Waterstones

Now part of HMV Group, Waterstone's first opened in Old Brompton Road, London, in 1982 and currently trades from more than 300 stores, on high streets and in shopping centres, and through numerous university campuses in the UK, Republic of Ireland and continental Europe (Brussels and Amsterdam) as well as on the Isle of Man, Jersey and the Isle of Wight.

No two Waterstone's bookshops are the same. Sophisticated stock management systems ensure that each bookshop has its own unique range profile and space at the front of store to promote a choice of books picked by that branch. These 'Recommends' bays are genuine staff picks.

An average sized Waterstone's store merchandises a range of around 30,000 individual books, with 200,000 titles in the largest store. With over one million books in print, and around 120,000 new consumer titles published every year (compared with around 10,000 in the 1950s), the expert recommendations and advice of the company's booksellers are key ingredients in its success.

Summary of brief

Upon first look at the brief, I was really happy that I could relate to it in many ways. The main thing I was happy about was that the whole brief was based
around football and the fact that Project X and Waterstones are using the Premier League as a medium to encourage young boys to read more.
I have a wide knowledge about football, I watch the majority of televised games and I regulary attend my teams home matches when Im not away at uni. So my knowledge of the game and the enviroment will help me produce
different ideas and my progression through the brief.

Product/Service

Waterstone’s is a high street bookstore selling a wide range of books for all
subjects.

‘Discover something new’ - Strap line for Waterstones.
http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/home.do

Branding

Usp, Unique selling point of product/service -

After looking at Waterstone’s website they claim there mission is to be the leading bookseller on the highstreet and online providing customers the widest choice, great value and expert advice from a team passionate about books.

http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/navigate.do?pPageID=100000002



Usp, Unique selling point of a competitor producing the same or similar product or service

Amazon - Amazon is a web-based store who also sell books but have a wider range of products like DVD’s, CD’’s, Software for computers and clothing.

Amazon’s strap line is ‘and your done’ I think this is there unique selling point making the customer believe that they don’t have to go anywhere else.


Brand Promise-

Waterstone’s promise that there mission is to be the leading bookseller on the highstreet and online providing customers the widest choice, great value and expert advice from a team passionate about books.

On their website they show facts and figures from surveys and polls to show there leaders for customer satisfaction etc

http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/navigate.do?pPageID=100000003


Brand perception-

I think that customer will see that Waterstone’s as an upmarket bookstore but with their committed staff and how the shop is run, new customers won’t hesitate to go in.

Semiotics and paradigms

This collection of images make up the badges of the premier leaugue, every badge is similar in the sense that it has an idividual identity of the town or city where its based.

Created by CHI & Partners, part of Waterstone’s new branding ‘Discovery’ the campaign was made to inform the wealth of books that can be discovered in Waterstones stores. The ads were seen on television over the Christmas period.
The adverts are film based, they are made to be light-hearted humour ads taking a spin on the first moon landing in 1969. With it being a spin from a previous decade there was a mixture of black and white shots to give off a sentimental feeling.
There wasn’t alot of press coverage for the initial adverts but there was an article on http://www.thebookseller.com that highlighted that Waterstone’s has good plans for the upcoming year building on the ‘Discovery Campaign”.
I think the USP was communicated slightly in the concept of the ad but was not overly focused upon.
http://www.chiandpartners.com/#/work/waterstones/campaign/discovery/

Target audience profile

My target audience are male, they aged 4 upwards but focussing towards the 9-11 age group

Demographic details

My target is based in the United Kingdom, but with the coverage of the Premier League the adverts I will produce can been seen worldwide. As the league is played in England, the majority of the target audience will live there. The majority of the teams that play in the league are either city based or they are from large towns. Cities such as Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, London, Hull, Stoke, Sunderland, Middlesbrough. Towns such as Wigan, Blackburn, Bolton, Aston Villa, West Brom, Because football has become a popular sport, it is no longer considered a working class game, but still followed greatly by the working class aswell as richer societies. My target can live anywhere from terrace houses to mansions.

