Air Bank branch presented at Efma conference in Paris : a unique retail service design journey strenghtening customer satisfaction and brand identity - crea news - CREA International - italian retail design

Focus on how Physical Brand Design strategy has contributed to the success of this innovative retail banking format

From Thursday 3 to Friday 4 May 2012 Crea International will be hosted in Paris, at Efma conference “Branch of the future”, through the voice of Jakub Petrina, Air Bank marketing director, who will explore the bank as a distinctive retail banking case.

Jakub Petrina presentation will focus on how the innovative design of the branch, fully expressing the values of the brand, has contributed to give success to new Czech bank, proposing a unique service design experience for customers in a fresh, friendly and no barriers environment.

He will show how the free fruition of space inside the branch which allows customers to take a seat wherever they desire, affects their relationship with the bank, making them feel at ease but even supported and assisted, in a complete paperless experience. Mr Petrina will even explain why a unique design does not have to be expensive to be impacting and successful.

A journey into brand lightingscape: Crea International presentation at Frankfurt fair “light build” - crea news - CREA International - italian retail design

The multidisciplinary approach to create store design innovation in retail spaces: lighting as an important tool to translate and enhance brand identity

Andrea Borsetto and Marco De Carli, design director and marketing strategy director from the Physical-Brand-Design company gave a lecture on how the multidisciplinary approach of the retail design company creates innovative environments, working on two important aspects: on one side on a strategic and marketing view highlighting how lighting influences the retail service design journey and the layout zoning and on the other from a creative and design point of view creating emotional effects.

Light is an important tool to create innovation in a retail design project. Particular focus has been given to Barwa Bank branch (Doha-Qatar), one of the most innovative retail banking projects by Crea International, where light contributed to give value to the brand and, above all, to the retail service design journey. Thanks to the appropriate and impacting use of lighting, together with the innovative interior design, Crea International created a technological and emotional queuing system. Inside the branch the customer is welcomed by an attendant who, giving him a digital device which through a colour matched to his responsible banker informs him of his turn when the colour appears to his workstation, shows him all the new products of the bank through the interactive and touch screens. Decorative elements are all backlight and during the night, thanks to light system use, the bank assumes a very emotional and dramatic effect.

Light can help in creating a story with focus on brand identity, integrated in the service model can help in developing different areas and atmospheres and different approaches with the customers, and mixed with design affects the emotional aspect giving materic sensations. Marco De Carli explained also how, during the design creation, the Physical Brand Design process led the project team to talk with solution providers as General electric, working together to find out the technical light solutions to enfasize and give value to the design project. The presentation explored three different cases: on food, bank and fashion where lighting has worked to create value for a brand. Very interesting “Barbican” benchmark food restaurant for its innovative way of using light to tell a story and to divide the spaces : a theatricality used to create different zones and atmospheres, to enhance emotional feelings.
Another interesting benchmark explored is “The United nude”, which uses light to display the product, highlighting it in a very innovative way to engage customers. Light is inside the furnitures,every single light solution is custom made for the space, and the “Wall of light”, a wall made of coloured lights, enfasizes products.
In order to create a positive and innovative environment, lighting can create the path for the design shape within a perfect integration and develop values through the design experience , finding out innovative lighting solution through a strong partnership to create benchmarks for the brand. Working with a solution partner like GE the Physical Brand Design projects can develop and suggest a consistent branding and innovation space design project.
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Crea International at Frankfurt fair “light build”

An industry experts’ discussion on how sophisticated lighting design & quality lighting adds value to office spaces

On Tuesday, 17th April Andrea Borsetto, design director and Marco De Carli, marketing and strategy director at Crea International will give a lecture at “light+building”, the world’s biggest trade fair for lighting and intelligent buildings. 2,100 ehibitors and more than 180 visitors in last 2010 edition, top countries Netherlands, Italy, Austria, France, Switzerland, great Britain. Spain, China, Belgium and Russia. The Physical-Brand-Design company will face a discussion on how design influences brand and image and how lighting can best attract customers. Stay tuned !

Crea International at Frankfurt fair “light build” - crea news - CREA International - italian retail design

Flagship Wind : brand reputation and customer satisfaction, testifying the brand’s rise - crea news - CREA International - italian retail design

Flagship Wind : brand reputation and customer satisfaction, testifying the brand’s rise

Interview to Maximo Ibarra, Wind Business Unit Consumer director, to show how the new concept design contributed in creating a new space of interaction and community

That the new retail design concept of Wind Flagship Store aims to improve the relationship between human beings is no longer a secret. That it has become not only a place where purchasing product and services, but also a meeting place, not even.

