Does your customer buy straight leg, skinny, slim or stretch flare? Maybe a curvy-fit low-rise flare-leg?
Women are constantly required to decipher these fit descriptions when shopping for jeans.
Guys aren’t off the hook either. They need to know if they’re low-rise slim-boot, baggy destroyed or vintage straight.
And once the denim decision is made, there’s the trip to the coffee shop for another exercise in excess selection. In Italian!
When did buying get so complicated?
Generally speaking, consumer products have tripled in complexity in the last decade. Take, for example, wireless laptops, digital cameras, MP3 players and their accessories. Okay, we’ve come to expect home electronics to be a constant learning curve. But cleaning products? P&G’s highly successful Swiffer® brand has expanded to conquer new territory with 18 different products sold in 31 separate combinations. Think of the extra time required in the store aisle trying to make the right decision.
With so many new products incorporating so many innovative features, customers are coming into stores unaware of all the product additions or alternatives, let alone the value added by the improvements. In the past, traditional advertising would have helped us narrow the choice. But today, the 30-second TV spot doesn’t have the capacity to dramatize the features and benefits of today’s intricate goods. It can only build brand awareness.
To truly experience these new products, customers have no choice but to head to the stores. And that is causing retailers to rethink the way they merchandise. Demand-creation, traditionally the responsibility of the manufacturer, is now the responsibility of the store. Retailers who understand this are using their spaces to compose an experience that both builds awareness and creates demand.
Although this increased burden is a challenge at retail, it also offers an opportunity for the retail brand to deliver expertise and guidance to shoppers, thereby building affinity and customer loyalty for the store.
Nokia’s new experience store in Chicago puts an innovative spin on selling technology – or, rather, not selling technology, since no purchases are made there. The store is broken down into comfortable spaces offering identifiable lifestyle activities. By removing the traditional noise of retail to focus on the brand experience, the environment helps connect people with technology on an emotional level. Nokia successfully creates demand, which its other retail channels fulfill.
More and more manufacturers are moving into retail, building branded spaces that provide customers with the information needed to purchase the right products for their specific requirements. A few are designing guided selling environments that can be adapted by their retail partners who may not have enough trained sales associates to adequately support the product’s sale, upsell or cross-sell.
When Intel wanted to simplify the selling of its wireless technology in electronics stores, it had to do more than merely integrate its “Unwired” advertising message into the environment. The maker of Centrino needed to boost buying interest in computers containing its technology, and educate shoppers about the broader importance of wireless mobility.
By breaking down the consumer purchase-decision path into key touch points, Intel was able to communicate the right message at the right time to influence the shopper’s thinking. The new merchandising system was more engaging and encouraged shoppers to spend more time in the department. More time equals more spend.
Complex selling can be simplified if you devote space to the product story. There’s always a sweet spot – optimizing the retail space with the product narrative and connecting it all to a lifestyle benefit.
In some cases, the product story can be told dynamically and dramatically. IKEA tells its quality story with robotics that put their products through the paces and demonstrate their durability – a strategy that seems to grow naturally from IKEA’s modernist brand – while educating and entertaining shoppers.
And Best Cellars, the East Coast-based wine retailer, has made the arduous task of picking the right vintage of vino a lot easier for consumers who don’t aspire to be sommeliers but do enjoy a good bottle of wine. With categories like fizzy, fresh, smooth or sweet, and an edited selection to assure consistent quality, this retailer is actively cultivating a loyal and growing customer base who now finds this complex category fun and easy to shop.
Understanding the buying decision and making strategic use of the environment to explain product features and assortments is crucial in creating demand and encouraging shoppers to come back again – for the next product upgrade, extension or fashion fit, the next curvy-fit low-rise flare-leg, the next venti latte.
D. Lee Carpenter is ceo of Interbrand North America (New York) and also ceo-founder of Design Forum (Dayton, Ohio), a retail consultancy. Design Forum’s client roster includes Best Buy, Washington Mutual, Nebraska Furniture Mart, Wild Oats, Subway, Frontgate, Mazda, Home Depot, Yankee Candle, Porsche, AT&T, Sephora, Staples, Walgreens and John Deere.