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1.2.3 A Summary of the Timeline
A summary of the timeline
After Marni held its first offline event in China in 2017, it has held offline events in China every year. From 2017 to 2019, Marni has held six offline events in China, five of which are pop-up stores, lasting about two
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weeks.
Each offline event held by Marni is short in duration, usually lasting about 2 weeks. Marni's offline investment is small, but in the limited funds and venues to show Marni's style as far as possible: color,
innocence, pure.
Marni brand positioning is relatively low-key, online marketing is less, usually through offline activities to close
the distance with consumers, easy to distinguish from other brands. Most consumers in China said that flash stores and brand exhibitions are their preferred offline activities of brands, because they can better meet consumers' demand for perfect "experience" (Wang, 2018). So it's a good idea for Marni to host pop-up stores in China on a regular basis.
Marni's pop-up stores are usually held in first-tier cities, but starting in 2019, the marketing campaign is slowly
sinking to second-tier cities.
Until 2019, Marni‘s pop-up stores in China were held indoors, with little success, and Marni’s popularity in China rose further after the outdoor Marni pop up shop opened in Taikoo Li, Chengdu, in 2019.
Sales took a further leap in 2019. After the start of Alibaba's Tmall 618 campaign in 2019, it only took one minute to exceed the total turnover of 618 in 2018. Accessories are the most popular type of products.
The campaign usually includes elements of charity and cause-based marketing, which are easy to distinguish from other brands. Small items and ornaments with children's colors are usually sold at the event and the proceeds are donated to charity.
Marni –A Charity Brand
Marni has always been committed to charity. Marni's annual Christmas charity project holds charity pop-up shops around the world at Christmas every year. Part of the sales proceeds of the project will be donated to charities dedicated to helping disadvantaged children.
Marni has always focused on the Chinese market and has been opening charity pop-up stores or selling charity goods in stores in China every year since 2017. Among the 6 offline activities held by Marni in China, 4 of them are charity oriented, which shows that "charity" is an important concept of Marni.
Problems：
Francesco Risso, the brand's creative director, said it would continue to focus on Marni's future. According to his recent interview, his next step will be more about developing Marni's brand than sales.
Therefore, the most important thing for Marni in China now is how to promote awareness and branding.
How Marni builds a complete brand image through offline activities as the main approach and integrated marketing.
To improve the popularity, not only Chinese millennials should have a deeper understanding of the brand, but also generation Z should have a deeper understanding of the brand. Not only should consumers in the first-tier market be familiar with Marni, but they should also move to second - and third-tier cities.
Marni branding in the minds of consumers, clearly show Marni's brand style and characteristics, and highlight Marni's contribution to charity, and distinguish it from other brands to form brand influence.
Solutions：
Experiential Philanthropic pop-up shop: memories of childhood wishes+ intangible cultural heritage handmade workshop + customized fragrance services + charity merchandise sales
Elements of philanthropy: 1. Clear motivation
2. Help a wide range of people, including cultural and vulnerable groups
3. charity products sales
4. Appropriately reduce the price of charity goods
5. Limited production, limited purchase, limited quantity
Style: pure, romantic, colourful, childlike innocence, wishes
The pop-up stores will travel to different places within a month (outdoors), First in the first-tier cities, and then down to the second-tier cities
Online promotion with PUGC (Professional User Generated Content)
MARNI WISH MARKET
--We suddenly grew up, but don’t forget our childhood wishes
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Introduction of the Charity Project
This is a charity pop-up shop combined with cause-related marketing, aiming to promote China‘s intangible cultural heritage technology -- Qingyang sachet embroidery system, so that the craftsmen of Qingyang sachet embroidery will get more attention. Meanwhile, Marni will cooperate with ”Jack Ma Foundation“ to jointly help the development of primary school students and left-behind children in poor rural areas. Jack Ma has a high reputation in China, and consumers trust him so much that working with “Jack Ma Foundation” can increase trust for Marni's charity work.
Official website of Jack Ma Foundation: https://www.mayun.xin/#/home
Marni Wishing Market will invite children from poor rural areas helped by Jack Ma Foundation to paint their wishes, and then combine the children's paintings with Qingyang sachets. After designing the design of the sachet, the craftsmen of Qingyang sachet embroidery made Marni sachet and sold it in the pop-up shops. Marni will donate 80% of the sales proceeds to the jack ma foundation.
Cause marketing process: the rural primary and middle school students, left-behind children participate in the design of Qingyang sachets, and then Qingyang sachet craftsmen will carry out the sewing of sachet, Marni will donate 80% of the sales to Jack Ma Foundation, In combination with the follow-up publicity, Marni will inform consumers of the donation process and results of charity, so that consumers can make clear that they have indirectly helped left-behind children in poor rural areas in China.
Charity goods are sold in limited quantities at 40% of the price of accessories from Marni's other product lines. In general, the price of charity products is about 40% of that of other product lines in the brand, if there is not much difference in production cost between the charity products and other product lines in the brand.
