FMA Retail Blog

Part Two:

This blog is a continuation of last week’s thoughts on what criteria brands and retailers should apply to evaluating an in-store merchandising partner. In addition to looking for a good creative partner, brands and retailers will want to look for evidence that the company they’re considering is nimble and detail-oriented. It is a lot easier to illustrate what these traits look like when we can include examples from our own experience, so there are a few peppered into the discussion.

Nimble

The greater the array of in-house capabilities, the more responsive an in-store merchandising partner can be. Look for an environment of tightly integrated resources for complete project management from creative design through store delivery. A broad scope of resources will provide you with the greatest flexibility in accommodating program changes, compressing time frames, and delivering a product that is on pace and on budget.

Is it apparent how the team responds when clients come in with revised expectations? The willingness and flexibility to modify solutions and meet challenges as they arise, while continuing to work toward a set date, should be part of the company culture.

It is particularly telling how a partner responds when designing and engineering a display that interfaces with client product and client-supplied equipment that gets incorporated into the overall piece. Neither of those aspects is within the control of the in-store merchandising partner, but the partner should be nimble enough to make the necessary modifications and keep the project on track.

Into the Details

An in-store merchandising partner should be able to assign you team members with the experience that allows them to focus on details you, as a client starting a new project, may not even recognize need to be addressed. Focusing on the details of design and understanding the appropriateness of components can impact user experience and long-term viability.  A thorough in-store merchandising partner should know what makes for ease of installation, user interface and durability and be able to show you numbers that indicate a high success rate in the field.

We were recently called to redesign two different projects that were in tests initiated by other companies. They came up with interesting designs and incorporated technology but did not have the depth of experience to integrate successfully the two elements and anticipate problems on the retail floor. Units were becoming damaged in the natural course of use and store maintenance and needed to be pulled.

Being detail oriented doesn’t translate into having an incremental focus. At Frank Mayer and Associates, we were approached by still another company that already had a display in the field and were asked to redesign it. Our designers and engineers didn’t come up with just a better-looking display; they noticed the original piece had far too many screws and took too long to set up. They took a holistic approach and the result was a fully collapsible display that didn’t even require the use of tools. Not only did it have the aesthetics they were looking for, it was much more efficient to install. Oh, and the shipping costs were cut in half…

A company’s focus on being creative, nimble, and detail-oriented will tell you a lot about how they approach their work and can ultimately impact the success of your project. What other qualitative criteria would you add to the list?

Published by Joe Holley – 5/14/2013

Part One:

In-store merchandising is an integral, tangible representation of a brand and a reflection of the retail environment for which it is created. It is unassailable that the partner you choose to bring your project to fruition can impact factors like design, speed to market, project cost, user experience and so on — things that ultimately determine success. So, how do you make sure you’re applying the right criteria to the evaluation of the merchandising partner that will translate your objectives into a tangible, customer-focused, handsomely-branded, solidly-performing solution.

First, you should approach your choice with more than a one-and-done mentality.  Look for continuity. Ask how far back the longest-running client relationship goes and how many clients have been around for a decade or more. Our oldest client relationship at Frank Mayer and Associates began over twenty years ago.

Though not an exhaustive list, there are at least three qualitative areas where you can focus your evaluation of an in-store merchandising partner. We can talk about being creative, and nimble and detail-oriented in a theoretical way, but real-life examples illustrate the true value, so I asked our account executives to provide some. Today’s submission focuses on creativity. We’ll get to being nimble and detail-oriented in Part Two.

Creative

Everyone in a creative business says they’re creative. You’ve probably heard the adage, “Don’t tell me. Show me.” When you’re evaluating an in-store merchandising company, does creative talent come through strongly in the completed projects they showcase? There is more to creating effective in-store merchandising than designing to stated objectives.

Ask yourself if creative capabilities shine through in their work in a way that sets them apart.  At GlobalShop 2013, we had a visitor to our booth who saw an electronics display we’d done for a competitor. Without reservation, he exclaimed, “I’ve seen those everywhere. I love them, and I wondered who did them.”

Find out about the depth of creative talent and how it is deployed. Does your potential retail merchandising company have the capability to put more than one designer on a project when necessary. Be sure they’re not stretched so thinly that multiple viewpoints and fruitful collaboration can’t be employed.

Ask to see examples of display-enhancing features that the client never thought to ask for. As an example, at FMA we were asked to designed and produce customer-facing lens demonstrator kiosks. When we did our research we realized not all of these kiosks would be placed against a wall in optical shops, and we designed the back of the display to hold a mirror that added value for the retailer and the customer.

Investigate the creative process. When we were asked to design a collateral piece for a display client that included a sliding feature, we didn’t research just within the product category. The category was eye care, but our creative team decided to look beyond the obvious. They studied the construction of candy boxes to understand how slide-out trays were designed.

Published by Joe Holley 5/8/2013

Frank Mayer and Associates wrapped up a successful GlobalShop retail show this week in the controlled environment of the McCormick Center while storms raged outside in Chicago. Our booth displayed a new look since many of our components were destroyed in a much more serious weather event, Hurricane Sandy, during the lead up to a different show in New York City.

Companies exhibiting at the show strategize about booth design like retailers strategize about store design and product merchandising. For exhibitors to have a successful show, they have to get attendees to “shop” or at least stop at their booth. For retailers that attend the show to succeed, they have to get consumers to stop at their store and shop their brands. Both call for designing spaces that are inviting and providing experiences that cater to what is important to customers. Call it designing for the customer journey.

People attend GlobalShop not only to connect on the show floor, but to be exposed to different points of view in the conference’s educational presentations. Not surprisingly, the concept of designing for the customer journey surfaced in at least two of the conference sessions available on Day 1 of the show.

In “Trends of the Connected Consumer” Florian Vollmer of retail design firm InReality expressed the view that marketing at retail is no longer just about segmentation. A key message was to consider the individual before thinking of the design of the environment. This is a principle that applies to both retail environments and in-store merchandising solutions. Knowing what’s important to the customer, and why, influences design.

To illustrate his point, Mr. Vollmer showed a Temper-Pedic display set up like a mini bedroom. What’s important to buying a mattress? Trying it. What’s uncomfortable about buying a mattress? Trying it out in public. The longer people can experience a mattress the more likely they are to buy it, and a semi-private setting leads to longer trial. The focus here was on the customer and improving the in-store journey that leads to a sale.

“A Glimpse at Brick and Mortar Store Experiences in 2020” actually focused on the opportunities retailers will face in trying to appeal to key customer segments in the not-too-distant future. In this conference session, Lisa Hurst and Brian Priest of shopper agency Upshot noted that while Millennials and Hispanics are segments that retailers must also plan for, it is the Boomers who in five years will control 70% of the income in the country.

Despite advancing age, the spending power of Boomers means they can be drivers of technology sales. The notion being that technology will help them fulfill the vision of a well-lived, empowered life, enabling such activities as financial and health monitoring. At the same time, Boomers will need help in navigating the plethora of choices in complex categories like electronics.

Brian Priest posits that retailers should think about organizing to help customers accomplish tasks – becoming in effect “learning centers.” Among other things a retail section organized around healthful living might show customers how to use devices to monitor vital health statistics and remotely communicate them to health care professionals. The talk may have started by outlining customer segments that will be important to retailers in 2020, but the implication sounds a lot like focusing on the customer journey.

We’re appreciative of all those who made the FMA booth a stop on your GlobalShop journey. External forces like weather may bring about unintended consequences, but we are holding fast to our aim of providing unparalleled support to our customers as they seek to bring relevant retail experiences to theirs.

Published by Joe Holley 4/18/2013