İNTEMA YAŞAM
PROJECT CASE STUDY:
DEVELOPING A MULTI-PURPOSE, MULTI-BRAND RETAIL EXPERIENCE FOR A KITCHEN PRODUCER
Intema Yaşam (a member of the Eczacıbaşı Group, one of Turkey’s leading industrial groups & a pioneer of healthy, high quality and sustainable modern lifestyles ) approached us to help them change the way they sell kitchens & furniture.
An integral component of this vision was to launch a unique retail & event space (a concept store) in Kanyon Shopping Mall, one of Istanbul’s most prominent shopping & lifestyle locations.
What made the challenge more interesting was that the prospective store was to be a multi-brand (which included partner brands such as Bulthaup, Berloni, Thermomix and Staub) and multi-functional store (encompassing retail, a culinary academy, restaurants and a food market): a novel concept for the sector and an entirely new constellation for the entire Eczacıbaşı Group of companies.
RESEARCH INTO BRAND CONTEXT, LIFESTYLES & CONSUMPTION PRACTICES
As ususal we kicked-off the project with thorough research. This included interviews with department heads of the company and related business managers in Kanyon. We critically reviewed available documents and research materials about Intema Yaşam.
Desk-research about kitchen & lifestyle brands was another significant part of our research. We incorporated the findings of earlier research on Istanbul’s shopping and culinary landscape and domestic food practices into our findings as well.
Istanbul's Kanyon Shopping Mall
Picture: Kanyon AVM
A kitchen from Intema's own collection
Picture: İntema Yaşam Instagram feed
FINE-TUNING THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK & DEVELOPING THE CORE IDEA
In close cooperation with the client’s project team, we conceived Intema Yaşam as a brand that reconnects its consumers with their social and natural environment in an increasingly fragmented world.
The core idea was fostering a brand that advocates not a particular life style but wholesome living. In addition to the harmony and authenticity as conceptual pillars, taste communities, terroir, craftsmanship and cosmopolitanism would be the four main strategy phrases that would carry the brand forward in a sustainable manner.
Sharing and the table appeared as the main signifiers that uniquely capture the true essence of the harmonious relationship between food, kitchen, and living.
The scenes below illustrate this relationship: Taiwanese master chef Chu & his family from Ang Lee's "Eat Drink Man Woman"; the Gaules indulging in home-brewed beer & locally caught wild boar; the taste community of an Italo-American family and global art star Olafur Eliasson & his international team at lunch in his Berlin studio.
CRAFTSMANSHIP
AT THE TABLE
TERROIR
AT THE TABLE
TASTE COMMUNITIES
AT THE TABLE
Pictures clockwise: Ang Lee Production, Goscinny & Uderzo, Paramount Pictures
COSMOPOLITANISM
AT THE TABLE
Picture: The Guardian
ACTIVITY DESIGN, PLANNING & CURATION
The next step was to develop, design & implement new themes & activities in order to cultivate a loyal and growing audience. This was essential for making the core idea come to life. Deliverables would include creating attractive themes that would reflect the conceptual premises and producing theme-related activity sheets and support activity documents (ex: film list), if needed.
Our contribution included advising on the production of monthly & quarterly activity planning in accordance with external and internal stakeholders and social, cultural & seasonal events. Deliverables included detailed daily and monthly activity calendar blueprints.
Pictures:
İntema Yaşam Instagram feed
PROJECT OUTCOMES
Our main contribution was to clarify and tweak the conceptual premises of Intema Yaşam as a brand.
It included defining organizational principles & boundaries, designing the store's core processes and its interfaces with its various target audiences and stakeholders.
Intema Yaşam, the brand, is being recognized as forward-looking and dedicated to sustainability & innovation. Intema Yaşam, the store, embodies these principles and has become a place where these notions are put into practice & turned into shared experiences.
YATAŞ
PROJECT SUMMARY:
DESIGNING A DISTINCT RETAIL & CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE FOR A NEW FURNITURE & HOME DECOR BRAND
Yataş is a leading brand in the Turkish furniture & home decoration sector. Yataş asked Too Many Disciplines (Yalin Tan & Partner together with hep.) to develop a retail strategy & concept as well as the store design for a new sub-brand so as to reach new consumer segments.
We developed insights into the characteristics & needs of the respective customer segment and gathered competitive intelligence.
Based on such insights we went on to the create the conceptual & strategic framework onto which we, together with the designers and the client's project team, built the retail design & customer experience solutions.
Pictures above: DivanEv website & Instagram feed
ÖZLENİR GROUP
PROJECT SUMMARY:
RETHINKING THE DEPARTMENT STORE FOR EMERGING CONSUMER TRIBES
The Özlenir Group has a dense network of retail outlets selling international & Turkish high-street fashion brands.
Our client decided to have an iconic, historic landmark on Istanbul's most famous downtown shopping street carefully renovated & turned into a new kind of department store, geared towards those new consumer tribes and their shopping & leisure practices.
We provided the necessary insights into the consumption patterns & practices of those very customer segments, their needs & wants and preferences. We then developed a conceptual framework which informed the brand, the interior design, the visual merchandising as well as the overall customer experience standards.
Furthermore, we made recommendations with regards to operating model, required capabilities of staff as well as auxiliary services.
Pictures above: Özlenir and Yalın Tan & Partners' Instagram feed