Research | Content | Oasis

URL: http://www.oasis-stores.com/?lng=en&ctry=GB&

Researching the company I am designing for, its important to get a nice feel of the ethos of Oasis.

'Neil Webb' - illustrator

Looking at:

• The range of clothes they sell
• Textures/Patterns
• The colours 
• Visual style
• Typeface
• The website technical style
• Any other things the brand offer

Oasis uses a vibrant pink as their main source of colour. On a plain white background. The brief already indicated the style of Oasis so I don't need to say they are classy and a stylish brand. But comparing to competitors on the market I would say Oasis is expensive therefore a higher class brand. Topshop is definitely one of the main competitors to use as a comparison and with Oasis, therefore Oasis are more expensive and more classy.

The types of woman that would shop here are definitely the more richer woman. But first I want to look at the types of clothes they sell which can give a symbol of a more defined target audience.

Here is a sniper of the types of dress Oasis sell. They use a lot of french styled breton stripes in there dresses and tops, also patterns such as flowers, butterflies and natural organic patterns. There style of dress is a lot of old fashioned which indicates older, mature women. Ages of 30-40's. But there are quite fun and bright tops, with birds on which would be for younger women of 20-30's. There target audience is definitely older than topshops too, they are more popular with teens. But Oasis offer student discount so that already shows older teens are targeted too with Oasis. But it seems much more mature than for students. But a lot of there clothes are definitely aimed at slim rich, women that keep in shape. The models that model the clothes look thin and in there mid 20's.

The bottom snippet shows there friendliness in there messaging. Its not just simple 'shop for christmas' they have there conversational messaging throughout the website.

Connotation and Denotation 

Oasis use connotation and denotation in there text a lot. For example this hashtag of 'meltintospring' they have the literal meaning of that its obviously entering into spring now but the melting into it is saying it was winter because we are going from cold metaphorically 'melting' into the next season. I think this could be a major element when generating ideas for messages they want. It is something ill definitely be taking into consideration.

Visually

On the website also there Sale text is illustrated visually rich. They have word 'sale' made out of organic textures such as leaves and flowers which is frozen inside an ice cube. The effect here of 'melting into spring' is illusrated with there typography. The visualisation of the ice symbolising winter melting gradually to reveal the leaves and flowers what represents spring, showing winter into spring. From this i can see what Oasis want. Using connotation and denotation and visually nice looking text.  

There is a section on the website called 'Loved by Hollie'. Which is Hollie from the the girl band the saturdays, clothes she likes from the website and her modelling them. This again symbolises the high class audience if a good looking celebrity is used to model the clothes and write her opinions on the clothes.

Brands current style

On their website I noticed they use a lot of short snappy slogans. Using the technique of an alliteration with the combination of an Adjective and the noun. For example:

This is a writing technique which I really like. And definitely will consider when designing my messages. I think using the brands current style is very important, I don't want to go away from Oasis. Consistency is a keyword when making my messages.