The Hive
Market Insights, Brand Strategy
Summary
The Hive offers Beyoncé fans the tools and space to pursue their dreams in a community of ambitious, powerful women.
Challenge
Beyoncé is a global icon at the top of the music industry. But her business forays into fashion and perfume have not experienced the same level of success she’s used to on the billboard charts. Identify Beyoncé’s brand pillars and create a new way for Beyoncé to deliver the same brand experience fans know and love through a non-musical offering.
Key insights
The brand experience of Beyoncé evokes empowerment, community and truth. The women who make up Beyoncé’s fan base are inspired by her message of empowerment but don’t connect with her physical products. A cultural reference point for hard work, Beyoncé is revered for her professional success.
The Solution
The Hive inspires women to achieve their dreams through professional education events and co-working spaces for women. Inspired by Beyoncé’s legendary work ethic, it offers women a community of support around pursuing their goals.
Discover
Our team took to the streets to find out what exactly Beyonce fans love so much about her. Interviews revealed their admiration for the strength, self-confidence and ambition that Beyoncé personifies. Of all the self-identified fans we talked to, none had purchased any items from Beyoncé’s clothing lines.
Define
Beyoncé has become a cultural reference point as a confident, hard-working businesswoman. Our concept leverages this perception of her into an offering that connects the Beyoncé brand experience to fans’ professional lives.
Develop
The Hive is a series of professional education events and co-working spaces for women. The name “The Hive” is a play off the nickname for Beyoncé’s fan base, known as the Beyhive. We refined the event offering by speaking with female entrepreneurs who confirmed that business bootcamp events by Beyoncé would be credible and compelling.
“This totally fits Beyoncé because she’s a bad ass businesswoman.”
Deliver
The Hive Business Bootcamp is a series of events designed to create a network of professional women around the Beyoncé brand experience of empowerment and community. After introducing The Hive through a national event tour, The Hive will launch a co-working space where strong, ambitious women support each other in pursuing their professional dreams.
Team: Sam Irons, Ai Miyazawa, Anita Wong, Rachel Wold
Course: Market Insights, CCA MBA in Design Strategy, Spring 2017