OUAN503 - Responsive - Individual Practice: Rethinking A Brief (Taylor's of Harrogate)

OUAN503 - A New Brief:

After scavenging YCN's freshly served briefs, I finally found two of which I was very fond of in terms of possible outcomes and opportunities. The Taylor's of Harrogate, and the Yorkshire Tea briefs were both of interest to me. However, the one that I went for was Taylor's Coffee as it is more specific in what it wants from you, the brief was clearer, and I found it overall more appealing.

I don't drink coffee personally, so you could argue that the Yorkshire Tea brief would have been more suitable as it is more relatable. I disagree with this as the reason why I, a member of the target audience they want to address this at, don't drink coffee is that it is too bitter and boring. There are many different tastes and varieties of tea (there are with coffees, too), whereas coffee will almost always taste bitter. This could be the reason why a lot of 16-25 year olds don't drink it, it's not as enjoyable and seen as a more "on the go" kind of drink, in comparison to tea; a more social, relaxing drink.

In order to tackle this, I came up with various ideas in order to entice young adults into drinking coffee. The idea of tea being relaxing and social should be a feature that coffee needs to compete with. I thought about this and how young people like variety, creativity, and choice with drinks. This led me to this conclusion: Taylor's of Harrogate have become so successful and popular nationwide and even globally, that their stock has reached supermarkets far and wide. With this in mind, they have the ability to put my product out there and reach a new audience on a massive scale.

Being from Harrogate myself, I walk past Taylor's warehouse on a regular basis (I grew up with Taylor's on my doorstep) and my stepdad, who works for them as a coffee and tea blender, gets to see first hand what new products are being developed. This could be valuable to me, as using him as a first hand insight into what the company might like as he sees packaging and products literally everyday, I could pass my designs and ideas through him and get his feedback as if he were talking on behalf of them. He knows what sells the best and why, so maybe it's worth using this to my advantage.

Whittard's of Chelsea, a company that also specials in tea and coffee, but is not so heard of, created products a while back that enabled the customer to flavour their teas and coffees with syrups. These came in a few flavours and although not hugely spoken about, they are fantastic! I currently have a bottle of coffee syrup in my kitchen and I can assure you, friends of around my age love it. This persuades them to give coffee a go, and is almost a gateway into the coffee-lovers world!

This in mind, Taylor's have the ability to get this product out there to be seen in supermarkets and make it more accessible. This is something that no other company has done so overtly as these products are usually sold in specialist shops, like Whittard's. I was thinking that maybe a Christmas range of flavours could be created, each with their own designs, but still following the theme of Taylor's products - classy, sophisticated and aesthetically pleasing.