Collaboration with Urban Outfitters

 In order to make my website applicable to the aspirational aspect of the brief, I decided a fake collaboration with a clothing retailer would help. I did research into brands that 16 - 25-year-olds aspire to own and brands they already own. From a case study of 10 people in the age range;

30% said Gucci, 20% stated Superdry, 20% said Levi's, 10% said Chanel and 20% said Rolex.

Going off of brands they deem aspirational that they have in their possession, 40% said Urban Outfitters, 20% said Gucci, 30% said Nike and 10% said H&M.

I decided to start to focus on research into Urban Outfitters.

Research into the brand :

Urban Outfitters is a leading retail brand targeting young adults through a "unique merchandising mix". Urban Outfitters offers a mixture of womenswear, menswear, activewear accessories and musical merchandise - specifically cassette and vinyl records. 

A large portion of merchandise is exclusive to Urban Outfitters, with products specifically created in collaboration with third-party brands. 

Retail shopping is available both online and physically. Shops are often found in built-up metropolitan areas and shopping centres. These enclosed spaces target consumers' aspirations to shop, talk, and congregate with peers.  

A large part of the brand is upcycling old clothing to be environmentally and ethically sustainable. The Urban Renewal Line works to combat production waste by incorporating old scraps of fabrics. 79% of people claim to be worried about environmental issues. UO offers reusable shopping bags and packaging, as well as digital receipts to reduce paper waste.

UO consumers are between 18 - 28 years old. The demographic will heavily follow the hipster subculture and live alternative lifestyles, influenced by the latest trends. Most consumers will live in urban or suburban areas. 

UO consumers are artistic, aspirational, culturally sophisticated, self-expressive and crave acceptance from peers. Most information is received digitally from social media, instead of paper news or peer opinions. 

54 Urban Outfitters stores are located in Europe. It is currently the 4th leading casual apparel shop, and is most popular with my target demographic. It is 5th most popular in terms of online shopping for teens, behind Amazon, Shien, Nike and Lululemon.

The average price range for vinyl (12") is £32. The average price for a graphic T-shirt is £35.

Examples of Urban Outfitters' exclusive vinyl variants:

Often having exclusive colour variations with differentiating opacity and pattern on the vinyl, these records will be available only from the Urban Outfitters website at a mark-upped price.

Creating the collaboration: 

Using photographs taken in a different set of clothes and environments, I photoshopped the original cd to include the new album cover I'd made. To make it seem more realistic, I added a crinkle filter to make it seem less photoshopped. I then added the customised logo collaboration I'd made that included both brand logos.

For the 3rd page of my website, I made another version, using a similar photo, instead using a vinyl record, that includes the picture of another album cover for some variation.

What does my demographic engage with?

 Pop Culture amongst 16 - 25-year-olds:

Statistics sourced from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1059462/social-media-usage-uk-age/

82% of 15 - 25-year-olds in the UK use Youtube to watch and browse videos. 

"Apart from a peak among the 16-19 and 45-54 year olds (25% on each), preference for listening to music was relatively consistent across the age groups. Viewing social media content was also similar across the age groups, aside from a slight dip among 55-64 and 65+ year olds (16% on each)" - sourced from "The overall music landscape."

- YouTube and Spotify take the majority shares of on-demand listening, with 38% and 28% respectively. Apple Music and Amazon Prime Music services followed by quite some way, recording similar shares, 9% and 10% respectively (combining Amazon Prime and Amazon Music Unlimited).

- YouTube has the highest penetration in terms of weekly reach. With over a third (36%) of participants stating they listen to music on YouTube for five minutes or more at least once a week, the video streaming platform was the leading source of music access by some margin; 15% more reach than its biggest competitor, Pandora (21%)

- Smartphones dominate younger audiences - most listeners will discover music from on-demand listening. 

- 87% of participants in the study owned a smartphone - the highest documented ownership of any generation

- 19% of participants pay for a streamed subscription, and a further 6% have a subscription service payed, just not by them. 71% of participants listen to music on ad-supported listening services, like a free spotify listening plan, or youtube music with adverts

- In 16 - 25 demographic, 34% have a paid streaming service, showing fans of this demographic are far more likely to pay for music, and equally pay for goods.

