Haley Ross VM Project #1 October 7, 2014
High-End Retailer: Intermix Brick & Mortar Location: Rush Street Location What year did the company start? How many stores do they operate? Company founded: 1993 Stores: 35 nationwide & 1 in Canada Are all the stores carbon copies of the same model? No, but they all uphold the standard of looking like a high-end boutique. Where is the flagship located? Soho, New York City What type of merchandise do they sell? What services do they provide? High-end clothing, jewelry, and accessories for women from various different designers. Intermix provides personal styling What is the overall look of the stores façade? What is your initial impression based upon the store’s appearance? The overall look of the store’s façade is very simple. It is just a classic brick building with five large open-back windows. My initial impression is that the store itself is not eye-catching. What caught my eye was the clothing on the mannequins. What is the aesthetic of the interior? What is your initial impression based upon the store’s appearance? The interior aesthetic is sleek. I also found it to be warm with the hardwood floors and warm lighting. The walls are all white and the merchandise is all displayed on either black racks or black and white tables. It has a very boutique feel to it because of the way the clothing is merchandised with plenty of tables to display items on. How do the exterior and the interior of the store relate to one another? Both the exterior and the interior of the store are minimalistic. I can tell that it was a deliberate decision to keep the exterior and interior simple, so that the clothes are the focal point. The clothes speak for themselves because of the quality and style.
How do the aesthetics convey the type of merchandise offered? As I said above, the aesthetic is purposefully simplistic because the merchandise is of high quality and visually stimulating itself that it would be too much if the store had a lot of decorative elements. What type of decorations, graphics, and ‘lifestyle’ elements are in the store? The only real type of decorative element in the store were these floor-to-ceiling panels that were cut out in a pattern. What was your experience in the store? Both visually and customer-service oriented. My experience in the store visually was that I was mesmerized by looking at all of the beautiful clothing and appreciated the fact that the store was kept simple so as not to overwhelm the customer. My customer-service experience was mediocre. A man asked if I needed any help when I walked in, but after that none of the other sales associates said anything to me. I think it was because they knew I was just looking and was not seriously looking into purchasing anything. Store Website
Does the website support what you saw in the store? Explain. Yes. A lot of the clothing that I saw in the store I also saw on the website. The website also provided information about personal styling offered in the stores. What was on their home page? How does that compare to what you saw in the store windows or prominent locations on the floor? There were features on fall’s must-haves along with a link to shop the new evening formal looks. The windows and displays directly correlated with the Intermix homepage. Four out of the five windows had mannequins dressed in fall looks, and the fifth had mannequins in formal wear. There was also in the store with the new formal wear merchandise. What is the aesthetic of the website? How does it compare with the brick-and-mortar store? The website is sleek just like the store. It is simple with clean, professional images. It is not overwhelming visually with simple white tabs to click on at the side of the homepage. What was your experience on the website? Was it easy to navigate? User-friendly? I really liked the website. It was very easy to navigate and user-friendly. I really liked the ‘What to Wear’ part of the website. I could look at the fall look book and below that were postings about the latest trends. I also liked that there is an option to shop by designer.
Social Media Accounts
What type of social media presence did you find? On what sites are they actively present? Intermix has a blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Google+ account. They are actively present on all of their social media accounts. They post daily about the latest trends and hot new merchandise. Describe their ‘personality’ on these sites. Their ‘personality’ is very upbeat and trendy. Their social media accounts are basically style blogs. Are their social media, in-store, and web presence cohesive? Explain. Yes because they are all of high quality. You can tell they are focused on upholding a high standard in every aspect of the company. All 3 outlets showcase the latest in high-end fashion. Do they seem to be targeting the same customer through each outlet? Yes. All 3 outlets seem to be targeting a high-end, fashion-conscious women that likes to stay updated with the latest in fashion and lifestyle trends. Would you like to work for this company? In what regard? Yes because I like the idea of a smaller company. It is still big, but not quite as corporate as H&M. I would enjoy working for them in visual merchandising because I feel that there is more flexibility to be create with visuals.