PRESENTATION PREP

Over the past week or two I have been preparing my Brand Proposal Presentation which will present my initial ideas for my brand development.

I admittedly had a few unmotivated days over the Easter break, and as mentioned before, I have really struggled the get going with the project. However, since confirming a brand name, I have found some more motivation to really push with the project and feel confident with what I am working on.

At this stage, I have come up with most of the brand foundations, and began to present them in a visually exciting way that reflects my brand and its vision. From a brand mission statement to brand values, I am somewhat confident with what I have come up with and looking forward to getting feedback regarding these after my presentation to take further for my A3 boards and Brand Launch Pack.

There are some elements though that I have found very difficult. Identifying and analysing two relevant trends has been tricky from a personal perspective. In previous projects I have found researching trends and finding the connection between the existing brand and the trends quite easy. However because this is a new brand that I am still brainstorming with, I am finding discovering and researching relevant trends hard. I have also found it difficult coming up with the ideal target consumer. I feel that the brand that I am creating has a number of USP’s that would attract different types of customers that will have varying characteristics and qualities. I need to work on this and refine my ideas a little further before I can feel confident with putting them in my presentation.

BRAND NAME: FORTITUDE

When I first met my designer, it was clear that she desired for her luxury brand to be her surname ‘Fort’, which I was happy to pursue. However, I had a lightbulb moment. Are there any words that incorporate ‘fort’ and have deep meaning that tie into Evie’s concept? This is when I discovered the word fortitude.

The basic meaning of fortitude is ‘courage in pain or adversity’. There are lots of similar definitions and descriptions of the word fortitude, such as ‘power to endure pain or confront danger’, and ‘the strength of mind to do what is right even when it is difficult’. As soon as I was aware of the meaning of this word, I could not envision the brand being called anything else. I love how the brand name still incorporates the designer’s name, but expands to have true, deep meaning that ties in perfectly with the brand’s values, beliefs and overall concept.

This afternoon I arranged another catch up call with my designer, Evie. The main reason for this meeting was to discuss by brand name idea (Fortitude) with her to see if she liked it. I was worried that she might not, considering she was keen for her brand to simply be ‘Fort’. Fortunately, she loved the idea. Although this will unlikely be her prominent USP, this is something that would definitely allow her brand to stand out from competition. Most luxury designers use their name as their brand name. Fortitude as a luxury brand with meaning behind its name will likely resonate with consumers in different, interpersonal ways that existing luxury designer brands might not be able to do as effectively.

Evie also took the time to fill me in on her design process. I remember from our first meeting she mentioned that she might experiment with lingerie or beachwear as underlay garments and manipulate the fabrics in ways that show a lot of skin. I loved this idea of exploring femininity. When discovering the meaning of the word fortitude, I realised this could relate to femininity; the vulnerability and the sexual objectification that a lot of females experience. I also discussed this notion with Evie, and she really liked it. I am excited that I am beginning to develop a brand that is predominantly focused on raising awareness of the destructive effect of ocean plastics, but also explores another significant topic that is equally as meaningful.

Though both Evie and I really love brand name Fortitude, I plan to conduct some primary research to see what external people think to consolidate the idea. I hope to ask people questions on what their thoughts are on brands being named after a person, if they think it is important for a brand name to have meaning, do they know the definition of the word ‘fortitude’ and so on. My research methods will eventually be better outlined and discussed in the methodology section of this blog.

SECOND FMBE CREATIVE MEETING

My last blog post about the collaborative project outlined our lack of communication over Easter. We arranged for and had a meeting this morning and it was really successful, and I feel we are thankfully back on track!

Everyone dialled onto our Teams channel for 12pm and the meeting lasted 30 minutes. We predominantly discussed our plan going forward for the collaborative platform, but we also openly discussed how we are all feeling about the project. It was apparent that the majority of us are feeling the same; a little bit stuck on how to get the ball rolling. This prominent issue tied in nicely with our action plan for the platform. We decided as a team that our next posts will be a visual mood board to sum up our initial thoughts and gather some images together that reflect our designers’ concepts. The plan is for everyone to work on their mood boards over the next few days, which we will then post from Monday next week. This idea not only helps our own development with our brands, helping us to understand our concepts more and hopefully stimulate some ideas. But it is also very informative and engaging for our followers. We decided that each team member will post one singular image with our pink, FMBe Creative themed boarder (to tie our feed together), and then a second ‘swipe’ image which will display our mood board. This ensures that our feed is not overwhelmed with collages and images, but it also stimulates interaction. It will encourage our viewers/followers to initially see the singular, impactful image, and then swipe to see the full mood board to find out more.

The meeting was successful from a university project point of view, but it was also nice and informal. I think everyone is slowly starting to get to know each other through the chatty conversations that we end up having alongside project discussions. At one point in our meeting, the girls were discussing quite in-depth their thoughts on ocean pollution, which was really insightful and interesting for me considering my brand’s concept. Nataria mentioned the Netflix documentary Seaspiracy which I had not heard of before. She said it is an amazing documentary which is really eye-opening and actually really sad. At some point in the next week I plan to watch the documentary which I can use as a form of research and it might inspire my brand ideas and development some more.