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Plasma Screens Get A+

Business school project helped Eddie Bauer improve store traffic

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A business school project at Indiana University (Bloomington, Ind.) helped Eddie Bauer substantially increase traffic at its Bloomington store by installing large plasma display panels in its store windows. So successful was the improvement, in fact, that the San Francisco-based retailer has decided to make the same changes in 10 more stores, including prominent locations in New York and Chicago.

The retailer had retained a group of IU business students to come up with ways of increasing store traffic. The students recommended the use of customized electronic window displays that could be easily updated to target particular groups of people, depending on the geographic location, season, day of the week and time of day. For example, wrote the students, the store might run visual images targeted toward teenagers on a Friday night or toward parents visiting with their children after school in the afternoon.

The report led Eddie Bauer to work with Visual Systems & Services (Valencia, Calif.), a “plasma integration” firm, to design and integrate plasma display panel systems in various Eddie Bauer locations, including the first test site in Bloomington. The panels were produced by Pioneer New Media Technologies (Long Beach, Calif.).

In the past, Eddie Bauer typically changed its store window signage and dŽcor every few weeks. The plasma display panels allowed the retailer to change its windows as often as several times a day. By monitoring store traffic and measuring it with sales figures, Eddie Bauer was able to evaluate the effectiveness of the content shown on each plasma display panel. If a particular segment of content was not working as well as another, the content was easily switched or updated. “We were also able to communicate with and engage customers who might not otherwise have stopped by the store,” said Michael Boyd, director of customer relationship management for Eddie Bauer.

The plasma display panels that Eddie Bauer installed weigh less than 90 pounds and measure less than four inches thick, taking up less room than the typical CRT monitor. The panels can also be hung on a wall, flown from the ceiling or mounted on a cart or moveable arm.

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“Retailers like Eddie Bauer are beginning to see a real advantageous tool here,” said Craig McManis, vp of marketing for Pioneer's Industrial Display Division, “that is starting to completely change the face of in-store advertising as we know it.”

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