COOKIE-CUTTER ASSIGNMENT Danika Fulbright Dottie McDaniel Pauline Verzola

ICING BY CLAIRE’S Icing by Claire’s is a cookie-cutter store that can be found at nearly every shopping mall. Here is what the store at Battlefield Mall looks like:

STORE LAYOUT AND ENVIRONMENT

WHAT WE WOULD CHANGE We would give Icing a complete makeover. Icing is the mature version of Claire’s and has a higher price point. Their merchandise is targeted towards women aged 19-28, but the store seems to appeal more to the teenagers who should be shopping at Claire’s. To bring back the maturity, we would give it a boutique feel. We would change the floors from carpeting to white tiles to give a cleaner, more sophisticated look, and we would change the lighting to chic hanging lights to set the tone. Instead of merchandise being displayed in the windows, we would use mannequins to show the accessories we have to offer and how to wear them.

WHAT WE WOULD CHANGE Icing lacks a color theme, so we would create one and coordinate the signage with it. Since the dominant color of its parent company (Claire’s) is a youthful purple, we would use mature colors like metallic black, navy blue, and dark purple to give the store a more mature vibe. The red signage is an eyesore and does not match the aesthetic of the store. They are also not very prominent; for example, the ear piercing is not advertised very clearly.

WHAT WE WOULD CHANGE The first aspect we would change is the store location. It is by the food court and there are trash cans right in front of the store, which are visually unappealing and the strong odors from the food court are uninviting. Ideally, we would place Icing near women’s clothing stores in order to give shoppers the option of adding accessories to their apparel purchase.

WHAT WE WOULD CHANGE The second aspect we would change is the flow of the store. There is no sightline to the back of the store, and there is an overall lack of flow in the store. There is a display right in the middle of the store as you enter, which makes the store feel cluttered. We would remove the display in the middle to create a more inviting entrance. In order to create a sightline, we would decrease the amount of merchandise on the back walls and replace them with décor such as quotes or pictures.

WHAT WE WOULD CHANGE The third aspect we would change is the amount of merchandise in the store. There are too many items to choose from, which makes it hard to browse around the store without feeling overwhelmed. We would limit the merchandise to purses, wallets, headbands, and scarves and eliminate makeup, phone cases and miscellaneous items like candy in order to emphasize the store’s main selling point, which is accessories.

WHAT WE WOULD CHANGE The last aspect we would change are the fixtures, specifically the display stands. Instead of piling merchandise onto display stands, we would utilize metal nesting tables to properly display the merchandise. We would roll scarves and put them inside baskets to save space. We would use table-top display stands for earrings and rings.