GR 604 [Student Project] – BORDERS: Visual Strategy Guide

01 I VISUAL STRATEGY GUIDE

VISUAL STRATEGY GUIDE

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VISUAL STRATEGY GUIDE

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 01

02

OUR HISTORY

OUR FUTURE

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14 Mission Statement

Brand History

10 Brand Time Line

16 Rebranding Objective 19 Keywords 20 Past Direction 22 New Direction

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04

OUR PERSONAS

OUR COMPETITORS

27 Introduction

40 Current Competitors

28 Personas

42 Adjacent Competitors

32 Not Interested

44 Aspirational Competitors 48 Brand Attributes

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“When you’re facing massive headwinds, it’s all about speed and innovation and reinventing yourself and not relying on past tactics. ” —Mike Edwards, Borders’ CEO

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01 OUR HISTORY 10 Brand History 12 Brand Time Line

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OUR HISTORY

BRAND HISTORY Borders Group Incorporated is the second of the three largest bookstore chains in the United States, based on sales and number of stores. It is the fastest-growing bookstore chain. It operates 354 superstores under the name Borders Books and Music. The superstores feature books as well as special events, including live music, story times, and appearances by artists and authors. Borders began as an independent used bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The shop was founded in 1971 by Louis and Tom Borders. Within the next several years, the Borders brothers opened two more bookstores in Michigan, one in Atlanta, and another in Indianapolis. Toying with the idea of a "superstore," the brothers opened their first prototype large-scale retail store in 1985. The goal of Borders Group, Inc. is to be the best-loved provider of books, music, video and other entertainment, as well as educational and informational products and services.

01 I OUR HISTORY

BRAND HISTORY

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OUR HISTORY

BRAND TIME LINE

1995

1971

Tom and Louis Border found Borders Book Shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Kmart buys Borders, then a Michigan-based chain of 21 book superstores in the Midwest and Northeast. In 1984, KMart buys Waldenbooks.

1992

Kmart spins off Borders-Walden Group in an IPO and changes its name to Borders Group.

Announces plans for an international superstore chain that would have 1,000 locations.

At that point, it had 203 stores.

1997

1998

Launches Borders Online, but analysts fault it for being late to embrace e-commerce.

April: Company buys toy retailer All Wound Up, a deal that harms its liquidity. The plan foretells Borders’ intention to expand its toys and games selection in late 2010 to diversify its offerings.

1999

01 I OUR HISTORY

2001

April: Announces a deal with Amazon.com Inc to relaunch Borders’ money-losing e-commerce site and feature Amazon.com’s books and music offerings.

Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square takes 11 percent stake in Borders, saying its shares are undervalued and could rise to $36 from $23.92.

2006

2008 March: Says it might put itself up for sale, but never finds a buyer. It also gets $42.5 million loan from Ackman’s firm and says it would have faced imminent liquidity problems without it.

2011 January 27: Borders says it gets conditional refinancing commitment from GE Capital and warns it may seek an “in court restructuring,” meaning a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

March 31: Repays $42.5 million loan to Pershing Square, gets more credit and posts a profit on cost cuts. Shares jump.

2010

Current

2019 BRAND TIME LINE

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02 OUR FUTURE 16 Mission Statement 18 Rebranding Objective 20 Keywords 22 Past Direction 24 New Direction

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Our mission is to break boundaries and create a community that brings people together to share and access knowledge easily.

02 I OUR HISTORY

MISSION STATEMENT

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OUR FUTURE

REBRANDING OBJECTIVE The new Borders will build connections between people and provide more ways to help people acquire and share knowledge.

We advocate the creation of a comprehensive community that integrates knowledge, life, events, space, exhibitions, and cultural lectures. We want to give people a platform to share and gain knowledge.

13 BORDERS CHAPTER 02: FUTURE

02 I OUR HISTORY

MISSION STATEMENT

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02 I OUR HISTORY

KEYWORDS CONNECTED: The Borders connects people to share knowledge.

KNOWLEDGE: People can easily access and share knowledge.

SHARED: Sharing knowledge is beneficial to everybody.

KEYWORDS

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OUR FUTURE

PAST DIRECTION These images show the direction of the past Borders brand. The main vision of the past was the traditional bookstore sales model.

02 I OUR HISTORY

BORDERS

PAST DIRECTION

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OUR FUTURE

NEW DIRECTION These images show the new direction of the Borders brand. The main vision of the new Borders is to build a modern knowledgesharing community.

02 I OUR HISTORY

BORDERS

NEW DIRECTION

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03 OUR PERSONAS 29 Introduction 30 Personas 36 Not Interested

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GR604: NATURE OF IDENTITY

ASSIGNMENT 2.1: BRAND INTRODUCTION

03 I OUR PERSONAS

INTRODUCTION Personas are fictional characters, which applied in the early stages of brand development. Personas help designers understand user needs, behaviors, and goals. Therefore, designers can build brands that better meet the audience's requirements and avoid designing things that do not match the needs of actual users. We analyze the different persona traits to clarify the scope of the brand's target audience. Persona researches are very important to build a brand and are a necessary part of helping brands become real and drive design decisions.

