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“It was a painful time for all us involved.” —Mike Edwards (Borders CEO)
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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PAST
FUTURE
A-1 Brand History A-2 Timeline
B- 1 B-2 B-3 B-4
Mission Statement Potential for Design Keywords Our Position
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PERSONAS
COMPETITORS
C-1 My Audiences C-2 Not Interested
D- 1 Current Competitors D-2 Adjacent Competitors D- 3 Aspirational Competitors
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BORDERS
BRAND HISTORY
Borders Group, Inc. was an international book and music retailer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In its final year, the company employed about 19,500 people throughout the U.S., primarily in its Borders and Waldenbooks stores. At the beginning of 2010, the company operated 511 Borders superstores in the United Sate. The company also operated 175 stores in the Waldenbooks Specialty Retail segment, including Waldenbooks, Borders Express, Borders airport stores, and Borders Outlet stores. By the end of December 2010, Borders employed more than an estimated 1150 across the UK stores which went into administration before the end of 2010. All stores were closed by December 31, 2010. Borders Group formerly operated stores in Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. However, these were sold off to Pacific Equity Partners (which owned rival Angus & Robertson) in 2008, then were later sold again to REDgroup Retail. The stores continued to operate under the Borders brand as the unaffiliated “Borders Asia Pacific� until RedGroup was placed into voluntary administration in February 2011; with the five New Zealand stores sold to the James Pascoe Group, and the Australian stores gradually shut down, with the last group to close by July 2011. On February 16, 2011, the company announced that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, listing $1.275 billion in assets and $1.293 billion in debts in its
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filing. The company also announced the liquidation and closing of 226 stores. Two private-equity firms, The Gores Group and Najafi Companies, expressed interest in purchasing half of the remaining Borders Group stores. Borders Group announced on July 1, 2011, that it had found a bidder, Direct Brands, that would acquire the assets for $215 million and the assumption of $220 million in debt. A group of Borders creditors rejected the Direct Brands takeover bid in July 2011. Borders filed for an auction and the motion was approved by a judge; however, the bid deadline expired on July 17 without a bidder. A United States bankruptcy judge approved a petition to liquidate. On July 22, 2011, Borders started closing its remaining 399 stores with a phased roll-out. Business operations ceased in September 2011. Former rival and the current second-largest chain of bookstores in the United States, Books-A-Million, had made a bid to acquire 30-35 stores and their assets on July 19, 2011, the day liquidation was approved by the courts. The two sides, however, were unable to come to an agreement suitable to all parties.
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B R A N D H I S T O RY
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1990
1970
1980
TIMELINE
1992
1998
1971
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1971
1992
Brothers Tom and Louis Borders open an 800-square-foot used bookstore called Borders Book Shop at 211 S. South State St. in Ann Arbor.
Kmart buys Borders, then a Michiganbased chain of 21 book superstores in the Midwest and Northeast. In 1984, KMart buys Waldenbooks.
1988
1998
Borders recruits Robert DiRomualdo to lead the company’s expansion. DiRomualdo is later credited with leading the company’s rise to national prominence in the 1990s.
Launches Borders Online, but analysts fault it for being late to embrace e-commerce.
A-2
TIMELINE
2010
2020
CHAPTER
2000
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2011
2006
2004
2001
1998
2018 REBIRTH
2001
2006
Announces a deal with Amazon.com Inc to relaunch Borders’ money-losing e-commerce site and feature Amazon.com’s books and music offerings.
The company launches a loyalty program called Borders Rewards.
2004
2011
Borders signs deal with Starbucks Corp. to run Seattle’s Best Coffee cafe operations in its stores.
Borders files for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection in Manhattan. Borders announces plans to liquidate. Some 10,700 people will lose their jobs, including 400 in Ann Arbor.
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FUTURE
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Mission Statement Potential for Design Keywords Our Position
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V I S UA L S T R AT E GY G U I D E
Connecting people to knowledge sharing.
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MISSION STATEMENT
We are a creative community that crosses borders and encourages knowledge sharing.
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M I S S I O N S TAT E M E N T
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POTENTIAL FOR DESIGN
POTENTIAL FOR DESIGN
Rebranding Objective The objective is to built the brand into an entirely new category while remaining true to its core essence. Borders was a publicly held bookchain that revolved around forming a community of people and providing them with knowledge and entertainment.
The Potential For Design After conducting an extensive research on bookstores around the world and how this business looks like in the tech-driven future, I came up with a new plan for Borders based on their core objective. Instead of just being a bookstore, the new Borders would aim to be a brand that fosters a communal feeling and connects people to people through sharing knowledge. It would be a place for a young audience to gain knowledge from other people in their own community.
