Issy and I were fortunate enough to have been able to visit Champneys day spa in Bath to gather some primary research. We travelled down to Bath on the Friday and stayed there until Sunday. Fortunately we were able to stay with family there which meant that we could budget our travel costs a little bit.
When we were in Bath however, we didn't just visit the spa, we also used the time in the morning to go and look around any other relevant shops which would help us gather primary research. I suggested for us to look in Neal's Yard as I really like their branding and think it has a similar feel to it to Champneys and their products. The packaging is sophisticated, clean and memorable.
I thought it would be appropriate to have a look at the way in which they present their products as well, as this is something which we may consider proposing when it comes to us designing our response to the brief.
I saw this upcycled bottle as well and thought that this was a clever way of presenting their products in a quirky manner, demonstrating multiple uses for it. This is something we could take on board, as we could consider how our products could have multiple uses.
We also visited The White Company. We were aware that they sell a variety of different products which we may find inspiring, and we certainly did find them inspiring. We instantly had the idea when we were there, to adopt their use of colour. On each different fragrance, they use a small rectangle underneath the printed name and have it filled in with a different block of colour. This colour is then connected with the fragrance and gives the consumers a memorable trait about the product, to encourage them to go back again and buy something else from the same range.
At the moment we are considering how we could use a droplet in our logo, as we feel as though this would represent serenity and a spa and imply peace. This may change, but at the moment we are visualising the droplet filled in different colours in the same way as explained above.
We also absolutely loved the way the candles are packaged in there. The packaging design is really unique and actually overcomes the need of a box.
I took a photograph of the window display in the True Grace shop, purely because I thought that the way they had presented their products was beautiful and definitely made me want to go inside to look closer at what they were selling. Issy and I could perhaps look at a shop window display, however it is likely that we are going to be looking at the products being sold in a variety of places such as Boots, and so the window displays differ dramatically to the spas.
When we visited Molton Brown, we looked at both the men's and the women's ranges. We have although thought about how we could perhaps design a couples range of a products or if not, then focus on men alone.
Below is also some inspiration for a travel kit which is another thing we could consider. However, I think this is something which Champneys have already considered.
Finally, we arrived at Champneys for our treatment. We sat down and waited in the waiting area and we were given some forms to fill out beforehand. We took this opportunity to take photographs inside the spa and also to talk to the lady who worked there. We spoke in more depth after the treatments though as we were able to speak for longer.
Their window display is shown below, demonstrating a three for two offer on Champneys products, which is something that they showcase in Boots as well. This is therefore perhaps an offer which we could work with as we already know that Champneys are happy to use it.
We made sure that we noted the design of everything that they gave to us on the day, to get a better feel for their brand and how they like to lay information out.
Below are a couple of photographs of the waiting area and how they present their products inside the spa. The day spa itself was quite small in comparison to the larger spas which has overnight facilities.
We noticed the paper bags on the top shelf and both instantly loved them. We hadn't seen them before as they are only used by them, I instantly made a connection with Jo Malone and noticed that they have a very similar style. I am going to research and try and collect some of my Jo Malone samples to see if I get any inspiration.
This is another advertising strategy which they use, however I don't think the design is particularly striking.
We noticed that they sell a variety of different candles as well, so this is another product we can take note of, and consider how this has been packaged in comparison to The White Company.
It appears as though they have a lot of offers on all throughout the store. This tells the customers that they aren't perhaps doing as well as they would like to at this moment in time, which has given Issy and I a real push to try and create something which will help them sell and raise awareness.
Whilst we were there we also took note of which magazines they had in the waiting area, as these are the magazines which we could look out for and perhaps target if we were to develop a magazine advertisement.
After our treatments we were able to speak to the therapist about our brief and we explained what we were doing. She seemed really interested, and when we asked her whether she has many 16-25 year olds visiting she didn't seem to think that they did. She said that often men visit the spa to buy gifts for their girlfriends, but they don't tend to buy for themselves as much. She suggested that one way of us getting men to buy products would be to use celebrity endorsements, and she said that that owner of Champneys has a lot of contacts. However we realise that this wouldn't be achievable in the time that we have to complete this brief, and it is also a long shot! She also gave us her contact details and said that we could email her for any further information so we are going to do this as soon as possible.
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