INTRODUCTION

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OUR PERSONAS

DREAMER Hanlin Tan

His friends like to talk to him because he always has a lot of interesting ideas.

He will record his own painting process and share it with others because he wants more people to understand the illustration.

He likes to explore different places because nature always brings him inspiration.

His illustrations often participate in various

Male

exhibitions where he met many friends.

29 years old

His personality is bright and sunny, and he is

Illustrator

patient with everything.

His illustrations were appreciated by the publishing company and published.

He is often invited to various cities to tell children about his illustration story.

03 I OUR PERSONAS

PERFECTIONIST Taylor Wilson

She often finds design inspiration online because she can easily search for resources.

She has followed a lot of fashion bloggers on YouTube because she can understand popular trends.

She is concerned about the quality of her life. She has many high-tech products in her home.

She has a Kindle, and she always carries it because it is very convenient.

Female

She often posts on Instagram and records her life.

34 years old

She is often attracted to the cover of a book

Interior designer

compared to interesting content.

Whenever she goes to a new city, she goes to the local way to get to know a city.

OUR PERSONAS

museum because she thinks the museum is the best

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OUR PERSONAS

CURIOUS TEEN Kevin Sanders

He likes to watch various forums and open classes because he wants to know more things and has a strong curiosity.

He prefers to read e-books because he thinks that carrying a book is heavy and inconvenient.

He is very popular with his classmates because he often shares new knowledge and news with his classmates.

Male 18 years old High school student

His thoughts are deeper than other students because his ideas are very flexible.

His teacher often praises his articles because his writing language is humorous and profound.

He wants to be a teacher when he grows up because he wants to spread knowledge to more people.

He has the habit of writing a diary. Every night he records the thinking of the day.

03 I OUR PERSONAS

RESPONSIBLE TEACHER Kelly Wang

She needs to constantly learn new knowledge to improve herself because her students always ask a variety of questions.

She organizes students' sharing activities every week because she wants to help students establish sharing habits.

The use of slides during the course can effectively increase the children's interest because interesting patterns and words can attract children's attention.

Female

She encourages students to go to national parks

36 years old

often because she wants them to gain knowledge

Teacher

through nature.

The content of her class is vivid and the children like

She believes that the development of science and technology is good for the dissemination of knowledge, so she is very concerned about the update of teaching technology.

She likes her career because she always keeps her young mind.

OUR PERSONAS

to listen.

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OUR PERSONAS

STORYTELLER Brandon Douglas

He always collects healthy living knowledge to share with his children because he focuses on a healthy lifestyle.

He asked the children to teach him to use the computer because he likes to research new technologies.

His grandson likes to live in his home because he often tells stories about his youth.

Male 57 years old Retired employee

He often meets with friends because he can chat with friends.

He created his own Facebook account because he wanted to know the world of young people.

He rarely loses his temper because he believes that good communication can solve many problems.

He likes to listen to the broadcast because he can get a lot of information at any time.

03 I OUR PERSONAS

HEALTH ADVOCATE Brittany Jones

She is studying in a cooking class because she wants to make more healthy food for her family.

She often accompanies her children to make crafts and play games, because these activities can stimulate children's creativity.

The children in the community love her because she often makes healthy snacks and shares them.

Her favorite moment is to sit at the window and drink

Female 45 years old Mother

coffee while reading because this time is comfortable and relaxing.

She often travels with her children because it improves the child's vision.

She is very focused on maintaining her body. She uses

She plans to open a restaurant after retirement because she wants to share healthy food with more people.

OUR PERSONAS

the Keep app to do yoga exercises every day.

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OUR PERSONAS

TRADITIONALIST Dennis Garcia

He grew up in a working class family, so he knew that money was important from an early age.

He thinks that school is a waste of time, so he dropped out of school very early.

He doesn't like reading because he thinks reading can't help him make money.

A few years ago, he made a fortune in doing business because of an opportunity.

Male

He hangs out with friends every night and then

49 years old

gets drunk.

Foreign trade businessman

His wife divorced him because he didn't care about his family. He is just thinking about how to make money.

The business has become more and more difficult in recent years, but he still does not accept new knowledge and technology.

03 I OUR PERSONAS

INTROVERT Betsy Taylor

She finds a favorite book in the bookstore and then buys it online because the bookstore is always more expensive than online.

She is afraid to make a speech in a public place because she is often nervous and doesn't know what to say.

Her friends are rarely because she always gives others a bad impression and a sense of distance.

Female 23 years old A university student

She doesn't want to graduate because she is very confused about the future.

She likes to be alone because she doesn't like being disturbed.

She never attends a party because she doesn't

She sometimes gets insomnia because she puts a lot of pressure on herself every day.

OUR PERSONAS

know how to talk to others.

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“Everyone has a chance to see the world through the pages of a story.”

—Karen Kingsbury

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04 OUR COMPETITORS 42 Current Competitors 44 Adjacent Competitors 46 Aspirational Competitors 50 Brand Attributes

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OUR COMPETITORS

CURRENT COMPETITORS Currently, Borders' sales are mainly physical bookstores, so other physical bookstore companies are major competitors. With the development of technology, the e-book trend has become another huge competitor of Borders. Therefore, the current competitors of Borders are concentrated in the paper book and e-book industry.

