How can design transform a business, and possibly a category too?
THE BIG QUESTION
Creaticity
THE BIG QUESTION
KEY INSIGHT
BUSINESS IMPACT
How can design transform a business, and possibly a category too?
To leverage Ishanya’s unique offering mix and open, outdoor physicality to re-invent the ‘role of the mall’ for the city and its people.
The footfalls, which was one of key impact areas, rose by 45% in the period of Apr to Oct from 2017 to 2018.
Though conceived as a path breaking home specialty mall, Ishanya could neither provide ‘typical mall’ engagement nor stand for anything unique otherwise
Ishanya, the country’s first, and by scale, the country’s largest home specialty mall, conceived as a one stop destination for all things home, had undergone a slew of changes over a span of 10 years, in the pursuit of a differentiated experience and a distinct identity. Somewhat ironically, as a result, the mall, ten years in, did not stand for anything unique in the customer's mind.
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The conflict between its general perception as a ‘mall’, and its somewhat niche actual offering, created disparity in expectations, whereby people visited seeking a ‘mall experience’, but found a specialized, big ticket category shopping center, without the typical mixed retail landscape or too many avenues for meaningful engagement.
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This caused portions of the expansive space to fall gradually into disuse, with trickling footfall. Retailer-tenants, thereby, exercised liberty in promoting their respective brands as they saw fit, across various pockets of the space. Factors such as these led to a somewhat non unified experience, with navigation and general shoppability being areas of concern.
Our Big Hairy Audacious Goal was to leverage Ishanya’s unique offering mix and open, outdoor physicality to re-invent the ‘role of the mall’ for the city and its people.
After intense research, multiple management and consumer interactions, we concluded that the business required a multipronged approach.
This one year long exercise started with a complete transformation of the Brand, expanding into an inspired and layered Experience design, reinforced with relevant and elevating Service design, curated Events framework, and an internal work Culture redesign to help the management internalize and deliver on the brand’s promise.
A key part of our goal was to transform the idea of the space from a ‘home mall’ to a ‘living campus destination’, which included expanding its offering from just home to lifestyle, food, art, education, entertainment,sports.
The new brand was built around the philosophy of ‘Democratization of Creativity - a belief that everyone is creative', and the brand promises to enable the expression of this creativity for the city and its people.
The core brand thought that led to the company’s conception - “Creativity makes life worth living” - led us to expand the idea of the ‘mall’ from that of a mere commercial center, to that of a campus that fosters creative expression, belonging to a creative community, and co-creation, of customers’ living environments, as well as a variety of qualitative aspects of their lives.
The brand name ‘Creaticity’ captures the scale and ‘un-mall’ core thought. The brand identity gives personality and solidity to the thought and reflects the multi-faceted nature of the Creaticity experience. The tagline ‘Let’s Express More’ showcases the Creaticity belief of inclusive expression.
The brand’s visual language was designed to be vibrant & colorful with the brand communication using simple action oriented words to convey the reliability and simplicity of the message. The product communication keeps brand in the lead message, with content that depicts scale, range & curation in the different categories.
The signage system ensured navigability while ensuring footfall irrigation of the campus
For the vast indoor-outdoor campus, a robust SIGNAGE SYSTEM was designed and installed with a dual purpose – improving navigability while ensuring footfall irrigation across the campus and its various contours and levels occupied by F&B and retail partners.
Over 300 pieces of signages including directories, pylons, mini-pylons, drop downs were designed and implemented across the mall
Experience design exercise focused on fixing the NAVIGABILITY & SHOPABILITY of the space and create a sense of DESTINATION.
The goal for the EXPERIENCE DESIGN was to fix navigability & shopability in the space and create a sense of 'Destination' – a place full of new experiences and offerings and yet that provides a sense of belonging and comfort.
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In order to drive the sense of destination, the different parts of the mall were renamed from ‘Arcade 1/2/3 etc’ to be based on the physical characteristic of the space, ex. ‘Fountain House’, ‘Bridge
House’, ‘Sky loft’ etc.
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An overall visual refresh of the mall interior and exterior spaces gave it a fresh and inviting look & feel, while brand led communication and brand inspired installations brought uniformity and seamless-ness to the experience, however some key interventions were made to achieve specific goals – Foyer experience, Living Exhibits, Break out zones & Third place furniture
