A day in London with Cranfield Marketers

 

A reminder of happier and freer times, which we will get back to soon :)…

I want to introduce today’s blog post by mentioning two words… fashion and branding, and continue with the question; which is the best location for capturing those two words? LONDON!

London has been the capital of fashion and branding for many decades by hosting a large percentage of the worlds most popular brands not only in fashion but in a wide variety of sectors too.

Visiting the Museum of Brands

Our excursion to London included both educational and entertaining elements for all MSc Strategic Marketing students. We started the day off by visiting the Museum of Brands, which hosts over 150 years of heritage in branding, packing and advertising. All marketers had the chance to observe the permanent exhibition called “Time Tunnel” which was created by consumer historian Robert Opie and captures the evolution of branding throughout the years. Based on my experience the most fascinating fact by this exhibition was the ability to understand the importance of keeping your brand identity constant throughout the years, but adjusting to technological advances at the same time, as well as keeping up with the trends of the generation.

One good example of this is the packing and promotion of different products during the period of the Olympic Games in the UK where most of the brands added a sports element to their campaigns and changed the colours of the campaigns to Yellow, Green, Red, Black and Blue, as well as the change in meanings.

I personally believe that every marketer should have the chance to visit this particular exhibition, since brand heritage is a fundamental factor to success and progression, as well as diversification into new categories and sectors.

After finishing the first part of our tour at the Museum of Brands, we had the chance to have a talk from the members of the museum where all future marketers had the chance to create conversation, ideas, understand and examine the role of branding in both history and modern world.

Shopping in Harrods

One could say Harrods is a must visit place when travelling to London, since it is considered to be the largest department store in Europe. Well, we all had the chance to take a tour on this spectacular 1.1 million sq feet retail space that has 330 departments all displayed in a meticulous way in Knightsbridge, London. It was really interesting to see how 330 brands can be differentiated, displayed, stand out in a particular way that express the culture and heritage of each one, under one roof.

Undoubtedly, the overall experience that you capture from the moment you enter the building is mind-blowing, starting from the aesthetics and architecture of the building to restaurants, bars and patisseries, to the employees’ attitude and behaviour towards both customers and the products.

Lastly, I cannot end this blog by not mentioning the effort our professors and SAS lead put in making this tour so special and help us to capture all those details I mentioned above. Not only through photos but by creating  a handbook and a questionnaire for us to use whilst on the tour: Thank you,Dr Tamira King, Dr Ahmed Shaalan and Mrs Vanicha Sroay.