When flI. met the audience

Long time no see. Are you curious about what happened at the Business School Fair in Kingston Hill?
I don’t even remember if I mentioned in my last post that the display hunting aimed at getting insights for our product display for this first Fair.

To be honest I realised just in the last few days that I’ve not yet written about our product, isn’t it weird? I bet is some kind of Freudian lapsus. We tend don’t to come out with our product or service before we think it is perfect and so my mind just kept avoiding the subject. But, even though I’m conscious that flI. needs improvements, this is wrong.

So, on October more or less we came up with the idea of a sleeping mask with an holding mechanism to avoid your head to fall forward when you fall asleep, especially during flight.

In my team we are all travellers, therefore we had all clear in our mind those awful low cost journeys, squeezed in narrow seats without any space to stretch our legs and find a comfortable position to relax. After flights like these you feel as if you just stepped out from a blender.

We built on the idea and something even better started revealing its shape. We walk out on the holding “leash” (as we called it) simply changing the balance of the device, added curved chambers to the sleeping mask to avoid pressure on the eyes and filled it with micro beads for comfort and support.
And then the best part: noise isolation. FlI. – Your private space of calmness – these are name and claim of our resting device – has among its features ear protectors that protect you from screaming kids and annoying steward’s announcements and what makes it unique is that you can place your own earphones inside and listen to your favourite music turning them into an headset!

It is simple and effective during daily commuting or even just taking a nap at home, but for £24 we were almost sure not to sell anything at the business school – students are just not the right target – , so we decided to turn this Fair into a testbed. Excited about people reaction we also prepared a simple questionnaire and newsletter forms. It worked, we got precious insights, but was people reaction that pleased us the most. Here it was (simplifying as usual):

CURIOUS “What’s that?”

“Oh, that’s nice!” – after explanation

“That’s amazingly relaxing!” – after trying

As I said flI. still needs improvements but people loved it and just this did a lot for our confidence, motivation and inspiration. Not to mention our understandig of the audience.

If you don’t go out there with your idea to find out whether it is good or not you will never let it grow. And neither will you.

Oh, I almost forgot. We won.

Display hunting (or how to communicate what we are selling)

Wandering around London to take pics a few days before Christmas has been a nightmare, the most crowded time of the year! Moreover seems like – during sales peaks – stores tend to favourite displays centred on price deals or that show the higher number of products at the same time (something that, in my opinion at least, is extremely confusing and discouraging from buying anything).

Anyway, I found some good inspiring examples of displays for our stall at the fair.
Here’re my favourites, you can find detailed descriptions of the Examples classification on the MACE blog.

 #1: Create a setting (Example two) and take a stand (Example four)

What I like in this display is that is a promise. It doesn’t sell the dresses but what the customer will archive with that dress: a dream of romantic, classic, chic, vintage love.

Here some other examples:

This is particularly fit for our product…. heads, clouds, Magritte…. love it!

 

 #2: Use words (Example one) and show how the product can be used (Example two and three)

This display – apart from being attractive for its high-tech appearance – integrate more ways to make a connection with the buyer: you can try the headset, read the description of the product and watch the commercial shown on the iPad.

 #3: a Great deal (Example eight)

I don’t like this selling approach that much because I believe it lower the perception of the quality of the product, but it worths mention since it’s often used for travel pillows displays (even though we are NOT selling a travel pillow).

 #4: Hanging at eye level (Example five) and create a setting (Example two)

 

Hanging vintage suitcases on the wall the observer is caught out because it is unusual and gives also the context of the usage of the product.

Our display draft coming soon…. 😉

DEtour – flI. – Display Draft