Barnes & Noble, Inc., is a bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States.

Baker & Taylor is a distributor of books to public libraries and schools. It's core business unit focuses on the sales/distribution of physical books.

Books-A-Million, Inc., owns and operates the secondlargest bookstore chain in the United States, and sell books, magazines, collectibles, toys, technology, and gifts.

The company initially started as an online marketplace for books but later expanded to sell electronics, software, video games, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewelry.

It claims to be the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world.

04 I OUR COMPETITORS

Powell's Books is a chain of bookstores in Portland.

Booktopia Pty Ltd is an Australian online bookstore.

Founded in 2004, it now turns over $130 million a year.

Alibris is an online store that sells new books, used books, out-of-print books, rare books, and other media through an online network of independent booksellers.

Smashwords (Smashwords, Inc.), based in Los Gatos, California, is an e-book-distribution platform founded

by Mark Coker for independent authors and publishers.

B. Dalton Bookseller was an American retail bookstore at the peak of the chain's success.

Rakuten Kobo Inc., or simply Kobo, is a Canadian company that sells e-books, audiobooks, e-readers and tablet computers.

CURRENT COMPETITORS

chain founded in 1966 by Bruce Dayton, with 798 stores

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OUR COMPETITORS

ADJACENT COMPETITORS If consumers don't buy books, they may go online to search for relevant knowledge or go to the cinema and video sites to get relevant video information. Therefore, the following adjacent competitors are mainly concentrated in the information and entertainment fields.

AMC Theatres is a multi-nation-owned movie theater chain headquartered in Leawood, Kansas, and is the largest movie theater chain in the world.

Yahoo was one of the pioneers of the early Internet era in the 1990s. At its height, it was one of the most popular sites in the United States.

Iflix is a free and subscription video on demand (VOD) service focused on emerging markets.

YouTube is an American video-sharing website. It allows users to upload, view, rate, share, add to playlists, report, comment on videos, and subscribe to other users.

where questions are asked, answered, and edited

by Internet users, either factually, or in the form of opinions.

04 I OUR COMPETITORS

Quora is an American question-and-answer website

HBO is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned. The programming featured on the network consists primarily of theatrically released motion pictures.

CBS is an American English language commercial broadcast television and radio network that is a flagship property of CBS Corporation.

Bing provides a variety of search services, including web, video, image and map search products.

Wikipedia is a multilingual online encyclopedia. It is the World Wide Web.

IMDb is an online database of information related to films, television programs, home videos, video games, and streaming content.

ADJACENT COMPETITORS

largest and most popular general reference work on the

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OUR COMPETITORS

ASPIRATIONAL COMPETITORS The soul of Borders after the rebranding is to bring people together to share and gain knowledge. Therefore, the aspirational competitors are no longer the traditional knowledge dissemination industry but focus on knowledge sharing communities or space brands.

In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs and an online community, the service was widely used by photo researchers and by bloggers to host images.

Upwork is a global freelancing platform where businesses and independent professionals connect and collaborate remotely.

Behance is a social media platform owned by Adobe which aims "to showcase and discover creative work".

Kanopy is an on-demand streaming video platform for public libraries and universities that offers viewers a large collection of award-winning films and documentaries.

with digitally bound content the ability to upload and distribute their publications worldwide.

04 I OUR COMPETITORS

A truly modern media company, Issuu gives anyone

Dropbox offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and client software. Dropbox is building the world’s first smart workspace.

Trello is an easy, free, flexible, and visual way to manage projects and organize anything, trusted by millions of people from all over the world.

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is the largest museum of modern. We assemble unparalleled collections, create exhilarating exhibitions, and develop engaging public programs that connect with our community.

for creating and sharing short lip-sync, comedy, and talent videos.

ED Conferences LLC is an American media organization that posts talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading".

ASPIRATIONAL COMPETITORS

TikTok is an iOS and Android social media video app

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OUR COMPETITORS

BRAND ATTRIBUTES 5 Relevant Words:

Developable, Trustable, Flexible, Learning, Spread 5 Negative Words:

Hard, Traditional, Single, Recession, Ordinary 5 Neutral Words:

Available, Compositive, Inclusive, Independent, Propagable 5 Words Your Brand Hopes To “Own”:

Shared, Broad, Communication, Enlightened, Diversified

51 BORDERS CHAPTER 04: COMPETITORS

04 I OUR COMPETITORS

BRAND ATTRIBUTES

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THE NEXT PHASE

THE NEXT PHASE We have researched the brand history and developed a strategy in the Visual Strategy Guide to develop the brand and define audiences. In the next guideline, the Visual Development Guide, we will develop a new logo and visual system.

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COLOPHON DESIGNER Wanran Ding

CLASS Nature of Identity Fall 2019

INSTRUCTOR Hunter Wimmer

PHOTO RESOURCE unsplash.com bradenton.com profellow.com

ARTICLE RESOURCE annarbor.com nytimes.com slate.com