What She's Wearing

What She’s Wearing

So after the stress of thinking I’d lost the 2 and a half hours worth of work that I did last night on my blog after my laptop crashed, I was ecstatic to find it had been recovered and was in my draft folder :) So this is what I was trying to post last night, I hope you find our idea interesting....


Hi all

It's monday evening and the end of module 2. I'm exhausted but I wanted to update you guys on the rest of last week and the pitching today...

As I mentioned in my last post, we all came up with our own business idea for this task which everyone really believed in. However, we had to make a team decision and pick one idea that we were to develop and present to the panel. Last week we learnt about the importance of letting go of our own ideas in support of the team decision. Although this was difficult to do, we all agreed that the final chosen business idea was innovative, creative and ambitious which was an important part of the brief. We all sacrificed our individual ideas and got behind our new team idea.

So our big online business idea is ..... ‘What She’s Wearing’ (WSW)

No one in the clothes retailing space offers immediacy... until now. WSW is our new ‘point-know-buy’ revolutionary shopping experience. We disrupt current shopping habits by making fashion ‘immediate, relevant and effortlessly accessible’.

WSW is essentially a mobile app which uses image recognition software to identify clothing items and accessories anywhere. Once the item has been recognised, the user is directed to the product on the brand’s website for immediate purchase.

Brainstorming session

The insight behind WSW is that women want to be able to see something they want and buy it immediately, but they cannot! You may ask your friend where their bag is from, but knowing that it’s from Topshop doesn’t really help, you still have to go to the Topshop website and trawl through the accessories section until you find it. The WSW app is the answer to this problem!

The USP of the WSW app is the immediacy of the purchase. ‘Shoot’ whatever you want and be directed straight to purchase. Simple. You can ‘shoot’ an item from the web (e.g. facebook/instagram pictures, on blogs), from an image in a magazine/newspaper, something your friend is wearing, something you see someone wearing on the street or something you see someone wearing on the TV.

The WSW mobile app is also supported by a website, which can be used to ‘hang’ the item up in your virtual wardrobe until payday or until your friend has offered their opinion. Your wardrobe is a private area where only you and your friends can access. From here you can discuss potential purchases with your friends, compare opinions and co-ordinate on potential outfits.

Users can also ‘ask’ the global ‘dressing room’ if anyone knows where they can track down a particular item and consumers can suggest alternatives to each other. The dressing room is a public space where anyone can converse with anyone else. This option may be used if a certain item hasn’t been recognised and the user is not interested in a brand’s paid for alternative suggestion (explained later). Last week we learnt that consumers are much more receptive to recommendations from their friends. Consumers do not want to be told by brands what to buy, and value recommendations from friends much more highly. The WSW website allows brands to sit behind this notion as friends recommend items to one another. The idea behind this was also to create more of a community among fashion enthusiasts where consumers can share fashion discoveries, ensuring longevity for the WSW business.

Getting wearing from all the hard work

Part of the task was to ensure that we identified a clear revenue model. We were taught last week that this can be challenging for many dot com businesses, and as a group we were asked to discuss the revenue models behind various existing online businesses, such as Spotify and Skype. This task was really useful and made me realise that there is a lot more behind these businesses than you may think at first. So our main revenue model was that in circumstances where products could not be recognised e.g. if the item is from a past season or vintage collection, brands can pay to suggest similar alternative items. In addition to this, we would earn commission from brands who make a sale on their website from consumers using the WSW app.

The website and the app can be used separately or together as a commercial or social experience, but used together they completely revolutionise the way people think about and purchase fashion.

The potential investors on the panel thought that our idea was innovative and ambitious but their main concern was that image recognition software was not up to the job and that technology may not ever evolve in this way. However, they all said that if the software was trustworthy, they would definitely invest in us. They were interested in our trajectory for the future of the retail market; we said that our app will be the future of shopping, the high street will die and shops will solely become show rooms for new products. They liked that we looked ahead in order to take advantage of changing shopping experiences.

Team Bjorn Again presenting What She's Wearing

Our team worked really hard on this task and I certainly gave it my all and really enjoyed it. I took on the responsibility of introducing the big idea during the pitch, ensuring I gave the idea the justice it deserved. I was pleased with myself because in presentations and pitches in the past, I have often found myself opting for the safer option of presenting stats and facts, whereas this time I tested my sales side which I really enjoyed and my team assured me that I did it well :)

I have attached our concept book for WSW in an email as I can’t attach it to my blog. Please have a look through it and watch the video which demonstrates the business problem staring me!! :)


Now on to Module 3: Putting an offline business online (progress to be updated shortly)

Project 1 - Create a new online business

Module 2 (Project 1)

Yesterday was the start of module 2 which will run for one week. We were split into small groups and were given our first proper task; to create a new online business. We will pitch our idea to a panel on Monday morning and we have to submit 4 back up ideas tomorrow.