380 sqmt store right in the centre of Milan on two floors where the Wind Theater area becomes a space for events …. where sharing feelings and emotions. Below a short interview to the Business Unit consumer director explaining the results and the events, highlighting the growing success of the brand.

Which are the benefits that the new concept design of Milan flagship store has brought to the Company?

Our Milan flagship store has always been a place of excellence where our customers can experience the world of Windand, above all, it expresses our company values through its layout and innovative design. Technology at the service of our customers, exclusive customer care and dedicated commercial consultancy, the broad range of Wind products and services make the flagship store a reference point capable of fully meeting the needs of our customers.

Can you tell us the results obtained from the launch of the flagship store on business level: numbers, feedback from customers and shop staff etc.?

In almost two years of operation, our store in Corso Matteotti has welcomed and cared for over 20,000 customers, ensuring, with a team of 7 Wind employees, an excellent level of service, as documented by our internal Customer Satisfaction parameters.

How often do themed events occur in the flagship store? Have the topics of the events a special meaning or are they decided randomly?

In 2011 we organized seven themed events and one so far in 2012. With these appointments we have shown even more how close we are to our customers, by celebrating within the store many events not purely related to the world of telecommunications, but related to the promotion of young Italian talent ("The Surrealistic Pixel" event-exhibition by Alessandro Dotti), to fashion (fashion show with two promising talents of the Made in Italy of the future, Mimì à la mer e AnnaBiblò), to art ('Hallowind' event with the creations of the Arrigo atelier) and to wine&food ('choco-fever' feast and Christmas 'gourmand' event).

In a friendly and technologically advanced environment, we have also involved the Wind community and the citizens of Milan in a series of initiatives directly related to the telecommunications world, such as the launch of the Nokia E7 and of the HTC Desire.

A success even for the Physical-Brand-Design company which has conceived a telecom retail project in a technological environment that has become a perfect habitat for a new empathic community, an environment to create connection between brand and customers, contributing to customer loyalty.

Flagship Wind : brand reputation and customer satisfaction, testifying the brand’s rise - crea news - CREA International - italian retail design

GE lighting conference in Budapest: light as innovative design driver presented by Crea International - crea news - CREA International - italian retail design

GE lighting conference in Budapest: light as innovative design driver presented by Crea International

The use of light in retail service design greatly affects the environment and "mood" inside the space : Barwa Bank branch presented as distinctive example

Lighting design has become a creative extension of interior design, improving its success. A lighting design practice brings sensitive advantages to today’s design processes and the value-added that it provides to a project can make or break its success and therefore it plays a key role within the realization of a design project. An interior designer can provide an overall lighting plan that follows the design goals of whole space as well as making recommendations for general lighting solutions.

On march 21st in Budapest, at General Electric lighting centre, “Meat customer event 2012” took place and Crea International has been hosted to make a presentation on lighting topic. Libero Rutilo, design director of the retail-service-design company, trough the exploration of Barwa Bank branch, where illumination played a fundamental role to emphasize the experience within the space, gave a lecture on lighting applied to Physical-Brand-Design methodology.

Among the audience the most important lighting international distributors and local managers who showed great enthusiasm and participation. After a general overview on Physical-Brand- Design mission and working areas, mr. Rutilo emphasized how light can be considered as a marketing tool, supporting communication strategies, increasing brand identity and contributing, together with an appropriate retail-service-design, to create a unique and memorable shopping experience within a store, as in Tim’s project where he was able to integrate light within a space, giving a new space mood.

He presented Barwa Bank project as emblematic example of how light was protagonist in customer’ s experience within the branch. Designing an islamic bank in a country deeply anchored to its traditions with a retail approach, giving a perception of luxury fashion brand, was an attractive challenge for the italian-retail-design company. Challenge even won thanks to the introduction of an innovative lighting system, that allowed to realize the particular service design journey that broke all the traditional retail-banking-design projects.

As a matter of fact the whole experience inside the branch store is controlled by lighting : through the ceiling illumination system, with four colors displayed, customers know when it’s their turn for assistance, through the task lighting customers have focus on the workstations and the whole wall perimeter is back lited highlighting the desert flower, strengthening the brand identity.

Even the iconic ATM, recalling the desert flower and the mobile branch emits light asserting its presence and giving high visibility to the bank.

The design director’ s presentation closed showing how, in Physical-Brand-Design strategy, designer plays a meaning role as point of reference among the actors of the process, both for the client and suppliers and contractors too. In Barwa’s lighting realization the great difficulty was to select products that were readily available on middle east market and Crea International design director showed the importance of being eclectic and adaptable to face problems and to give ready solutions, following brand’s expectations.

