Lippincott Mercer Designs New Store Format for Country Road
New York, August 11, 2004
Leading design and brand strategy consultancy Lippincott Mercer has unveiled a new retail prototype for Australian fashion retailer Country Road. The store design aligns new product ranges with the retailer's new brand identity, representing a major development in direction for the company. The first Australian locations were opened in Melbourne, Bondi Junction in Sydney and Macquarie in New South Wales. A store was also opened in Shore City, New Zealand. If the format performs to expectations, it is likely to be implemented at additional locations.
"The most important component of the project was to understand the context of Country Road's brand positioning statement of representing modern Australian living, and to translate this as a tactile retail experience," said Simon Stacey, partner at Lippincott Mercer in London. "Our reference points for expressing the brand ranged from contemporary Australian residential architecture through to a modern use of natural local materials that enabled us to express the emotional link between the indoors and outdoors that is so important to Australians."
"In recognizing that Australian life is based on fusing different cultural influences in art, architecture, design, fashion and food, the team worked to create a fresh and exciting environment," said Clare Dobbie, marketing director at Country Road. "With a focus on re-establishing Country Road's fashion credentials and supporting the new product ranges, the team utilized simple architectural forms to bring clarity and focus to merchandise presentation placing the emphasis on product stories."
The first prototype unveiled was the 750sqm Bondi Junction, Sydney store which spans three levels, including a suspended timber mezzanine floor. Louvered pavilion fixtures for the key departments of womenswear, menswear and homeware give specific personality to each area, and provide merchandising focus and orientation.
The design also includes a space for large-scale installations of local artists' work. The environment features a palette of natural materials such as Australian gum-woods, limewashed timbers and concrete floors and site-specific materials such as bluestone, for example, for the Melbourne locations.
Lippincott Mercer provides design and consulting services in brand strategy, brand management, brand communications and brand environments. The brand environment offering includes retail store design, customer experience mapping, sign systems, visual merchandising and trade show/exhibit design services. The firm has been at the forefront of environmental design since the firm's inception in 1943.
Lippincott's most recent retail design assignments include Peter Piper Pizza, Sonic Drive-Ins, Nissan Motors and Citizens Bank. The firm's design of Nissan's new global dealership prototype received an SEGD (Society for Environmental Graphic Design) Merit Award in 2002. The Citizens Bank retail environment design received a special award for re-branding in the 2003 Chain Store Age Retail Store of the Year design competition and first prize (service retailer-financial services category) in the 2003 ISP/VM+SD International Store Design competition. The team is currently working with McDonald's on the development of new restaurant concepts.
ABOUT COUNTRY ROAD
Country Road is an iconic Australian lifestyle brand. Launched in 1974, the label was established in Melbourne as a specialist manufacturer of pure cotton shirts to capitalise on the jeans boom of the 1970s. The company grew rapidly, and by the 1990s had expanded its retail stores to include Country Road 'lifestyle' stores combining menswear, womenswear, accessories and homewear in key shopping locations. Country Road currently has 43 stores across Australia and 6 in New Zealand. For more information, visit www.countryroad.com.au.
ABOUT LIPPINCOTT MERCER
Lippincott Mercer is a leading design and brand strategy consultancy. The firm was founded in 1943 as Lippincott & Margulies and is part of Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. Lippincott operates globally from its headquarters in New York City and other offices in the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Recent clients include Citigroup, Deloitte & Touche, ExxonMobil, Goldman Sachs, IBM, McDonald's, Nissan, Sprint and Televisa. For more information, visit www.lippincottmercer.com.
Contact:
Kathleen Hatfield, Lippincott Mercer,
212-521-0052, kathleen.hatfield@lm.mmc.com