Erin Young Post 4: What If? What Wows?

 Following our secondary and primary research, our group started conceptualizing a mall design that captured the joy of treasure hunting for an item at a pop-up market with the reliability of a shopping mall. Our target market of older Gen Z to younger Millenial shoppers emphasized their desire for unique and sustainable clothing made from high-quality material. The primary frustration they expressed with shopping malls was the dull nature of the environment and product options. We prioritized our problem statement of "Younger fashion-forward consumers need a way to find unique and affordable products that express their personal styles because they want recognition from their peers and to feel comfortable in their identities" and tried to balance it with any cost saving and sustainable ideas we could implement into our future prototypes. When designing our persona, we wanted to emphasize her youthfulness, her monetary restrictions, and her need to stand out which would encourage her to seek new clothing. We came up with the concept of Ava Anderson, a high school senior and popular girl who feels the need to impress others and show off her unique style for picture day. This would prompt her to spend a day online, at the mall, and at a pop-up market to find the perfect shirt for the occasion. Our decision was to create a customer journey map to detail each step of her search for a perfect top along with the shortcomings every shopping destination frustrated her with. Although we overlooked the conclusion of her finding the right product, this map helped us become more aware of the problems our target audience might have when looking for unique clothing.

When brainstorming, we considered that traditional malls generally consisted of physical retail stores in one large building with primarily indoor vendors and a uniform interior. We also took note of their parking, entertainment options like movie theaters and arcades, the need for change in vendors or decor, and the mass-produced products sold. We contrasted these qualities with the attributes of a pop-up mall like rotating vendors, outdoor tent spaces, experiential shopping like product demonstrations, seasonal or exclusive items, artisanal or handmade products, local brands and foods, and the limited availability of the market itself. We went with the Blue Ocean Strategy to chart the differences between a traditional mall and a pop-up market and how our design might find a happy medium between them. Our brainstorming wanted to combine the more appreciated aspects of both options - like the handmade or "special" products of the pop-up market with the entertainment options of the traditional mall to create a unique shopping experience with the best of both worlds. The products also had to be desired so our target market would seek out items they considered worthy of purchasing. The group disagreed over what our concept should look like and decided to go in different directions for our product write-ups. Our ideation stage resulted in three different ideas to move forward with, two of which were much better developed than our other option.

Our first product was an "Etsy" style mall with products whose features could be customized to the customer or unique to the store they shopped in. This space would increase the building's personality by repurposing an old warehouse for a less polished, urban feeling and a fluid floor design with spaces rented out to local artisans that could be increased or decreased based on the vendor's success. The presence of local vendors would build a community within the mall, which could be reinforced by an online network or newsletter updating consumers on new products and additions. Local chefs and artisans would replace traditional food court vendors for healthier and varied dining options. This approach could reduce bland retail offerings and the promotion of rapid consumption. The mall would benefit from avoiding high construction costs while customers could enjoy accessibility to artisanal vendors.

Our second concept was a virtual mall where shoppers could have access to a variety of hallmark stores on a single webpage. The social aspect of the mall could be maintained through online interactions with other customers interested in the same stores without the need to travel to another location. The stores could offer a wider range of inventory to increase the amount of unique options while returns would decrease from the ability to try on clothes with a digital avatar. Web advertisements would also provide a new stream of revenue for the stores while the construction cost would be eliminated entirely. Our group enjoyed coming up with this idea but decided against it as we thought that it would not be able to compete with the convenience of regular online shopping. The social aspects left something to be desired and none of our primary research supported this idea.

The last concept we came up with was much more underdeveloped: an "event" oriented mall where customers attended local fashion shows and became inspired by the models to purchase entire outfits in a single visit. I personally did not see the purpose of this idea, but two other members of my group were enthused by it so I figured that they might show me something I had not thought about. This idea relied too heavily on consumers following the mall's newsletter to attend fashion shows and should have considered our target market's desire for unique products. We ultimately chose to pursue the first concept but implemented some of the ideas for our newsletter that we developed in this concept.

We began to prototype, creating a floor plan, newsletter, mood board, and list of store names for our focus group to look through. This process made it clearer what the layout of the center would look like, with some of the less permanent sellers outside in tents for cheaper rent. Collaboration got harder at this stage due to one team member being unavailable for the week, leading to frequent changes in the newsletter layout that had to be discussed outside of class. The floor plan demonstrated how the mall would function, with some tents in the outdoor section for less committed vendors to rent out for a short period to sell their products while more stable vendors rented indoor locations. We also developed an outdoor entertainment section for live music to further invoke the lively atmosphere of a pop-up market. The indoor section was structured more like a standard mall, but with stores whose size could vary depending on the vendor and their success. The feelings our mall would invoke were better captured in the mood board, consisting of wood and metal structures full of natural lighting. The local feel of our vendors was communicated through our list of store names and newsletter, which highlighted the handmade quality of the products and the achievements of the people creating them. Our prototypes captured the mixture of pop-up market and standard mall we hoped for, giving consumers the treasure-hunting feeling they sought out when making a purchase.