Case study

4funkyflavours concept store

concept creation: a step- by-step guide

Do you want to be successful in concept creation? Let this page be a guide on how to make a fitting concept to your marketing issue. 

To do this, I'll take you through the development of a recent concept I worked on and walk you through my creation process, divided into 5 steps. The created concept is for 4funkyflavours, a Dutch clothing brand which holds a strong connection with music.

Due to large imagery, I recommend to view on desktop or pinch-to-zoom.

  • Step 1: the Motivation

    The first step in concept development, is the reason why it is necessary to innovate, the motivation. In this case, the motivation lays in two separate marketing objectives:

    • How can we make the brand's origins and inspiration from music more tangible?

    • How can we bring more traffic to the store in the city?

  • Step 2: The situation

    The second step is a quick scan of the whole situation we are dealing with.

    For instance I look at the brand essence of 4funkyflavours, so the core values, vision and branding. But also look at the existing concept carriers, those carriers are the existing products, services, communications and the physical environments.

  • Step 3: The trigger

    The third step is to find a trigger - The trigger is a hook on which you are going to come up with a solution. Where in the current execution of the concept carriers is the brand essence not being properly fulfilled?

    What I see is that in the current design and function of the shop, the essence of the brand is not felt as strong as it could be. For a funky brand, the store is pretty plain and straightforward.

  • Step 4: Insights

    Before we go any further in developing a solution, we first take a look at the behaviour and needs of the consumer and relevant trends. This brings us to the fourth step; doing valuable research and gathering insights. Because you may wonder, is a brick and mortar shop still relevant in a time where online shopping is becoming more and more the norm?

    Read the insights below.

insights

attention and multiexperiences

Capturing consumer emotions is tougher amid short attention spans. By engaging consumers in real-world experiences that extend across various platforms, brands can manage to seize attention. This can be achieved through immersive stores that are visually captivating and offer interactive, multisensory experiences.

reinforcing a connection

Physical stores offer a tangible and sensory shopping experience. Customers can touch, feel, and try products before making a purchase decision. Also a physical storefront contributes to a strong local brand presence, reinforcing the connection between the brand and the community.

COHESIVE OMNICHANNEL EXPERIENCE

However, it should be acknowledged that customers today interact with brands through a multitude of channels, and it seeks to create a unified and cohesive shopping experience across these various touchpoints.

step 5: concept design

The final step is the design of the concept. For this case I thought of a new concept store. This store will be as if a clothing store and a record shop had a baby. 

For this store idea I went back to the roots of the owners of the brand, when they had a successful local record shop, before they started designing clothing. 

Zoom in on the image to find out how I envision how that store will look like.

What 4funkyflavours already does  in terms of infusing music into concept carriers is the following.

  • The name 4funkyflavours finds its origin from the 4 founders of the brand. They all have their own 'funky flavour' which results in that each new season features 4 different main collections. You can see this in the label which features 4 different coloured stripes.

  • The clothes themselves not only have an article number but also a matching song title as article name, which can be found on the label. Of each collection, a playlist is made of the items' songs.

Marketing

A shop that looks 'instagrammable' creates more online visibility, but also offers the opportunity of hosting events and campaigns there.

For instance, the lounge in the shop could accommodate a 'The Only Truth is Music' podcast, DJs can be invited to perform, private shopping nights could be held - the possibilities are endless.

To generate more traffic to the shop and gain more overall exposure, with this outspoken shop design as a backdrop, social media is a natural choice.