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NO-FRILLS CHIC

Japanese Muji offers low price products that are anything but humdrum; from basic bath products to foldable cardboard speakers. We discussed NO-FRILLS CHIC during our recent seminars in Amsterdam and London, so time to officially coin the trend with this brief newsletter entry. NO-FRILLS CHIC can be defined as low cost goods and services that add design, third-party high quality elements and/or exceptional customer service to create top quality experiences at bottom prices.

NO-FRILLS CHIC is where the low cost revolution (think Wal Mart, Costco, SouthWest Airlines, easyJet) meets our GRAND BOUTIQUE trend (representing the powerful force of product and experience design).

Which means that if you sell anything low cost that involves even a hint of experience, you had better pay attention! No juicier example to illustrate this trend than pairing off easyJet and Ryan Air, Europe’s leading low-cost airlines, and US-based no-frills airlines JetBlue and Song. easyJet and Ryan Air offer (by now) old style no-frills: bare-bones service, garish design, unassuming food for which passengers have to pay, and on-board entertainment that mainly consists of crew members telling knock-knock jokes.

Song and JetBlue have brought a welcome sense of style (and comfort!) to low-cost flying.

Compare this to JetBlue’s roomy all-leather seats, each equipped with free live satellite television, offering up to 24 channels of DIRECTV programming, and soon up to 100 channels of free digital satellite radio and pay-per-view movies.

Or consider Delta-owned Song’s in-flight menu: passengers still have to pay for their meals, but at least the food is from quality brand names: Sara Lee’s bagels, Newman’s Own dressings on Song’s Own salads, and organic yogurt from Stonyfield Farms.

Song also has a special deal with New York’s hip candy store Dylan’s Candy Bar. Not to be outdone on solid ground, Song’s NO-FRILLS CHIC approach extends to their POP-UP RETAIL stunt (an on-the-fly Song store in Soho, NY, last December).

NO-FRILLS CHIC is in many ways a natural evolution of the no-frills concept: in the end, there aren’t THAT many goods and services that require no experience at all, even if available at very little cost, whether it’s a three hour air trip or a one hour shopping spree. So creating a NO-FRILLS CHIC experience will win over some of the most cost-conscious consumers, and lure other customers away from the traditional luxury market.

Want more NO-FRILLS CHIC examples and inspiration?

Check out US-based Target, Holland’s HEMA (products below), and Japanese Muji who all offer stylish homeware goods at low prices.

For no-frills chic supermarkets, be inspired by fast growing Trader Joe’s, who stocks eclectic and upscale foodstuffs for the chic wine and cheese set at no-frills prices.

For clothing, learn from now ubiquitous Zara, a fashion label that is a business trendsetter in many more ways than just predicting ‘in’ colors for Fall 2005.

And when it comes to accommodation, 25-Hours Hotel in Hamburg, Germany combines boutique with affordable rates, making it a poster child for German NO-FRILLS CHIC hospitality. In their own words: “Who says you can’t have style on a budget? Why miss out on Living Divani daybeds, Brionvega televisions (you know, those cool table-top TVs with rounded corners that you wouldn’t have been seen dead watching 15 years ago) and first-run, special-edition Sixties-style lamps by Flos? The fun and funky retro theme suits the young media and creative types who frequent this part of Hamburg, to the west of the city center.”