Evaluation

I started off my project by doing research in to different fashion businesses, and looking at their websites and social media. I focused on lingerie brands as this is the type of business I would like to start if I was to start one. I recorded all the information on my blog, I found conducting research really useful as I gained an insight on how brands lay out their websites and social media differently depending on who their target market it is. I also learned the difference between marketting, branding and advertising and zoomed in on how different lingerie brands, advertise their products (e.g billboards, tv adverts), establish their branding (e.g. consistent packaging, logo), and use different marketting strategies (e.g. offers such as buy one get one free). This was useful as it gave me ideas for my own brand and how I will promote it.

My target market was women aged 24+ so I made a lot of my decisions based on what will attract my customers and appeal to them. I created a customer profile to outline what type of people will shop at La Rochelle. I did a lot of experimenting through out this project, I learned how to use Adobe Indesign, and used this to create my brand logo and and website design, as well as analyzing what i did and why. This was really helpful as I compared my different logo ideas, decided what was good and bad about each one before deciding what my final logo is going to be.

I also created some advert ideas, firstly I looked in to what types of advert there are, for example tv adverts, billboards, social media and emails. I decided to design and create to types of advert, magazine and instagram, and did some deeper research on how my competitors advertise through these platforms. Before creating my adverts I designed them on paper, this was very useful as I had an idea of what my advert will look like and whether it will be effective and fit the criteria it needs to attract my customers.

Overall I think I gained a lot of knowledge from this project, I have learned how different businesses work and what is needed to start your own business, this is useful knowledge as if I ever want to start my own business I will have some basic knowledge of what I need to do. I also think learning about why businesses do different things online and instore and how everything is based on attracting the customer was really useful as this is what makes your business successful, and allows it to bring in as much profit as it possibly can. I think the project went well and I enjoyed it however, one of my key areas to improve is time management, as I did find it quite difficult finishing the project on time.

My website

After I had chosen my brand logo, I was able to create a website design for La Rochelle, I also done this using Adobe Indesign.

 
This is the design I have chosen for my website. Straight away you can see it is a website aimed at women as I have stuck to my chosen colour scheme of light colours and pastels, specifically baby pinks and dusty blues. To make my website easy to navigate I have chosen to use drop down menus to allow customers to find what they are looking for, from my research I've seen that this is a very popular layout amongst lingerie websites. There are only 4 tabs, NEW IN! is the first tab as it shows all the new products being sold, I've chosen to make this subheading bold so it catches the customers eye as they will want to see what new products are available. The next 3 tabs are lingerie, swimwear and accesories, when the customer scrolls over these, they will be able to refine their search through a drop down menu.
The main image the customer will see when they go on the website, is a slide show of images of the famous English model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley advertising the bra and knickers sets we sell. My target market will recognise the model as she is known world wide and will be encouraged to buy similar lingerie sets so they can look like her. Also, alongside that I have advertised 3 different offers La Rochelle have on, one of them being a 20% off sale, and also free delivery and returns within 30 days. These are marketing strategies I have chosen, since the posts are one of the first things you see, the customer will know straight away that there are many offers available. I think the one that's most particularly effective is the free delivery, as many customers don't like paying delivery charges, therefore they'll be encouraged to shop the online store whilst the offer is still available, this will create an increase in sales.
Lastly the customer is also given the option to becoming a VIP member of La Rochelle, since I have not put any details of what becoming a VIP includes, it will make the customer more likely to click on the button to find out what perks they could be receiving if they become a VIP. Also, simply calling it a 'VIP members club' also attracts customers as it's an exclusive part of La Rochelle, and not everyone is part of it meaning they will be able to access deals and offers, that others can't, therefore the VIP customers will feel exclusive and special.

Overall, I like how my website turned out, I think by looking at it you can tell straight away the target market is women, aged 25+, and can also tell it's a lingerie store. The colour scheme and layout is really nice and organised and quite appealing to the eye, especially that of a womans. I think customers would find it very easy to navigate and find what they are looking for. If I was to change anything, I would perhaps feature a pop up when you enter the website offering a 10% discount when you subscribe to the La Rochelle newsletter.

Logo Ideas

My brand name is 'La Rochelle'. I have named my brand after a town in south west France, France is often associated with elegance and classiness which is what my brand is all about. It's also quite a feminine name to represent the type of products I will be selling.
I have used Adobe Indesign to come up with logo ideas by experimenting with different fonts and styles.

This is the first design I have created. I've chosen to use simple colours to make the logo look sleek. The font I have used is italic and swirly, making the logo look elegant and classy, this will draw in older customers as they are more likely to go for stylish traditional yet minimalistic writing rather than more childish colours such as hot pinks and blues. I quite like this design however I think it's too simple.

The second logo I've created, also has a similar italic font, this time I have used a gradient effect to make the writing fade out, in a way I think this may make the logo stand out less as it makes the writing less bold but I wanted to experiment with the effect anyway. Also this design doesn't represent femininity and class how I would like it to, looking at it I would not think this is a brand selling feminine products. 

This design is a lot more creative than the other two and I definitely think it would stand out the most, as it's something different. I chose to stick to minimal black and white colours however I have added a dusty pastel pink underline detail as I want to feature a lot of light colours within my brand, which adds that extra feminine touch. I also added a shadow to make the writing stand out from any other font on the page when it's placed on adverts and elsewhere. 

Out of the three designs I have created I'm going to choose this one, it stands out the most compared to the other two and I think it would appeal to my customers the most.