Libero Rutilo comments his participation to the conference : “ very interesting opportunity for me to speak about how the lighting can change the perception of the space and create memorable and unique experiences. On the other hand , a nice chance to improve contacts around the gulf area."

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GE lighting conference in Budapest: light as innovative design driver presented by Crea International - crea news - CREA International - italian retail design

Crea international host to a Travel Lab event, a symposium on “Temporary and Flagship stores: strategies on brand field to face crisis” - crea news - CREA International - italian retail design

Crea international host to a Travel Lab event, a symposium on “Temporary and Flagship stores: strategies on brand field to face crisis”

An event where Marco De Carli, strategy director of the physical-brand-design company, gave a speech with a special spotlight on some distinctive examples

Service design is one of the most important aspects on which companies have decided to invest as the key marketing tool in retail field, contributing to brand equity and customer loyalty.More and more brands should think about the physical space, working on an appropriate physical brand strategy to be declined on several physical touch points on territory in retail field, such as retail networks, temporary or flagship stores, according to the brand strategy of the company.

On this basis Crea International has been invited to the event to support the importance of Flagship stores as tools for retail positioning, to implement the customer relationship and loyalty, to centralize the flows and sales, and give awareness and local presence to the brand.

In Hotelplan’s headquarter in Milan, with a dynamic and interactive audience composed of top managers and entrepreneurs from the tourism industry and with, among the speakers, the direct store manager of Illycaffè – Elodie Horaist - and the holder of an important network of temporary stores - Paolo Comini of Sidecar Group - De Carli’s presentation has focused on Physical Brand Design’s way of approaching projects, starting from the brand identity, going to developing the design concept, always shaping signs and codes consistent with the brand, to get to the service design aiming to enhance brand positioning.

Talking about Flagship store, the presentation has explored, among the others, one of the most distinctive of the italian brand design company: Wind flagship store. The aim was to create a flagship able to make the successes of the company over the years touchable to customers, with an upgrade of image to make the brand more fashionable and cool.

Everything supported by a physical brand strategy due to the biosphere as distinctive sign of an innovative design, sensitive to the balance of different chromatic and morphological elements, perfect habitat for a new empathic community in a totally new landscape.A work that led to the opening of the two Wind flagship stores, one in Milano (C.so Matteotti) and the other one in Rome (P.za di Spagna).

He has also shown how the Physical-Brand-Design methodology applied to a project as Welcome Travel has led to the creation of a totally new design concept of the retail-travel-agency and can be used flexibly by the network to give to customers a new place of meeting and sharing where the purchase experience and concept within the agency are redefined.

Present to the explanation of the retail travel project Gian Paolo Vairo, Ceo of Welcome Travel, who has explained how this physical brand design project is perfectly integrated in a a new company vision which joined the retail travel agency with web and mobile areas. The new Welcome Travel aspires to propose to customers new standards of services which are lined up with those of the main European markets: quality, training, efficiency, technology and customer service in order to renew the methods of distribution of the tourism product and create a benchmark for the whole italian market of travel agencies. He has declared to be extremely satisfied of the work and the Group aims to join new satisfactory results thanks to this new store design innovation

De Carli’s intervention has then analyzed some other important cases starting from Tim retail network where PBD strategy has contributed to renew the whole network and distribution channels, in a consistent view with the historical values of the company of reassurance of the customer to reinforce brand identity and positioning; going to Lavazza coffe shop an international coffee chain supporting brand’s internationalisation, where the major challenge was to create a a service design concept which could be adapted to the international expansion of the company.

And finally in Air Bank branch project he has presented to the audience a bank model where service design and customer experience within the branch play a central role in the start-up asset of the whole project.

An intervention that certainly showed how Physical Brand Design strategy can be declined to different fields, with different values and expectations but all with the same objective to give distinctiveness and uniqueness to the brand, in a market that is becoming more selelective and where consumers, despite the crisis, are paradoxically getting more and more demanding.

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Crea international host to a Travel Lab event, a symposium on “Temporary and Flagship stores: strategies on brand field to face crisis” - crea news - CREA International - italian retail design

Crea International @ an evening organised by A+D+M - crea news - CREA International - italian retail design

Crea International @ an evening organised by A+D+M

A fun event for the Physical Brand Design company

On december 3rd Alberto Pasquini, president of the interior design company, partecipated to an evening organized by A + D + M magazine - the acronyms of architecture, design,materials - for the architects protagonists of the magazine’s covers. On this particular occasion, the location for the preview was “La Commenda di San Giovanni di Prè” A recurring appointment of the last 5 years, where the voyage destination organized every year by A + D + M is revealed (this year will be Lisbon), an opportunity of sharing ideas in a different landascape.

Crea International @ an evening organised by A+D+M - crea news - CREA International - italian retail design