By Franci Sagar and Sophie Claire Sagar – Lakeside Collaborative

At Lakeside Collaborative, our retail strategy firm, we work with an open-source network of visionaries to design immersive retail experiences that echo and underline our client’s mission. The retail identities and stores we create become brand assets for their parent company – a testament to their mission and values.

It was in conversation one evening, that my business partner in Lakeside, who also happens to be my daughter, discovered we were in possession of a powerful retail philosophy: “mission-driven retail”. Mission-driven retail describes retail when it’s employed as a medium to communicate a set of values, a vision and as a platform for social impact. The driving force behind it is retail as a community experience – a place of gathering and sharing, commerce and celebration. Its value-added comes from its ability to craft emotionally connective and informative shopping experiences.

Background

I was brought to act as Retail Director and VP of Brand Development to the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) 16 years ago based on the reputation of my then retail business ZONA. It was the brainchild of my then-husband and I, built in SoHo in the 80’s, when SoHo was at the center of the art world. It was a time when high technology was becoming more pervasive in our lives. ZONA grew out of our desire to balance this ever-increasing presence with products that celebrated the textural and sensorial, the hand of the artist and the soul of the maker.

We became known for a signature merchandising style that focused on visual storytelling and cross-category product vignettes. With ZONA we were credited as having created the first “lifestyle store” and hailed as having forever changed how retail stores were merchandised. I didn’t know at the time that what we were doing would later morph into what Lakeside today calls “mission-driven retail” – where each retail touch-point is in service to a message.

When I was brought in to rethink the retail experience at MAD, I realized how instrumental retail could be as a medium through which to communicate a museum’s mission and operate as a brand asset. It was at this moment that Lakeside Collaborative was born. We saw each customer in the store as a museum patron, the product assortment and retail experience offered had to be inspired by their parent institution’s mission, so when purchased they would continue to act as vessels for the memories people take away from their visit.

Mission-Driven Retail in Action

In 2008 the Museum of Arts and Design was moving to its iconic building at 2 Columbus Circle in New York City and it was to have a 1,300-square-foot store in its lobby. Working with JGA, Lakeside’s goal was to uproot the antiquated concept of a “museum gift-shop” and create an elevated mission-driven retail experience whose aesthetic integrity would also stand as a unique destination in the broader retail marketplace.

One of the project’s design requirements was to create a sense of discovery, where each display surface had to support a highly unique assortment of products made from a myriad of materials – glass, ceramic, metal, wood and jewelry. Glass had to have a place to be displayed where it could capture the light, and products of complementary materials needed a home where they could be placed together in inspiring compositions that caused people rethink the way they live with objects.

At MAD, our role as a museum retailer is to build a bridge between the artist, the customer and the museum. With JGA, we set out to design a store that would mirror MAD’s mission to promote innovation in craft, art, and design. Each creative choice at MAD’s retail store was born out of the desire to showcase excellence in craftsmanship and design with the same thoughtfulness as MAD’s exhibitions. The store would act as an extension of the museum, educating its customers about the creative process and celebrating products that enhance our contemporary lives.

Today, Lakeside’s approach to retail design continues to be guided by the belief that we can transform the retail experience of both non-profit and for-profit concepts, from a place of empty consumption into an act of conscious consumerism, and a statement of affiliation with a higher mission. Once considered an afterthought, we see museum retailing as a new platform for the next wave of arts patronage.

Since the Museum of Arts and Design, Lakeside Collaborative has gone on to create mission-driven retail experiences for clients that include The Gardiner Museum of Toronto, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, Cleveland Museum, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, Miami Art Museum and Minneapolis Institute of Art and most recently, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

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Lakeside Collaborative

Lakeside Collaborative is a retail strategy firm that has been providing consulting services for the last 15 years to high-profile specialty retailers, museums, and cultural institutions. Lakeside works with their clients to clarify their mission, develop a creative direction, capture new audiences, and increase their revenue streams.

Franci Sagar, Founder + Director of Lakeside Collaborative

Franci Sagar has built a reputation in the retail industry for innovative thinking, professionalism, inspirational management, clarity of vision, and an exceptional aesthetic.

Franci was co-founder of ZONA, a specialty retailer, whose first store was established in the downtown SoHo area of New York City, and  grew to become a world-class lifestyle brand with multiple locations, including Aspen, East Hampton, New York, Florence and Tokyo.

Since 2000, and the establishment of Lakeside Collaborative, Franci and her team have been retained to participate in the design of retail stores, create visual merchandising languages that support their client’s brand, to increase revenue streams and promote the culture, values and mission of museums and cultural institutions through their retail initiatives.

In addition Franci has expertise creating mission-driven product selection, proprietary product development, print and Website initiatives, and the development of customer service programs reflective of a company or institution’s brand. Together with other members of the Lakeside Collaborative team, Franci has been enabling museum retail operations to market their museum’s brands to expanded audiences beyond the museum visitor.

Sophie Claire Sagar, Project Lead + Partner

Sophie Sagar joined Lakeside Collaborative in 2011 as Project Coordinator for the retail rebrand of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (ISGM) in Boston. Since then, she has become an integral part of the Lakeside team, shepherding projects from ideation to actualization. Sophie has worked with Herzog de Meuron architects on the design of the retail store of the Perez Art Museum of Miami, and has been instrumental in creating the visual merchandising language for the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Cleveland Institute of Art. She has worked with Pentagram Design on the successful retail re-branding of the ISGM and the Barnes Foundation, spearheading multiple branded merchandise initiatives.

Today she orchestrates the progress of varying scale projects, interfacing with multi-disciplinary teams to oversee workflow, project status, deliverables and ensure client satisfaction.