Don’t Toy with your Brand Story How Concept Shops Can Keep Customers Coming Back by Paul J. Russell
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othing excites a 10-year-old more than a trip to Disney World. It’s like visiting a distant planet developed just for kids. From characters such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck to dinner shows such as Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue or Disney’s Spirit of Aloha, every aspect of Disney World has been created with kids in mind, and is part of a bigger brand story. These themed events, in turn, allow audiences to engage and connect with the brand. In the retail environment, it’s imperative for a brand to connect with customers. You want to provide an enjoyable shopping experience that keeps the customer coming back. An effective way to communicate your brand story is to showcase product in a brand concept shop. This is a small shop within a retail store where a brand creates a unique shopping environment for its target consumer. Your concept shop conveys your brand story, echoes your company’s DNA, and resonates with customers long after they leave the store. Communicating your brand story is, in fact, storytelling. To tell that story, you must create a world where nothing exists except your unique brand and its message. That means merchandise, signage, graphics, and displays should all relate and culminate to deliver your story. In your world, everything plays a part in storytelling, from the colors of product packaging to the colors on signage. Product should be organized, easily accessible, and displayed in a manner that connects to the customer emotionally. There are three key steps to developing a concept shop to present your brand story at retail:
1. Secure a location to tell your story Your environment must possess its own space to tell the story. In order to obtain a larger space for a concept shop, negotiations with each retailer must take place. A brand story may be presented on an endcap or a back wall, or in an aisle or larger section. The site of the space you’re allotted may not
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be the same in all stores, therefore, it would be beneficial to prepare shop layouts of varying sizes that could be placed in different retail environments.
2. Communicate your story to retailers The vision for your shop should be communicated through 3-D concept drawings to each retailer. These drawings are an effective vehicle for explaining your brand story to retailers before an actual concept shop is implemented. In addition, these drawings provide a visual of what the shop will look like in the proposed area. The drawings should reflect the product quantities and how the product looks when presented on the fixtures, along with corresponding signage.
3. Implement your Brand story for customers The last factor in telling your story is to effectively roll out the shops at retail. This is executed through planograms and directives to communicate the details of setting up each shop while developing a project management schedule to stay on task. The directives and planograms work together to provide a visual of the completed shop. The project management schedules provide direction on who will be completing each task in the implementation process and when. Telling your story at retail brings your brand to life and builds a long-term relationship with your customers. Engage your customers with emotional connections by becoming a master storyteller. ■ Paul J. Russell is a visual merchandising and retail marketing executive with a comprehensive background in developing and executing integrated consumer-focused programs for manufacturers. His new book, Field Visual Merchandising Strategy, is available in the U.S. from amazon.com and bn.com. For a 20 percent discount everywhere else, use discount code TOYBOOK before May 31 at www.koganpage.com.
MARCH/APRIL 2015