Income details

Income are none applicable to 9-11 year old boys, some may have paper rounds which don’t pay enough for the Goverment to tax, others rely mainly on the generousity of parents for pocket money which is usually going to spent on sweets, football stickers, stink bombs etc

Leisure details

9-11 year olds like playing out in the street and parks, playing football, collecting football stickers, pogs and playing computer games.

Playing computer games is an expensive thing for a parent, depending on console the averages price can range from £200-£400 and depending on game they range from about £10-£50.

Football is also an expensive game, going to the match can cost between £10-£60 for the ticket depending on the stature of the club, there is also additional cost like match programmes, food and drink and travel expenses.

If the child plays football the equipment can add up as well, seeing there heroes wearing the newest boots week in week out influences a child to want to have the same, replica boots average around £30 in kids sizes and replica football kits average around £40 before a name and number of the players are added.

http://www.jjbsports.com/football-kits/premiership/liverpool
http://www.jjbsports.com/football-kits/premiership/manchester-united
http://www.jjbsports.com/football-kits/premiership/chelsea
http://www.jjbsports.com/footwear/juniors/football-boots
http://www.game.co.uk/

Relationship with product or service

Young boys interest in reading books should start as early as possible even before they enter school, interaction with a book should start with the parents reading bedtime stories and the encouragement will help the children to read more and make reading more of a hobbie than something that they think they have to do.

http://senorparrot.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/stockxpertcom_id347003_size1.jpg
http://newine.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/obamas-read-to-kids-2-3-2009.jpg

Choice of communication design

All my concepts have to be produced using typography only which is stated
in the brief. My objective is not to use the aspects of Waterstones USP it is
to inform young boys about waterstones.
The colours I have decided to use are the colours of the teams in the
Premier leauge, Liverpool = red, Evterton = blue etc. The tone of voice for my campaign is informative.

My campaign strategy

I have 9/10 weeks to complete this brief, the campaign is directed towards Premier league the adverts will be placed in football stadiums up and down the country.
Each advert will placed on advertising hoardings around the football pitch and upper tiers of stadiums. The ads will be seen from late summertime until late spring as the season runs from August to early May. The best thing about the time of the season is that it runs the same time as the academic terms in school so promoting the campaign in schools makes it more visible to the child.

http://www.whiteribboncampaign.co.uk/case-studies/images/14.jpg
http://funpresident.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/anek_001.jpg

Can I have a vowel please Carol.....

For this project I have to produce a bespoke piece of copy that will be seen around Premier League ground, recently I was informed of a website that had all types of design and imagery that I would find inspirational.  As my adverts will be word based I wanted to see how others use words and phrases in there work...

Here are some of examples that I really liked..

  

http://ffffound.com/

 

Project X - Books for boys

Project X is a new guided reading programme that started in January 2009.  They claim their content is truly 'boy friendly'.  

Following  the adventures of well-loved characters is widely acknowledge as one of the best ways to hook young children into reading.  Max, Cat, Ant and Tiger and their exciting adventures are the driving force of Project X.  Their story runs throughout the books from school entry level to age 9 and provides a story arch that is 'guaranteed' to entrall all children.

After looking at the Project X website I can came across a video presentation of how the whole campaign works.  They were explaining the use of character and saying they used 3d art to appeal to the so called 'Playstation Generation', ok the artwork is very nice but I think its a very bland idea to use this approach.  If they wanted to appeal to the 'Playstion Generation' then instead of creating characters to resemble it then why not make the whole thing an interactive experience.

Over recent years Nintedo has been bringing out education games like the Brain Training that is inspired by Japanese neuroscientist Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, the interaction with the game and other family members will encourage younger children to get involved.  Instead of the normal paper based books or by using 3d to make something look attractive, they shouldn't try to beat but join it.

www.oup.com/oxed/primary/projectx/?gclid=CN7m6tSwxJkCFYU-3godGSrquQ