Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Monday, 26 September 2011
Research Bits
House hold furnishing stores, who are they?
Market. Targeted towards a young market or a more varied audience? Obviously do not want to neglect the exiting market. 
Who is the existing market?
Why does it NEED designing, will this promote or inform?
IKEA
Style of the webpage is well laid out, simple in design and slightly formal to create a clean, un-cluttered style. Colour palate is small, narrowed down to blue black and yellow with light opacity tones down the sides. 
Ikea’s Main Catergories are: 
Outdoor Furniture 
Eating
Desks
Mirrors 
Children’s Ikea 
Cooking
Bathroom Storage
Beds &Mattresses
Chairs
Clothing Storage
Decoration
Flooring
Family Products 
Kitchens, Cabinets and Appliances
Lighting 
Small Storage
Sofas & Armchairs 
Storage Furniture 
Tables 
Textiles & Rugs 
Tools & Fittings
TV Stands & Media Solutions 
Now obviously the sub catergories from these sections are very expansive. We all know IKEA is one of the furnishing giants but it’s not the only one. What I need to decide with my brief is WHO to design for. What’s the reasoning and how and why my input could help. Would I be bringing a younger market to the store by introducing my  character designs or would it simply create a mascot style character in which someone could easily remember and talk about to create even bigger brand awareness?
What’s great about Ikea’s web page is that it’s also all online making it a kind of amazon of household products. What would be good to know if this also has some influence on the target market. Is the online sector a means to reach that wider market? Is there a gap in the market for a certain type of person that doesn’t visit in store because they possibly don’t drive or don’t have access for instance? The main question is that does the online store make a larger profit than in store if so why. Is online a better audience to design for within this brief, is it more in store or is it both?
When it comes the choice I want to find a brand that best suites my brief. That could either mean finding a company which is aimed towards a market and I’m therefore challenged to design towards bringing in another market. Or simply for publicity purposes, raises the awareness or advertising in a new style. 
Other furnishing store within the UK include:
Habitat owned by Home Retail Group – Argos and Homebase
Debenhams
House of Fraser
Argos 
Dunelm Mills
BHS
Muji
Littlewoods
Super Markets 
ASDA
Tesco
M&S
Sainsbury’s
 
 





























