Visual Merchandising and Store Design | VMSD.com

(January 2006) posted on Fri Jan 27, 2006

OfficeMax says hang around, have coffee and surf the web

By Anne DiNardo

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But when the office supply company turned that question on itself, it discovered part of its thing was an industry-standard warehouse environment that didn't inspire customers to linger and shop among its more than 8000 SKUs.

"There's so much confusion in the office superstore marketplace as to who is who because everyone looks and sounds the same," says Jim Dismukes, OfficeMax's vp, visual merchandising. "We wanted to break out of that mold and build a store that had a true retail look and feel."

So it hired behavioral market research and consulting company Envirosell (New York) to conduct customer surveys and then turned to FRCH Design Worldwide (Cincinnati) to build a store where people would want to spend time. "If you give people a place that is soulless," says FRCH creative director Andrew McQuilkin, "of course they're going to get in and out quickly."

OfficeMax's two leading competitors, Office Depot and Staples, had tried the same, turning to bolder color schemes and new layouts to make a statement. In October, OfficeMax unveiled its new prototype in Macedonia, Ohio, the company's first major redesign since 1998.

Using data from Envirosell and its own in-house research, Dismukes says OfficeMax built a store design and layout "from the customers' viewpoint." First, to encourage shoppers to linger, it introduced a new OfficeMax Café, located next to the print and documentation services area. Here, customers can wait for orders, download documents using free WiFi and enjoy a complimentary cup of coffee.

The designers' to-do list also included adding a little color to the space. According to Envirosell's Paco Underhill, many shoppers associated OfficeMax with the color white. FRCH's McQuilkin translated that to mean, "you don't own a look."

So, to establish a brand identity, the new prototype infuses OfficeMax's signature yellow and black with shades of orange, green and blue and dark wood tones. In addition to softening the environment, the residential palette helps draw shoppers to the back of the store, an area that was being overlooked.