Greetings!
[Downtown Directors - please share with your retailers, restaurant and small business owners.] |
Blues or country? Carnivore or vegan? Water parks or museums?
Knowing the demographics of your target market is pretty basic stuff. For instance, most retailers know the gender, age range, education level, and income bracket of their customers, along with the zip codes where they live. These are all valuable quantitative statistics, but what about the qualitative aspects, a.k.a., knowing how your target market "lives"? When you start to understand where your customers like to vacation, what kind of music they like, what types of vehicles they drive, what sort of food they eat, and what hobbies occupy their spare time, you know the pscyhographics of your market. It's important to understand the attitudes, aspirations, values and lifestyles of your targeted consumers so you can hone your brand, and tailor the message you are sending to your market. Read more...
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Fallen Urban Trees Turned Into Fixtures and Furniture
Urban trees have their highest value while living. It only makes sense that when they come down, they should be put to their highest and best use to maximize the environmental, economic, and societal benefits for the community from which they come.
A U.S. Forest Service estimate pegged the potential lumber recovery from saw logs removed from urban forests at over 3 billion board feet annually - or enough wood to create flooring for more than 2 million homes.
Meet, Dwayne Sperber, founder of Milwaukee based,
Wudeward Urban Forest Products, LLC. Consider him your "urban wood steward". His company is devoted to transforming a community's fallen or condemned trees into functional, beautiful products that can once again breathe life into the neighborhood. Sperber is excited to announce that Milwaukee just started "directing logs from trees downed from damage, disease, natural mortality, etc. to an area mill for highest-use processing. Nothing is wasted. Lumber is inventoried and marketed as 'urban wood' and the remaining wood residue is used for firewood and mulch. Even the sawdust finds a home - some of which goes to local organic farming operations!" Read more...
 
The table and sideboard shown are some of Dwayne's finished pieces.
The stair treads and flooring were manufactured from Milwaukee area ash trees removed due to Emerald Ash Borer devastation. The stairs are located in new, sustainable Clock Shadow Building, located on 2nd St, in Milwaukee, WI.
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Retailworks service: The 48 Hour Makeover
Do you have a 48-hour challenge for the Retailworks' design and display team?
Tell us why you need a 48-hr makeover.
Send us 500 words or less and a photo or two of your store. The best entry will receive 50% off a 48-hr makeover. Up to a $1500 savings! (Stores need to be located within 100 miles of Milwaukee, WI, and have selling floors 2000 sf or less to qualify.)
 Need a super quick face-lift for an upcoming event? Just tired of the way your store looks? Want an injection of fun displays and color? Need things stirred up a bit? If yes, and you have 48 hours to stand back and watch a "show" take place on your retail stage, then call us! Our award-winning design and display team will come to your store and help you implement cost-effective changes that will increase foot traffic and build an enviable buzz in your shopping community. Read more...
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Before and After
Being the store designers and visual merchandisers for all the Kessler Diamonds in Wisconsin, means we keep our eye on everything the customer sees. A recent upgrade was made to their ever-important mission statement, displayed on the walls behind all their service counters.
 
Before After
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Who Knew?
If you suspend a product from the ceiling so it hangs at eye level or a bit lower , it will entice people to touch the product. And remember, getting a customer to touch a product will increase sales of that product.
Large wall mirrors in residential spaces and reception areas can help increase the visual size of a space, but did you know that mirrors in a busy retail setting will only add visual confusion and distract customers from seeing the product lines? Read more...
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Client Spotlight
Thanks to our friends at Outpost, we did some work for Brattleboro Co-op in Brattleboro, VT.  They are currently putting the finishing touches on their beautiful new eco-friendly building, (rendering by Gossens Bachman Architects, Montpelier, VT) located in the heart of this charming, artistic community.
Sabine Rhyne, Shareholder & Community Relations Manager, described our work this way, " Retailworks
provided us invaluable help on our new store project. From details about paint colors to overarching guidelines about signage, Lyn and her team quickly and gracefully assisted us, streamlining a rather wooly process. It is safe to say that we wouldn't have had such a great space without them."
Many thanks to our interior designer/graphic designer, Holley Bakich, for her creative work on this one. She carried the torch!
Sketch by Holley Bakich, Retailworks, Inc
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