hurdle deadlines. In hitting each and every presentation with work that was underpinned by evidence and strategy at every stage; the process confidently moved forward at rapid pace to ensure the 12 stores could be deployed in conjunction with Harris Scarfe operation and build programme requirements. Once approved, Best. Design to Life also managed the site allocation and deployment process; ensuring that the 12 sites reflected identically what our customer-centric strategy and hierarchical strategic placement of elements within store was achieved. Despite all of these - every store in the test case was deployed and reviewed. We hit our milestone and objectives with a dramatic transformational experiential designed solution.
Effectiveness
The differences between 'old' and 'refreshed' are dramatic and immediately evident (even in the customer journey stage of 'on approach' to the lease line!) The store layout and base colour palette is brighter, cleaner and there is a demonstrated philosophy to 'open, clear navigation space' for the customer in the new spatial planning. Gone is the clutter, confusion of the old signage - we have new welcome points, store map introducing the icon suite, and the deployment of the category department icons throughout combined with the individual brand signage (stocked within categories) is clear concise, consistent and easy to navigate. Above all, it creates clear navigation sight lines from all aspects of the customer journey within store and aides in a natural movement pattern for the customer as their journey progresses. The research data commissioned by Harris Scarfe Marketing emphatically endorses the use of Harris Scarfe customised iconography by the core-customer as making them 'want' to shop in-store; and that each category is so clearly identified; they believed that Harris Scarfe stocked items they never knew they did before. As a first for a department store; this solution resonates with the core customer. Job; done!!
Graphic Design - Environmental
This award celebrates creativity and innovation in the intersection of communication design and the built environment, and is concerned with the visual aspects of wayfinding, communication identity and brands, information design and shaping the idea of place. Consideration given to clarity of communication and the matching of information style to audience.
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