Ben Sherman and Web 2.0

You may have read in the last issue of Cimex Magazine that Web 2.0 was not an evolution but a regression to what the web was originally designed for. Web 2.0 is the turning point for the user to be the centre of the ‘webiverse’ and they must be careful that commercial entities don’t take it for their own benefit again. We warned that commercial entities must be wise in their application of Web 2.0 or fear the wrath of their prospective consumer.

Well, it looks like we were right! Look what has happened with the firebombing of American Apparel stores in Second Life, cyber terrorism on a small scale across the virtual globe. When we take our clients’ brands in to this arena Cimex do it with sensitivity to the brand’s ambition and status, not try to compete in an already crowded market and do it for the right reason with flair!

Ben Sherman is one of the UK’s brands that can lay claim to a heritage. Throughout the decades since the early sixties it has blazed a trail in fashion and became synonymous with music. It was there for the Mods right through to Oasis and even now supports a variety of up and coming artists to established like the Kooks and partners with Gibson Guitars.

Ben Sherman approached design agency Dry and Cimex with an existing site that was achieving very little in engaging users with content or supplying a pleasant user experience. Unless people wanted to look at clothes there was very little to do and with no link to e-commerce after one look people would not return. To solve this problem Ben Sherman were also launching in conjunction an e-commerce site with other partners so our brief was all about the brand, but importantly the site had to interface with the e-commerce aspects seamlessly.

The collaborating agencies approached the project with an ambition in mind – to help Ben Sherman regain their heritage by incorporating Web 2.0 to create a Ben Sherman on and offline community. This would capture the zeitgeist and imagination and restore the brand back to its rightful place as the number one icon, raising themselves above the pretenders to the throne – a Union Jack throne at that!

Dry and Cimex saw the opportunity to unite Ben Sherman heritage through the ages with a timeline that built Web 2.0 content around the brand. Ben Sherman had a backlog of content that it could put on Youtube.com and Flickr to enable new fashionistas to see how the brand had developed through the ages.

Partnering this with pertinent music video’s and legendary concerts from the likes of the Who, last fm selections and album recommendations on Amazon from the respective decades shows the close relationship between the clothes and the culture and emphasises the heritage that is still prevalent today. This would be updated on a regular basis to ensure repeat visits, a chance to build the brand and ensure more sales.

To stress the heritage we included relevant content about the development of the brand and clothes into the timeline, when there was a heritage design influence in the current collection it was referenced in the timeline thereby linking the past and the present.

Ben Sherman are doing all the standard activities to build a customer base but also wanted to foster a relationship so building on the Web 2.0 they enabled customers to add content on their experiences with Ben Sherman, create their own flickr streams alongside the Ben Sherman’s, create their own Last FM radio and link into the music of Ben Sherman and post their own video content. This will continue to develop as Dry and Cimex finds more ways to build the Ben Sherman community.

As this is a brand site it was important that if any interest was shown in purchasing an item it was a smooth transition to the actual e-commerce site. Our solution was to profile the shop online prominently on the homepage and throughout the site but also if an item was available online a customer could click right through to that e-commerce page thereby ensuring a seamless revenue stream and harmonious user experience. Ben Sherman is also an experience in itself and each store characterises the brand in a unique way, we wanted to drive people in to the retail environment as well so created an interactive visualisation of the store to imbue the ambience that the consumer would find.

Ben Sherman can now safely say they are part of an online community that is growing, people now understand the heritage of the brand, its place in music and why it is still relevant to their lifestyle today, and they can even influence how it evolves.

P.S. Watch This is England, a superb film with a little Ben Sherman in it.