Staying Informed with High-Level Insights on Marketing at Retail Topics
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Letter from the Editor
Welcome. This marks the first issue of Medallion Retail's Insights: Retail Perspectives, a newsletter published eight times a year. The purpose of our newsletter is to focus on relevant content on high-level retail topics
that include original articles, links to features and excerpts, and
research-based strategies that are of interest to today's marketers.
We hope you find this newsletter informative and we welcome your comments. This newsletter is provided free of charge. If by chance your email address was added by mistake, please accept our apology. We've include options for removing yourself from our newsletter at the bottom of this and all emails you receive from us.
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Intuitive Retail
Issue 1: October, 2009
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Intuitive retail is rooted in human behavior. For it to be effective, it must fundamentally meet the expectations a person has created through life experience and deliver confidence, control, comfort and belonging.
Despite attempts to win consumers over with a positive and relevant brand experience, many brands and retailers are actually driving consumers away, confusing them, frustrating them, and creating indifference with too many product assortments, wrong messages, and irrelevant experiences. Why? Because brands and retailers fail to understand that today's purchase decisions are not made by consumers or shoppers, but by complex individuals who often have deep and sometimes unexpected relationships with products and brands outside of the store, that are often overlooked or dismissed at retail. Intuitive Retail is understanding behaviors, it's affecting and reflecting behavior.
The Foundation of an Intuitive Retail Experience Is Built with Five Building Blocks:
1. Create Confidence: Identify and remove the barriers that
kill consumer confidence.
2. Provide Control: Help the consumer navigate and under-
stand, educate, and minimize choice.
3. Bring Comfort: Put the consumer at ease. It makes
them feel relaxed and less stressed.
4. Deliver Belonging: Offer a sense of community for the
consumer. Give back to the community or local organizations.
5. Meet High Expectations: Think about the journey to
purchase.
When appplying the foundation of Intuitive Retail to a "dynamic buying environment" it is important to focus on the behaviors of people, Taking a holistic view of their lives. Determine high or low emotion, and involvement. Incorporating high emotions and high involvement creates rich associations for the consumer. When faced with uncomfortable realities, it is a good idea to incorporate comfortable elements. A good example is the Barnes & Noble "comfy" chair and in-store cafe. The uncomfortable reality: an enormous selection of merchandise, where the consumer can feel overwhelmed quite easily; solution: elements of comfort are introduced into the environment that create a relaxed atmosphere to facilitate browsing or "drifting," creating a longer in-store consumer experience. Create rich, compact experiences to tap associations and connections.
Summary
A few seconds is not a very long time, but with Intuitive Retail, it's all you need. The following recaps the keys to success for creating an Intuitive Retail experience:
- Focus on the behaviors of people...take a holistic view of
their life
- Meet higher expectations...think about the journey to
purchase
- Affect or reflect behaviors...determine high/low emotion and
involvement
- Create rich, compact experiences...tap associations and
connections
- Create confidence...eliminate confidence killers
- Offer control...help mediate plenty
- Provide comfort...put them at ease
- Deliver belonging...offer a sense of community
Source: Intuitive Retail: Brian Kristofek, Upshot
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Related Articles
Brand Experience Is a Strategy, Not a Slogan
(Archives July 2009)
Delivering great brand experience will grow the bottom-line. ".. several recent studies confirm the link between customer experience and bottom-line performance" Read more>>
July Blog Archives: Brand Experience Is a Strategy, Not a Slogan
10 Retailers Gaining Strength From the Recession
Rick Newman
Some retailers are getting stronger amid the recession or are well-positioned to improve during a recovery. Amazon, Aaron's, GameStop, Aeropostale, Buckle, Dollar Tree, O'Reilly Automotive, Priceline, Staples and Ulta Salon all make the list. Read more>> U.S. News & World Report
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 Emotional connections are more effective than rational communication. It's not what you "say", but rather what you do and how you treat consumers that influences them.
"Customers feel first and think second and interactions with a company strongly influence their heart and produce a longer lasting impact than communications directed toward their heads."
One of the most
profound changes in society today is the growth of globalization. In a recent national survey, 72% of Americans feel strong or some connection with their neighborhood. |
Medallion Retail has created a unique scientific method for
understanding, on an emotional level, what really matters most to consumers. Our research has uncovered distinct and enduring behavioral styles that defy characterization beyond income
levels, age, and size of household, suggesting a fresh alternative for retail marketing and merchandising.
Smartbox, the European leader in revolutionary gift experiences, partners with Medallion Retail to aid in global expansion and in-store presence throughout North America. Medallion Retail partners with innovative technology company, tapping millennial market through an interactive campaign for Starbucks that captures customers' responses from various traditional marketing materials and media channels.
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