- A fifth of 16 - 19 year olds have a paid streaming service, either payed by them, a friend or a family member

"Online discovery shows its importance. In terms of online discovery, YouTube leads at 33%, as well as 15% discovering music through videos linked through the platform (recommended page, through the sidebar etc.). Streaming services (Spotify, Apple Music etc.), held firm this year in terms of facilitating discovery, with almost a fifth (17%) discovering new music through playlists on streaming services, and a further 14% discovering through ‘browsing similar artists’; a major indication of the growing influence these services have on music discovery."

Focus Group Research - Primary and Secondary

 PRIMARY RESEARCH GROUP:

Name: Henry Holland

Age: 16

Occupation: Student

Pyschometric type: Explorer

Interests: Films, television, collecting CDs/vinyl, listening to music, going on walks, making/editing videos.

What platform do you currently listen to music on? : "MusicBee/Spotify. I download my music from Bandcamp."

How do you usually discover music?: "Usually from artists adjacent to the ones I already like. Sometimes it's what's inspired artists that I already listen to, sometimes I explore music from a source I already like."

How would you define your music taste?: "Geek Rock"

Name: Euan McCabe

Age: 16

Occupation: Student

Psychometricetric type: Aspirer

Interests: Engineering, football, swimming, LEGO, watching films.

What platform do you currently listen to music on?: "Spotify"

How do you usually discover music: "Usually from discover weekly, or TikTok or Youtube"

How would you define your music taste? : "Pop Music"

Name: Kate Reeson
Age: 17

Occupation: Student

Psychometric type: Aspirer

Interests: Art, animation, musicals, graphic design and stuffed toys.

What platform do you currently listen to music on?: "Spotify, sometimes Apple Music"

How do you usually discover music?: "Either from my friends showing me music that they like, or I use my Spotify recommendations."

How would you define your music taste? : "Indie Pop/Broadway"

Name: Liza Evers

Age: 17

Occupation: Student/Ret

ail

Psychometric type: Aspirer

Interests: Musicals, animals, history, makeup, aeroplanes

What platform do you currently listen to music on? : "Spotify"

How do you usually discover music?: "Usually from T
ikTok or just recommendation. Spotify adverts with artists usually make me interested and I'll listen."

How would you define your music taste? : "Indie Rock"

The majority of my primary demographic listen to music through streaming services - both video and subscription. Having a music video proves to be important to my artists as it'll increase interest in my dempographic. Promoting on social media, like TikTok or youtube shorts is also imperitive to drive audiences to my content. The ability to purchase merchandise and physical forms of music would be a nice added bonus - especially with the rise of vinyl purchases in young people. This could be added in the form of a merchandise section on my artist's official website. 

Secondary Research Group:

Name: Daniel Chaplin

Age: 48

Occupation: Software Developer

Psychometric type: Aspirer

Interests: Football, technology, family, friends, dogs and guitars

What platform do you currently listen to music on? : "Usually on the Radio. Sometimes I'll use Apple Music"

How do you usually discover music?: "From the radio"

How would you define your music taste?: "Rock"

Name: Helen McCabe

Age: 45

Occupation: Civil Servant

Psychometric type: Aspirer

Interests: Jewellery making, reading, watching soap dramas, listening to music

What platform do you currently listen to music on? : "From my downloaded music, or using CD's in the car"

How do you usually discover music?: "I listen to music on the TV sometimes, or I'll hear pop music on the radio"

How would you define your music taste?: "Pop Music"

Audience Research

Name: Robyn Gardener

Gender: Female

Age: 21

Occupation: Student/Retail Worker

Annual income: £25,000

Location: South-east England

Psychographic: Aspirer - (Materialistic, seeks status, oriented to image and appearance)

Lifestyle: Buys designer clothes to post about online. Very well-versed in social media. Watches reels/tiktoks of celebrities, and is interested in their lives.

Favourite music genre: Indie Pop

Robyn is very loyal to the brands she subscribes or buys from, incoperating them into her day to day life. She is very likely to buy into apps and loyaltly schemes, and any extra money will be spent on materialistic objects, or expiriences involving celebrities she subscribes to. She likes to imagine herself as a friend to these celebrities, and enjoys personalised expiriences.