QUIK SILVER
ABOUT THE BRAND Originally from America this retail store was founded in Torquay (Australia) and was based in Huntington beach, California. It is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of surf wear and other board sport- related equipment. The name Quik Silver comes from an incident where Alan’s wife Barbara was reading a novel where she came across the word Quik Silver which was described as elusive, mercurial, changing readily, it sounded very similar to what Alan was trying to make of his company. The company acts as a parent brand to two other brands namely, ROXY, The brand is purposely aimed at women who enjoy coastal and mountain based sports and lifestyles, although their advertising tends to feature young women in bikinis instead of engaged in meaningful action sports activities. It has sub brands for its children ranges named Roxy Girl and Teenie Wahine and, DC, This sub-brand basically deals with apparels, shoes and equipment related to skateboarding. In India today it stands as a number 1 brand for skateboarders. As of 2013, Quiksilver has 834 stand-alone stores in major cities across Australia, New Zealand and the pacific, Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa.
ABOUT THE LOGO The logo is designed by the company founder Alan Green and John Law in
Torquay, Australia. It was inspired by Japanese painter Hokusai’s woodcut “The
great wave off Kangawa” which showed a typhoon wave and Mt Fuji. It consists of a large cresting wave with a mountain on a red background. The Roxy logo consists of two copies of the Quiksilver logo, one reflected forming a heart.
TARGET CUSTOMERS The target consumer for the brand are mainly Adventure and Travel Enthusiasts. As said by the store manager, most people who purchase their products are going abroad on a vacation and want to try surfing. Skateboarders are a leading community in India and are also loyal customers to this store. The target age group mainly lies between 16-35, an age where people like to travel and move around.
Phoenix High Street Walk Way, Outside the store
STORE LOCATION The store is located at High Street, Lower Parel. This is the best location for this specialty store as the customers are given a boost up by the location and ambience of the marketplace. The nearby stores are also highly exclusive and thus the locations hit bang on, on its target customer.
Address: Grand Galleria, Phoenix Shoppers Walk Way, Lower Parel, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400013, India Operational Hours: 10AM-10PM
Product Range QUIK SILVER APPAREL
FOOTWEAR
ADVENTURE GEAR
BackPacks
T-Shirts
Surfing Boards
Beach Shorts
Skate Boards
Tops (ROXY)
Technical Gear
Swimwear (ROXY) Beach Dresses (ROXY) Hats and Caps Slippers Socks Sports Shoes (DC)
STORE ANAYLSIS
CUSTOMER'S POINT OF VIEW
Target Consumer ENTERANCE The enterance of the store is through a glass door which is a smart move as the interiors attract the customer. The door is covered with different types of skateboards placed in a very random pattern which gives you a clear idea of the store.
CONE OF VISION The visibility of the store is very well balanced as most of the fixtures holding apparels are fixed on the wall. The tables and racks that are placed around are also of a low height allowing the customer to have a complete view of the store when they enter. Smaller items are places on a plank above the average customer height to give a differentiated view of it.
PROPS The main props for the store are the skateboards as most parts of the walls are covered by it. They give the store double benefit, as the product is displayed while the ambience is also beautifully created.
SHELVES Three kind of Tables/Shelves can be seen throughout the store. First are the light box tables which are places at the counter and exhibit their smaller products like technical gear. The second kind are the average waist heighted tables on which apparels (Mainly T-shirts) are displayed. The third kind are the above average height shelves on which products like carry-ons, backpacks, shoes etc. are displayed.
ROOFS AND FLOORS The overall theme of the store is a beach shack, does to engorge the emotive value, the store has opted for a wooden flooring. The brown color gives a very earthy feel and promotes the feeling of adventure. Also the wooden floor is better for skateboarding as the store allows customers to roam around the store on skateboards. In most stores the roof is also created like a beach shack but in this particular store the roof is a metal one. The store manager says that this was preferred because of the market uniformity and Mumbai weather.
LIGHTING The lighting of the store is very basic. They have normal white lights all around the store. The lighting doesn’t contribute much to ambience but helps in giving a proper look at the products in clear white light.
ARCHITECHURE ELEMENTS The store has a very basic pattern in terms of display. But the beach look that is created by making a wooden mesh behind each product display makes it very interesting. Shelves that are placed well above the eye level also add to the ambience. Otherwise very basic wall and ground fixtures are used to display apparel and footwear.
WINDOW DISPLAY The window displays are mainly of the new skateboards that have come in the market, they don’t invest much in it. Few shadow boxes can be seen inside the store exhibiting smaller products.
SERVICE Being a speciality store, the service is very prompt. Each salesperson knows about the skateboard or surfboard equipment very welll. The people are polite and are ready to provide any information required on the topic.
MANEQUINS All the manequins in the store of fibreglass and headless as the staff believes that the focus should be on the product.
GRAPHICS Graphics inside the store are few colourful and youthful, promoting the spirit of travel and adventure. The graphics that are used by them to invite guests to the store are also very casual and interesting.
INTERACTIVE DISPLAY By allowing customers to skateboard inside the premises of the store, they complete the overall experience of skateboarding. Also certain videos and clips keep playing in some televisions placed around the store to keep the travel spirit going.
PROMOTIONAL PLAN The store organizes Skate Jams in their courtyard and invites skateboarders from all over Mumbai and even the customers are encouraged to join the event. The store also organises skate boarding workshops, cleaning workshops etc to encourage people to skateboard Advertising using movies about different techniques and new technology is also done in an auditorium, they rent downstairs.