The challenge is to:

- Research business opportunities in the digital landscape
- Identify a business idea
- Conceptualise it
- Connect it to a revenue model
- Describe it in a concept book
- Convince a panel that they should invest in you

The aim is to:

- Gain a holistic view of their industry
- Understand what it takes to start a successful business
- Understand their role in business
- Create something new and innovative
- Turn technologies into business opportunities
- Understand competitor analysis
- Be given freedom to work with something they feel passionate about
- Develop strong presentation skills


The outcomes are to:

- Identify potential problems or conflicts and choose appropriate tools and methods for their resolution
- Adopt roles within a team and contribute to the effective collaboration
- Demonstrate a detailed understanding of the shifting relationship between producers and consumers
- Demonstrate a systematic and critical understanding of emerging trends and the implications they have on businesses
- Autonomously assess and make recommendations on the use and integration of existing open systems and tools
- Demonstrate an awareness of the constantly changing nature of the industry
- Demonstrate a detailed and critical understanding of a variety of digital
channels, their individual intrinsic characteristics and function within a larger digital eco-system
- Discuss the role of mobile and the implications of related transformative technologies


We will be assessed on the following:

1.  Competence:
–  The participants ability to apply her/his skills and/or knowledge in context
2.  Attitude:
–  Self leadership and the participant’s willingness and ability to adapt to change and collaborate
3.  Creativity:
–  The participant s ability to be innovative and relevant


After being put into our groups we had a lecture and workshop on creativity and idea generation from Harry Davies (Head of Solutions Strategy, Google UK). This was really interesting; Harry talked about celebrating differences between people and proposed that 'there is no right answer, instead there are lots of right answers'. Harry used the analogy of Holmes and Watson to demonstrate how differences don't necessarily mean that people can't work well together and be successful.

The exercise that followed was really effective; we were asked to get into groups of 2, one person left the room and was told that when they came back in the room, they had to explain to the other person their idea for an outdoor campaign to promote the Olympics. Meanwhile, the other person (me) was briefed to break down and criticise every point they made. Although it was hard for me to do and I felt really bad, it was a good way of highlighting the need to respect others' ideas and 'build don't break'.

The rest of the day was allocated to working in our groups ('Team Bjorn Again' see pic below). In preparation for the assessment, we were encouraged to think about what we use the internet for and what assumptions/insights we can make about human attitudes and behaviours as a result. This exercise helped us to think about what we could offer consumers in our new online business and where there was a lack of something.


For example:


Use: I use the internet to find the best deals and discounts on products/restaurants/holidays/days out

Assumption/Insight: I expect value for money, I am not prepared to pay full price, I want to feel satisfied that I have got a good deal

Steve & James hard at work

Lizzy deep in thought or feeling the pressure?

Team 'Bjorn Again' on Monday morning

Oh and incase you haven't seen this pic, we got given free Chromebooks on Monday which I was very excited about :)

So happy with my new Chromebook

So that was yesterday... Today has been spent developing our ideas and challenging each other to explore deeper into how our ideas would be executed etc. It's been a productive day; we all have our own idea that we really believe in so today has worked really well with everyone putting in lots of effort!

Tomorrow we submit our one leading idea and 4 back up ideas. Before I go to sleep, I will leave you with what was supposed to be a one pager summarising my idea from today, bookmeaholiday.com. Although I'm really passionate about it and think it would be great if it existed, there are one or two others which I think might get the vote mainly due to their originality, I will keep you posted on this...


bookmeaholiday.com


The insight

The internet is cluttered with travel sites offering flights, hotels/accommodation, travel insurance etc.

Speaking from personal experience, looking for holidays is a timely and repetitive task, which can be highly frustrating and ironically very unenjoyable. I find myself filling in the same criteria on every tour operator’s website in hope of finding the perfect deal for me; with reasonable flight times and with flights departing from a local airport. Too often I have felt let down by what I think is the perfect holiday, only to realise the flight departs from the other end of the country!


The idea

We need a one stop shop for researching and booking all types of holidays/breaks/traveling including all adds on and the option to buy holiday essentials.


The execution

Consumers build a personal profile which details all relevant information which can help bookmeaholiday.com tailor holidays that appeal to them. The more information the consumer provides, the more personalised/filtered and thus appropriate suggestions can be made. Information will include age, marital status, number and ages of children, interests, past holiday experiences, location etc.

Once the profile has been created it will be saved for the consumer and can be edited for future holiday searches that may be of a different kind e.g. consumer may have previously searched for a sun holiday and next time they may be looking for a ski holiday (yet many of their circumstances are likely to remain the same i.e. size of family/number of children/departing airport).

To get maximum information for a consumer profile, consumers can fill in surveys which help them to articulate their ideal holiday.

The one stop shop will incorporate various social media platforms to help consumers their perfect holiday; twitter feeds down the side which displays any travel related trends, ‘pinterest’ tab (to document desirable destinations), travel blogs. Some additional features are a ‘what’s hot’ tab (new places to visit/popular places now), ‘review’ tab which can only be contributed to by previous bookmeaholiday.com customers (to maintain accuracy).

