Week 3 Review & Gift card

Review

Project One- Cadbury Bubbly Project

- Modify the bubbles so that they move away from the consumer
- Consider placement of logo/ think about how the customers will walk along the display
- Create the visuals along with the popping bubble effects, Create a flash animation to demonstrate this

Project Two- Lung Cancer Awareness Project

- Decide whether I want to keep the project using an interactive approach or revert to posters
- Find the right location to advertise this.
- Targeting smokers instead of the general public would help to narrow the audience range. Considere where smokers would and wouldn't be. Possible location to advertise: bus shelters/ just outside buildings where smokers usually smoke due to smoking ban in indoor public spaces.
- Make the awareness project a more support tone of voice.

I need to carry out further research to find the best way to approach the target audience by conducting a survey to smokers.


New project idea- Gift cards

I have realised that there are a variety of gift cards sold in supermarkets but they never really actually got my attention. iTunes is the first gift card that springs to mind but what about other brands?

Amazon, Currys, WHS Smith, Next, Debenhams, Pizza Hut, Argos, H&M, Starbucks...the list goes on.

I never really buy gift cards myself to give as gifts just because they seem to lack thought. It seems to lack the personal factor that makes presents special. Birthday cards on the other hand usually have personal messages in them, so they seem more unique and what it written inside is what makes the card special. The card alone without the personal message wouldn't be as special although receiving a card with a nice design is nice. Which made me realise that the designs of the gift card can influence a customers decision whether or not to buy the card. As with any other product, if it looks good, consumers are more likely to buy it. 

Does the design of this gift card make you want to buy it to give as a gift?

Personally, the design of the gift card doesn't appeal to me. Although I'm not against minimal design, the design seems to lack a celebratory mood. The blue hue feels a bit cold, and although the subject matter is a photograph of a balloon there is nothing else that evokes birthday. The white confetti doesn't seem to fit aesthetically, it appears as though it has been included to try to create a more lively atmosphere in the composition. 

Take a look at the products sold. The design of the gift card and products which both aimed for birthdays is very much different. The bright colours, lines and patterns are much more joyful capturing a more celebratory atmosphere. This visual aesthetic seems to encapsulate 'birthday' better although it can be argued that the gift card is targeted towards an older target audience (thus explaining its photographic and minimalist treatment to appear 'sophisticated').

So with this, I thought it would be better to redesign the existing gift card by making it more appealing in order to generate an increase in sales. 

Brief: To redesign the birthday version of the Tesco giftcard. Consider the target audience of the people who would be more likely to give gift cards and those who shop at Tesco.

My initial ideas comes to designing a gift card that would visually appeal to females as they are the predominant gender who shop at Tesco. Males also tend to take up the larger share on buying gift cards.

Initial design

© Kasumi Miyake 2012

I have tried to make the card instill a more personal tone by employing a handwritten typeface, I am still not convinced of buying gift cards. Although the gift card is more appealing aesthetically, if I were to receive a gift card, I would prefer to receive this one over the other one, there is that lack personalisation to the gift.

Could the gift card service be improved? Can we put in that touch of thought which makes gifts special?

Areas to refine

Can I modify this gift card so that consumers can include their own personalise message printed on the gift card so it acts as a birthday card but has the bonus of the gift value? (The pros of a gift card is that the person can buy what they want from the place). Will it be better if there is a create your own gift card generator online which will allow the gift card to be sent directly to the addressee. Then they can customise their own gift card with their own photos/ or pick and assemble given illustrations to arrange the design of the card?