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V I S UA L S T R AT E GY G U I D E
KEYWORDS
WELCOMING Everyone is welcome, and welcome to knowledge sharing.
COMMUNITY A creative community to enrich lives through meaningful connections.
INSPIRATION Communicate with potential cooperators to inspire valuable ideas.
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KEY WORDS
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V I S UA L S T R AT E GY G U I D E
OUR POSITION Current These pictures currently show how Borders Groups started. The original Borders Group sells books in physical book superstores. These pictures visually describe the brand at a glance is traditional, outdated and old-fashioned.
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OUR POSITION
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V I S UA L S T R AT E GY G U I D E
OUR POSITION Future Based on the new mission of Borders Group. It can clearly see how Borders has changed. These pictures visually describe the brand at a glance is in tech-driven future. It is lively, modern and bright.
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OUR POSITION
BORDERS
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PERSONAS C-1 My Audiences C-2 Not Interested
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V I S UA L S T R AT E GY G U I D E
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MY AUDIENCES
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An Avid Reader SANDRA SCOTT Age | 25 Gander | Female Location | London Education | BA Occupation | Writer
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.� 1. She talked with her parents about going back to school for further study. 2. When she takes the bus or train, she read a book in a noisy environment. 3. She likes to join social events and activities to make friends and communicate with different people. 4. She is eager to seek a soul mate who has the same hobbies as she does. 5. After work, she always enjoys reading novels in a nearby coffee shop instead of at home. 6. Recently, she wrote a novel based on her experiences. 7. A few weeks ago, she started a blog online to record her life, and share her stories with people.
TRAITS
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A Math Genius LUCAS LEE Age | 16 Gander | Male Location | Los Angles Education | High School Occupation | Student
“If you have one true friend you have more than your share.� 1. He is good at many subjects, especially math. 2. He does not have siblings, so he feels lonely at home when his parents are busy at work. 3. Sometimes, he hates to go to school because of the boring class settings. 4. He lives in a poor community; the basic facilities do not meet his needs. 5. He likes talking to people about his thoughts on Math. 6. On the weekend, he likes to explore creative spaces to self-study. 7. His parents want him to live in a dormitory near his school, but he disagrees.
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A Kindly Tutor KRISTINA MORRIS Age | 30 Gander | Female Location | San Diego Education | BA Occupation | DIY Tutor
“A Tutor Can Make a World of Difference to a Child.� 1. She often goes to a workshop as a volunteer tutor on weekends because she enjoys helping people. 2. On weekdays, she works at a kindergarten to teach kids to draw. 3. She likes to collect antiques and vintage things. 4. She has a passion for teaching the younger generation and sharing her knowledge with children. 5. On the weekends, she likes to search relevant educational books in the library. 6. She likes to invite her friends to go hiking in summer vacation. 7. In her workplace, she likes to share her experience of teaching with other tutors.
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A Nice Professor JULY MITCHELL Age | 51 Gander | Female Location | New York Education | PhD Occupation | Professor
“Communication is the key to personal and career success.� 1. She teaches psychology at Stanford University. 2. Most students love her because she is kind and knowledgable. 3. She is very patient with her students. 4. She encourages her students to share knowledge and communicate with different people. 5. In her spare time, she likes to read books to relax. 6. She often gets invited to give a speech for the younger generation. 7. She believes that education is the most important resource for children.
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A New Designer RYAN WONG Age | 22 Gander | Male Location | Daly City Education | MFA Occupation | Graphic Designer
“Good design comes from collaboration and communication.� 1. He is an international student who studies graphic design at Academy of Art University. 2. As a freshman, he wants to explore more about this city and makes friends. 3. On the weekend, he likes to participate in creative activities to get more inspirations. 4. He often does his homework at the library or Starbucks. 5. He used to post his works on social media. 6. He likes to travel and take pictures everywhere during his vacations. 7. He likes teamwork and communicates with peers to spark new ideas.
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A Loving Father DAVID ANDERSON Age | 46 Gander | Male Location | Chicago Education | BFA Occupation | Accountant
“I expect my sons to be a man as he meant to be.” 1. He wants to cultivate his two sons be successful and healthy adults. 2. He is careful about what his kids diet as his family’s health matters. 3. When he goes to sleep, he likes to read a story to his kids. 4. He spends time doing hands-on activities with kids on the weekend. 5. He loves to travel with his family in his spare time. 6. He often takes his two kids to museums and creative places to broaden their horizons. 7. He let his kids attend different educational classes that they are interested in.