There is also the opportunity to partner with retailers; a ‘holiday essentials’ tab will direct consumers to Boots/Superdrug to buy their holiday toiletries etc. The ‘scrub up’ tab will direct consumers to local beauty salons /nail bars who will offer deals on pre-holiday treatments e.g. waxing/spray tanning.


Revenue stream

The tour operators will pay an annual fee to appear on bookmeaholiday.com. The added incentive is that they will not have to adapt their websites at all; bookmeaholiday.com will automatically populate the criteria on individual tour operators’ site using the information from the consumers existing personal profile; time saving for the consumer and no effort required from the tour operators.

Advertisers also have the opportunity to pay extra for banner ads that match the requirements of certain consumers to advertise a particular deal/promotion. This encourages advertisers to compete on offering the best deals and therefore provides value for money for consumers.


Good night all! x

My Squared Adventure Begins

From the beginning...



Squared branded space in the Google offices, Victoria

So... I've decided that since I'm going to be away for some time, I think it's really important that I keep you updated on what I'm doing on the Squared programme! This is a huge post because it's a weeks worth of work but going forward I will update this blog regularly with all things Squared....

Last week was Foundation Week (Module 1). No one really knew what to expect during this week as we were given hardly any information about what was coming our way (to be honest, they are being very secretive about the whole programme, only revealing snippets of information when necessary).

Over 80 graduates have been enrolled on the Squared programme from a variety of agencies from different disciplines (some are from digital teams, some comms planners/buyers). At the introduction on the Friday afternoon before the Foundation Week, we were split into groups with approx 20 people in each group whom we were to work with during the Foundation Week. Our team is teamabba!! I'm on the far right :)

Foundation Week was very interesting (and very surreal). It involved intense team building activities in order to really get to know each and every team member. We were taught how effective teams functioned/how to create effective teams/the integrative model of group development, understanding others' morals (static) and attitudes (elastic), how to give and receive feedback (and were given time to practise this), we were introduced to models of learning processes (e.g. the learning spiral) and a model called the Johari Window (Luft and Ingham) which can be used to clarify different aspects of human relations and communication. This last model looks at an individuals' 'social arena' (how much of themselves they reveal to others and how much remains hidden).
The overriding theme of the week was about reflection. We spent a huge amount of time looking back and reflecting on team activities; what happened, our role in the team (active/passive?), group dynamics etc. Whilst some found this really hard, I found this relatively easy to do since my dissertation in final year was a reflective practitioner project. If I'm honest, I couldn't believe we were still reflecting and team building on Day 5 but I now see that the idea was to fully prepare us for the group tasks ahead.
During the week we also had some speakers come in to present to us. Mark Comerford (@markmedia who spoke predominantly about change), Ade Oshineye (a Google+ specialist) and Miche Ahlstorm (who has started numerous digital businesses).
Mark was extremely opinionated and spoke very dramatically about change 'Change is disruptive. Disruption is friction. Friction is painful. Change will hurt.' He proposed the notion that 'now is the slowest change pace you will ever experience' and that the mobile phones we have in our hands today are the 'worst piece of technology that we will ever own'. Some quite thought provoking words......
Ade Oshineye talked about the history of the internet, when and how search engines were created and talked a bit about Google+. Finally Miche Ahlstorm talked about the future of the internet; by 2020 the internet will have doubled itself in size 44 times! He reassured us that filters and personalisation will prevent us from drowning in the internet e.g. content that you do not want to see online, you will not see.
Miche talked about how many new start ups are just taken from other ideas, even a convergence of platforms and he got us thinking about digital opportunities. What stuck in my mind was his question about what business should have started flickr (obviously Kodak, but clearly they missed the boat!). We then had to come up with ideas of how we could merge various platforms together to make a business idea (a 'mash up' task). An interesting idea was:

Match.com + ASOS + blogs + Top Table = dateaid.com

Jumping back to the Introduction on the Friday before the Foundation Week, we had talks from Mark Howe (Manager of Agency Operations for Google North & Central Europe) and Matt Brittin (Vice President of Google North & Central Europe). They talked about the ever changing world of media, 'old media' and told us about a meeting they had been to back in the day when only 40 websites existed worldwide! It was really interesting to hear from these guys and their enthusiasm for the Squared programme was really inspiring, although it was probably a bit ambitious when Matt Brittin announced that his aim for us was to 'save the UK economy'!

 

The Squared programme objective (on the wall in the Squared branded lecture room)

 

I'm sorry for such a long post... to lighten the mood, here are a few pictures of the food I've had so far (yummmmmy!!)...

 

 

Tapas

 

Sushi

 



Tapas Again



 

Please let me know if this is helpful - there is so much more I could include but obviously you guys are busy so I'll try to keep to the essentials. Any suggestions for improvements/anything else you want to know please let me know.

 

Until next time....

Thanks x