The style of the whole pop-up store is based on purity, romance, color, innocence, aspiration and charity, and takes Qingyang sachet, a Chinese intangible cultural heritage, as the carrier to let consumers find their childhood memories and aspirations.
There are 5 experiential activities in the pop-up store, they respectively are Childhood wishes , The time tunnel ,
Wish market . (average experiential time of all projects: 30 minutes) Adults’ wishes , Sachet laboratory and
The pop-up stores will be held outdoors in shopping malls in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu, each for two weeks. The tour starts on June 1 and ends at the end of July. Combined with online publicity: release Marni‘s WeChat game on the social platform before the event. When the event was held, publicity is mainly spread on social platforms by consumers spontaneously. After the event, the process and results of charitable donation were released to let the audience feel that they were doing charity. In addition, other types of charity sachets will be sold in limited quantity in the flagship store of Tmall Marni.
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There were 5 experiential projects, which were ：
Childhood wishes，
The time tunnel，
Adult’s wishes， Sachet laboratory，
Wish market
Experiential Project 1 steps ：
Experiential Project 1 ： Childhood wishes
Step1 ： Click on the screen to experience the game.
Step 2： Write down childhood wishes on the screen. Consumers can recall their childhood and go back to the past. The project fits perfectly with Marni's brand image: pure, childlike.
Step 3： The computer system will automatically match colors on pictures with Marni characteristics according to consumers’ childhood wishes and generate a high-definition picture with both consumer characteristics and Marni characteristics, and the picture will also be printed with consumers' childhood wishes in handwriting. Increase consumer engagement.
Step 4： Consumers need follow Marni WeChat interface to receive the card. Guiding consumers to follow the WeChat interface can facilitate the establishment of Marni's brand image and information dissemination in the future.
Step 5： Get the printed pictures from the machine. Guide consumers to spontaneously share photos of the event to social media, increase exposure and indirectly increase familiarity for consumers who fail to attend the event.
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Floor Plan
Card generating machine
3.2 I瀁tr瀂ducti瀂瀁 t瀂 the Activities 瀂f the P瀂瀃-u瀃 Sh瀂瀃 • 3.2.2 Ex瀃濸r濼濸瀁t濼濴濿 Pr瀂濽濸濶t 2 : T濻濸 t濼瀀濸 tu瀁瀁濸濿
Experiential Project 2 : The time tunnel
When people walk through the tunnel, they are symbolizing growing up, because the last event was about
childhood wishes, and the next event after The Time Tunnel is about Adults' wishes.
The entrance of time tunnel is relatively short and narrow, and adults even have to bend down to enter,
symbolizing that people enter when they are still children; The exit of the time tunnel is relatively high and spacious, symbolizing that people have grown up. “The Time Tunnel" allows people to return to the feeling of
childhood and recall the past.
In the tunnel, Marni combines digital image and new media technology. The floor of the dark tunnel is
gravity sensitive. When people step on the floor, the floor will have some lovely patterns. These patterns come
from the ”Jack Ma Foundation" children's paintings of their own wishes and mood.
The dark tunnel, with paintings on the floor of the tunnel, allows all participants to experience their childhood
selves in the 'time travel' tunnel. Consumers can take photos in the tunnel and share them on social media to
increase exposure.
Experiential Project 2 steps ：
Step 1 ：
Adults have to bend over to get into the narrow tunnel.
Step 2： Slowly through the tunnel, children's paintings will appear under their feet through gravity
sensing technology, feel the atmosphere of childhood, can also take photos.
Step 3： Come out of the wide opening of the tunnel.
3.2 I瀁tr瀂ducti瀂瀁 t瀂 the Activities 瀂f the P瀂瀃-u瀃 Sh瀂瀃 • 3.2.2 Ex瀃濸r濼濸瀁t濼濴濿 Pr瀂濽濸濶t 2 : T濻濸 t濼瀀濸 tu瀁瀁濸濿
“The Time Tunnel" entrance and exit settings
There is a large screen next to the tunnel entrance, which plays a documentary of the children drawing their wishes (15mins). Marni had already played the trailer (30s) online before the event, and The full documentary will appear in this segment. In the tunnel, using gravity sensing technology, the children's drawings appear under the consumers' feet. People can learn more about the children who need help while waiting in line.
Meanwhile, a large screen at the exit of the tunnel shows a 15mins documentary of a craftsman sewing Qingyang sachets. Marni had already posted the trailer (30s) online before the pop-up began. The craftsmen express their wishes in their own way as they sew the sachets. After watching the documentary, people can have a better understanding of the craftsmen of Qingyang sachets, which will also be of great help in promoting China's intangible cultural heritage.
At the entrance of the tunnel, the documentary of children‘s wishes is shown, while at the exit, the sewing process of Qingyang sachet is shown, because at the entrance of the tunnel, it symbolizes that consumers are still in their childhood, and at the exit, it symbolizes that people have grown up.
These two screens express the children have children's dreams, adults have adults' dreams, different consumers also have their own dreams, is the combination of dreams and dreams.