CUSTOMER CONNECTION They have created a membership association with skateboarders from major metropolitan cities like Bangalore, Kolkata, Pune etc. This extension of retail activity gets them a lot of customer loyalty
DESIGNER'S POINT OF VIEW
General Plan Quik Silver Store
BASIC LAYOUT The basic store formation is in a rectangular format. The entrance to the store is at the left hand corner. The trial rooms are situated in the exact opposite corner of the entrance.The cash counter is sitauted in the approx middle of the store and consists of a table with a glass case and two chairs placed behind. Behind the cash counter is a custom made wall constructed about 3 ft in width from the wall. This wall contains 3 shadow boxes to display exclusive products. The store has two windows in the front edge which exhibit posters and new product arrivals. There are multiple rod hangers placed around the store to display garments. With the wall, peg hangers are placed for garments. Other products are folded and placed below it and also displayed on the furniture fixture infront of it.
Lighting Plan Quik Silver Store
LIGHTING The lighting for the store is very systematic. The three main types of lighting that we see across the store are: Down Lights, that cover a major part of the store are all across the metal mesh ceiling. These lights are also placed inside the window displays. The purpose of this light being, providing ample light to properly display the products. Being white lights they don’t contribute much to the ambience but show the true colours of the products. Track Lights, these lights are all around the corners of the store, they are used on top of products which are kept above the eye level. They act as a spot light on products like bags, boards and shoes. Being yellow lights these soothe the ambience of the store. Back Lighting, these lights are present in the signages of the store. In the DC and Quiksilver logos the lighting is used to bring emphasis to the sub brand zones. This lighting is also present on the cash counter counter top in a upward manner to display the smaller technical products. Overall the lighting of the store is very basic and doesn’t add much to the ambience. They could add some colour lights to enhance the tropical mood that they are trying to create using the surfboards.
Fixture Plan Quik Silver Store
FIXTURES Three main types of fixtures that are present around the store are as follows: 1. Wall Fixtures: These are placed across the wall all throughout, the benefit of this display is that the customer is able to see the complete look of the apparel. But this fixture makes the ambience a little congested for a sports store. 2. Rod Hangers: These fixtures also display the apparel of the store, they are randomly spread throughout the area. Being movable fixtures the staff keeps changing their position and also uses them multipurposely. They provide good cicrculation space and give easy access to customers to have a complete look and feel of the garment. 3. Shelfs: There are two kind of shelves across the store, floor and wall. The floor shelves are used for displaying folded products and shoes, and are only approached by the customer when they need a particular size. These fixtures are mostly used to display sale or last season products. The wall shelves are used to exhibit sport goods like the surfboards. They also hold posters and photo frames with travel quotes inside.
Ciculation Plan Quik Silver Store
CIRCULATION SPACE The basic idea of this store is to give the customer a vacation experience. Keeping with the theme the staff has tried to create an open environment but because of multiple fixtures and posters it seems a little congested. The circulation for the store is a little webbed as multiple sub brands create their own spaces.The entry and Exit for the store is the same which causes a little chaos near the gate. To make the cicrculation better the staff changes their arrangement very frequently.
Props Plan Quik Silver Store
PROPS Two major props are used by the store: One is the boards, both surf and skate to create an atheletic environment, and the other is the potted plants which are placed randomly to give a tropical feel. More props could be added to the store, as the present props don’t completely justify the theme of the store, as in their other stores for the same brand, one can see a complete beach shack type environment. Complete with plants, grass, wooden structures etc but here they have invested very less in making the store attarctive. The placement of the skateboards on the walls above eye vision give a very clustered look. To keep the focus on the skateboards they could come up with an island display in the form of an instalation which would look less clutered.
Graphics Plan Quik Silver Store
GRAPHICS The graphics for the store are very simple. The event posters on the other hand are very interesting but they are only displayed during events. The signages used for products in the store mostly consist of pictures with text which don’t identify much with the store. The pictures are appopriate for the vacation feel but much more can be done to enhance the store individuality. Putting graphics in the window display doesn’t attract much attention because of space constraint. As they have a small size window they could develop single manequin displays and attract customer attention. The sub-brands zones are properly differentiated using back lit signages.
Cone of Vision Plan Quik Silver Store
CONE OF VISION The entrance of the store is on the left hand corner, being a rectangular store this decreases the amount of products that the customer can see in their cone of vision. If the entrance was on the left edge the visibility would be 100 percent for the store. The visibility improves when you walk a certain distance and turn right towards the store. In the first sight the customer can see the first sub brand ROXY, since the wall hangers are little above eye level and the table is below eye level, it is easy for the customers to easy the entire product range in that area easily. All the products displayed in the store except the sports gear placed on the wall shelves, are in the customer vision. Thus the customer can easily see the products and the sale is increased.
Zoning Plan Quik Silver Store
ZONING Two kinds of zoning can be done for this store: Sub-Brands Firstly according to the sub brands the store can be divided into 3 parts, DC, ROXY and QUIKSILVER. The Zones for DC and ROXY are very systematic as the customer can buy their entire product range in a small closed spaced area. But for quick silver the products are spread all around the store as the merchaindise has a lot of variety. This makes it difficult for the customers to locate the particular brand. Merchandise According to the merchaindise the products are widely spread around the store. No particular areas are created. On anaylsising one can see that the apparels are placed around the corner of the store. Footwear mainly occupies one corner. Other acesories occupy the centre.
MEHEK MALHOTRA.NISHITA KARUN CASE STUDY FOR VISUAL MERCHAINDISING