Flagship Holiday Decoration

CASE STUDY

A retailer had a unique flagship location in downtown of a major city and wanted to decorate it for the holidays. The store had a three story storefront visible on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile and the client wanted to draw attention to the store more dramatically than they had ever done before.

Scope
The scope of work needed to execute this Holiday Decoration Plan included:

1. Furnish and install live spruce garland to canopy and stair banisters and balconies
2. Furnish and install live wreaths in all windows
3. Paint designated walls with the specified holiday colors
4. Change the illumination of the storefront and canopies from white to red

Challenges
The constraints of this project included:

1. Project needed to be completed in one day
2. Need to coordinate with team of busy people including the Director of Visual Department, Director of Design Department, Store Manager, Stockroom Manager, the Facility Manager, Electrical Technician, and Paint crew
3. Project involved exterior work that needed to be approved and planned and approved through the city building department
   

Solution
We understood that to execute this project properly we were going to need to develop a well thought out plan. The time constraints did not allow for any recovery. Multiple parties had different focuses of the project. Our plan to execute this project included:

1. Collaboration with each stakeholder to understand their goals, concerns and constraints regarding the project
2. Designing a process to execute the project with consideration to each constraint
3. Coordination of placing the order and receiving the delivery of the live spruce garland and wreaths with Stockroom Manager and the removal and replacement of sales merchandise with Store Manager.
4. Coordination of the paint crew and electricians to work overnight, finishing with enough time for the store to re-merchandise areas of work
   
5. Real Time submittal of photos to visual team to ensure the intended look was achieved. This was completed while the installers were on-site, eliminating return trips.

Summary
Many projects involve many different parties. We believe interviewing each stakeholder to get a clear understanding of their situation is vital to developing a solution. Once we establish what the standards are, we work towards developing a process that will meet that standard, taking into consideration the constraints each stakeholder has given us. And finally, we audit the work completed and ensure that it meets the standards, supported with photos and documentation.