Assessment Brief: For a fashion retailer of your choice undertake an analysis of its current and potential store design and visual merchandising activity. Ensure that you make appropriate use of the relevant theory and industry sources to underpin your analysis. You should choose a retailer that you can access as store visits are a requirement of this task. Please note, for the purposes of this assessment, your retailer of choice MUST have a physical and multi-channel presence. It is strongly recommended that you include images to support your review of your retailer and / or of key trends. Assessment Criteria: There are four key dimensions to this assessment; you are expected to address all of these. They are as follows: Focus Dimensions Notional Value a) Provide a critical review of the current store design and visual merchandising activities for your chosen brand. You may wish to consider the following elements: ” Consumer journey from windows to till ” Ease of orientation / navigation ” Quality of VM ” Intensity of VM ” Appropriateness of environment and VM to brand ” Appropriateness of environment and VM to level ” Materials usage ” Layout and adjacencies ” Product handling ” Store evolution ” Across store consistency 40% b) Review the relationship between the in-store environment and the other channel retail activities (consider for example digital, catalogue, direct mail). You may wish to consider the following elements: ” Brand consistency ” Experience ” Augmentation ” Integration ” Synchronicity ” Distinctiveness 20% c) Identify trends in-store design and visual merchandising. You may wish to consider: ” Aspirational trends – looking upwards for ideas ” Horizontal trends – looking across for ideas ” Beyond the sector trends – looking outside of the sector for ideas (e.g. food retailing, automotive retailing, recreation such as pubs, clubs and restaurants) ” Technological trends – digitalisation ” Trends can be sources from your own observations and / or relevant reading. Evidence must be provided in all cases. 20% d) Explain how these could be used to shape and enhance the current presentation / experience of your chosen retailer. You must consider brand appropriateness. 20% This assessment is presented in a manner that requires you to format your own structure; marking therefore takes an holistic view and considers the work in its totality. The weightings above are provided as a notional guide with respect to where you should place your general emphasis. You must, however, attend to each of the components. The suggested issues for consideration are not exhaustive but are simply a prompt to trigger appropriate and relevant thinking. You are, however, encouraged to approach this work with in a way that demonstrates originality and personality. With respect to structure, there is a natural and progressive flow to the outline above. You are, however free to develop and evolve the submission in a manner that best suits your personal approach, your way of thinking / communicating and one which allows you to present the best possible consideration of your chosen brand.