Waterstones Brief

Brief 5 has changed a lot... I was trying to keep with my SOI but also add something new to my portfolio. I have been sent the Waterstones brief I am giving myself 2 weeks to design and pitch to the company... Although the pitch will mainly be mock-ups and ideas I will make finals for submission!

Challenge: 


Amazon is pushing us out of business. Their aggressively commercial strategy beats us on price, stock, innovation, and convenience. But they don’t love books. And we really do. We don’t want to go quietly into the night. So we’re looking for big ideas that get people excited about shopping with us. Think of it like this: we need to show people that Waterstones is an experience, not just a transaction.

So, what is that experience?

We need radical solutions to change people’s perceptions of our brand.



Consideration: 


We want to be on the frontline of an ongoing culture war about the value of the written word. But we don’t want to attack Amazon or e-readers. We want to romance books and reading. (Without being boring and middle-aged about it.) But we do have to consider how our argument stacks up against Amazon’s offering. We can’t beat them on stock, for example, so how do we counter

that? Ideally we would like to demonstrate our passion for book culture and how our personal expertise shines through. A much richer experience than the cold “people who bought this, also bought this:” algorithm. What are some other problems? You might need to think deeply to diagnose issues we’re not aware of yet.



What’s our argument: 


- We are a respected heritage brand, with decades of bookselling experience.

 - We sell books. Nothing else.

- Books make you better; broaden your horizons with us.


- Books are beautiful.




Suggested approaches: 


- How can we tailor our stores to make them more compelling experiences at key touchpoints? (Window displays, merchandising, staffing, personalisation, etc.)


- An advertising idea that brings your strategy to life as a meaningful call to action.