DDi - March 2011 - (Page 8)

8 | From the Editor The retail senses F or the past two months, I have been inundated with every tip, fact and piece of advice that comes with joining the ranks of first-time motherhood. From books to magazines to other mothers (including my own, of course), there is no end to the endless array of information on how, where and in what fashion I should go about rearing my two-month-old daughter. I say this not to complain—trust me, those baby books come in quite handy when you’re dealing with a screaming 8-pounder at 3 a.m.—but to point out how quickly I have learned that, when it comes to you and your child, not every piece of advice is the perfect fit. Most fascinating to me in watching my little girl change from day to day is the way her senses seem to be engaged at such a visceral level. It’s a whole new world for this little one, and every sight, sound, taste, touch and smell is a new and emotion-arousing experience. Liken that emotive first impression to when a customer first walks into your retail store. Which senses are you engaging? TOUCH. I am fascinated by how many of the developmental baby toys these days are covered in a mix of textures and fabrics—from velvet to faux fur to smooth plastic—so that your baby has multiple stimuli to engage the hand. These texture toys provide opportunities to use touch to explore similarities and differences between different surfaces, developing tactile discrimination skills along the way. Similarly, in a retail store, we are introduced to a wonderful mix of textures and surfaces, from plush carpets to Corian counters to hardwood store fixtures—all pairing together to tell the retailer’s design story. SIGHT. Well this is a no-brainer. Store design and visual merchandising are certainly a visual field, and what you see in a store is often one of the first impressions made on an arriving customer. Color, light and contrast all certainly come into play here. Newborns during their first few weeks cannot yet distinguish soft colors, and are typically more interested in high-contrast shades. They also can’t see very clearly past around 12 in., so showing something to them from across the room is typically fruitless. How can we use elements of color, illumination and spatial recognition to make our stores more visually engaging for our customers? SOUND. My daughter will not fall asleep unless she has some form of music or white noise (we like a certain “rain” sound one of her toys makes) in the background. Silence, to this little finicky sleeper, is deafening. No car alarm, vacuum or barking dog has yet to send this girl in a tizzy, yet she screams if the music in her swing cuts off for longer than two seconds. What sound impressions are occurring in your store? Have you found the perfect mix between lulling your customers to sleep and causing them to scream and plug their ears? TASTE. Babies certainly like to eat, but as they grow older their sense of taste can be a constant battle of taste testing as parents learn to distinguish what their child likes and doesn’t. This early-on game is a bit like taste testing in the supermarket or sampling at the fragrance counter, or even trying on clothing in the fitting room. Allow your customers to taste test the elements of your store in a deliberate, comfortable environment, so that they walk away happy, and you get a sense of what they really like. SMELL. The scent of lavender is present in many nighttime baby baths and lotions, used as a pattern to trigger the idea of sleeping and induce the child to recognize that after bathtime shortly comes bedtime. Some retailers are excellent at using scent to induce the mind seductively. Coffee shops, chocolatiers and cigar stores tend to create scent on their own, but many retailers have used scent cannons to create artificial seductions right there at the shelf. (Think the smell of fresh-squeezed orange juice wafting over a beautiful orange display, or the smell of newly cut grass permeating a lawnmower presentation.) Here’s to using good sense—pun intended—in your stores going forward. Alison Embrey Medina Executive Editor alison.medina@ddionline.com Editor’s note: The picture above features me and my new daughter, Madeline “Maddie” Medina. Ain’t she cute?! www.ddionline.com | March 2011 http://www.ddionline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of DDi - March 2011

DDi - March 2011
Contents
From the Editor
Newsworthy
Shopper Insights
Greentailing
Editor's Choice
Design Snapshot: Kusmi
Design Snapshot: Avril
Channel Focus: Toy Store
Longo’s
Brown Thomas
11 Retail Trends for 2011
Bloomingdale’s
The Exchange
Lola
White Castle
Design Leaders 2011
GlobalShop
Show Coverage
Right Light
In-Store Technology
Product Spotlight
Classifieds
Calendar
Advertisers
Shopping With Paco

DDi - March 2011