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NOT INTERESTED
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A Busy Worker ALEX SMITH Age | 45 Gander | Male Location | Australia Education | BA Occupation | Engineer
“I have no time without doing my busy work.” 1. He is a full-time job worker, and also, he is an Uber driver after work. 2. In the future, he plans to buy a new car. 3. In his spare time, he enjoys a short trip with his wife to different beautiful view spots. 4. He does not like a crowded place, so he wants to move to the countryside. 5. Using a phone call is the best way to contact him, because he is busy and he rarely uses social media. 6. He needs to work hard to offer his son’s expensive tuition fee. 7. When his son went to college in a different state, his son left a pet dog for him.
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A Baby’s Mother EMMA ROSS Age | 37 Gander | Female Location | Seattle Education | MA Occupation | Freelancer
“My current job is to be a full time mother.” 1. She has been unemployed at home to take care of her a newborn baby. 2. She prepares her resume online and wonders about a freelance job at home. 3. She enjoys staying with her a new family. 4. Her husband starts to take care of his a little son after work. 5. In the weekend, they take their a little son to escape from the city to breathe fresh air. 6. It is a lifestyle that she loves to share her family photos in social media. 7. Sometimes, she feels tired to take care of her baby and wants to hire a nursemaid.
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COMPE TITOR S
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COMPETITORS D- 1 Current Competitors D-2 Adjacent Competitors D- 3 Aspirational Competitors
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V I S UA L S T R AT E GY G U I D E
BORDERS
CURRENT COMPETITORS The current competitors committed in the same field as a bookstore based company. Borders Group has competitors on both of paper book and e-book industries.
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Barnes & Noble, Inc., a Fortune 500 company, is the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States, and a retailer of content, digital media, and educational products. As of October 15, 2017, the company operates 778 retail stores in all 50 U.S. states.
Vital Source, a privately held company headquartered in San Mateo, California, was a provider of eTextbooks and digital course materials. CourseSmart was founded in 2007 by publishers in higher education including Bedford, Cengage Learning, Freeman & Worth Publishing Group, McGraw-Hill Education, John Wiley & Sons, and Pearson.
Chegg, Inc. is an American online textbook rental company based in Santa Clara, California, that specializes in online textbook rentals (both in physical and digital formats), homework help, online tutoring, scholarships and internship matching. It is meant to help students in high school and college.
Amazon.com, Inc., doing business as Amazon, is an American electronic commerce and cloud computing company. The tech giant is the largest Internet retailer in the world as measured by revenue and market capitalization, and second largest after Alibaba Group in terms of total sales.
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CURRENT COMPE TITOR S
The Kobo eReader is an e-reader produced by Toronto-based Kobo Inc. The company’s name is an ana-
Books-A-Million, Inc., also known as BAM!, owns and operates the second largest bookstore chain in the
gram of “book”. The original version was released in May 2010 and was marketed as a minimalist alternative to the more expensive e-book readers available at the time. Like most e-readers, the Kobo uses an electronic ink screen.
United States, operating 260 stores in 32 states. Stores range in size from 4,000 to 30,000 square feet and sell books, magazines, collectibles, toys, technology, and gifts.
Indigo Books & Music Inc., usually known as “Indigo” and stylized “!ndigo”, is Canada’s largest book, gift and specialty toy retailer, operating stores in all ten provinces and one territory, and through a website offering a selection of books, toys, home décor, stationery and gifts.
Follett Corporation is a Westchester, Illinois-based company that provides a variety of educational products to schools, colleges, and public libraries through its subsidiaries.
Half Price Books, Records, Magazines, Incorporated is the largest family-owned chain of new and used bookstores in the United States. The company’s original motto is “We buy and sell anything printed or recorded except yesterday’s newspaper”, and many of the used books, music, and movies.
Deseret Book is an American publishing company headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, that also operates a chain of bookstores throughout the western United States. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Deseret Management Corporation.
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V I S UA L S T R AT E GY G U I D E
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ADJACENT COMPETITORS The adjacent competitors committed in the similar field as an entertainment or a source of knowledge based company. Customers spend time to do something instead of reading book.
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Yahoo! is a web services provider that is wholly owned by Verizon Communications through Oath Inc., and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. Yahoo was one of the pioneers of the early Internet era in the 1990s.
Netflix is an American entertainment company founded by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph on August 29, 1997, in Scotts Valley, California. It specializes in and provides streaming media and video-on-demand online and DVD by mail. In 2013, Netflix expanded into film and television production as well as online distribution.
Bing is a web search engine owned and operated by Microsoft. The service has its origins in Microsoft’s previous search engines: MSN Search, Windows Live Search and later Live Search. Bing provides a variety of search services.
YouTube is an American video-sharing website headquartered in San Bruno, California. The service was created by three former PayPal employees—Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim—in February 2005.
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A D J AC E N T C O M P E T I T O R S
Hulu(stylized as hulu) is an American subscription video on demand service owned by Hulu LLC. It is primarily oriented towards instant streaming of television series’, carrying current and past episodes of many series’ from its owners’ respective television networks and other content partners.
AMC Theatres (originally an abbreviation for American Multi-Cinema, often referred to simply as AMC and known in some countries as AMC Cinemas) is an American movie theater chain owned and operated by Wanda Group.
Cinemark, Inc. is an American movie theatre chain owned by Cinemark Holdings, Inc. operating throughout the Americas and in Taiwan. It is headquartered in Plano, Texas, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. It is the largest movie theatre chain in Brazil, with a 30 percent market share.
Spotify is a music, podcast, and video streaming service that was officially launched on 7 October 2008. Spotify is a freemium service; basic features are free with advertisements or limitations, while additional features, such as improved streaming quality and music downloads.
MoMA has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as one of the largest and most influential museums of modern art in the world. MoMA’s collection offers an overview of modern and contemporary art, and electronic media.
ABC Family Worldwide is a subsidiary of the Disney–ABC Television Group that is responsible for the operations of the U.S. cable network Freeform. The company was originally formed as International Family Entertainment.
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V I S UA L S T R AT E GY G U I D E
BORDERS
ASPIRATIONAL COMPETITORS The aspirational competitors committed in the relevant field as a creative workshop or a community based company. The aspirational competitors will not be traditional ways to learn knowledge.
Quora is a question-and-answer site where questions are asked, answered, edited, and organized by its community of users. Its publisher, Quora Inc., is based in Mountain View, California. Users can collaborate by editing questions and suggesting edits to answers that have been submitted by other users.
WeWork is an American company that provides shared workspaces, technology startup subculture communities, and services for entrepreneurs, freelancers, startups, small businesses and large enterprises. Founded in 2010, it is headquartered in New York City.
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TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a media organization which posts talks online for free distribution, under the slogan “ideas worth spreading”. It has since broadened its focus to include talks on many scientific, cultural, and academic topics.
Issuu is an online platform that enables anyone—from independent creators to global brands—to share, measure and monetize their digital content. With over 100 million unique visitors per month, Issuu is the world’s largest digital discovery and publishing platform.
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D -3
A S P I R AT I O N A L C O M P E T I T O R S
99U is a consulting service and annual conference in New York City that focuses on marketing. The 99U provides actionable insights on productivity, organization, and leadership to help creatives people push ideas forward.
CreativeMornings is a free monthly breakfast lecture series for designed for creative communities. The concept was simple: breakfast and a short talk one Friday morning a month. Every event would be free of charge and open to anyone.
ideacity is an annual conference created and produced by Canadian media icon Moses Znaimer, and has been recognized as Canada’s premier “meeting of the minds.” Over the course of three days in June, ideacity presents a broad.
PopTech achieves its mission by exploring opportunities and the sense of possibility that resides within diverse sets of challenges. We deliver on our mission through research, consulting projects, convenings and the identification and training of some of the world’s most promising scientists and innovators.
Creative Action is a nonprofit, artsbased, youth development organization that provides fun, hands-on creative learning programs in the classroom, in after school settings and in the community.
We are not talkers. We are facilitators and supporters. We want to enable diverse, creative action. We work with individuals and organizations to make the leap from where they are today to the future in which they can and must work.
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REFERENCES
Borders’ rise and fall: a timeline of the bookstore chain’s 40-year history, Jul 18, 2011, Nathan Bomey, www.annarbor.com Timeline: A short history of Borders Group bookstores, February 16, 2011, Reuters Staff, www.reuters.com
1. quora.com/What-are-the-alternatives-toand-competitors-of-TED-talks-and-events 2. creativemornings.com/about 3. unsplash.com/search/photos/people 4. conference.99u.com/about 5. unsplash.com/search/photos/book
6. bloomfire.com/blog/ways-to-encourage 7. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borders_Group 8. asiapac/meetings/2014annual/beh.pdf 9. oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/councils 10. pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows
COLOPHON
Graphic Designer | Zhe Fang Typeface in Use | Basic Sans, Museo Slab Course | The Nature of Identity Time | Spring 2018 School | Academy of Art University Instructor | Hunter Wimmer
All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, recording, photocopying or otherwise, without prior permission of Zhe Fang.
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