Shopper Marketing: The New Frontier

While I was never one for 8 am lectures in college, I am so glad that I took the opportunity to sit in on the Shopper Marketing keynote presentation while at GlobalShop last week. Starting at 8:30 am, coffees in hand, the audience was thrown 90 minutes of compelling research and remarks surrounding this relatively new concept of "shopper marketing" (i.e., in-store marketing, marketing at-retail, and so on). Below are some interesting tidbits pertaining to store design and layout that stuck with this attendee: (I work for a fixture manufacturer. What else can I say?)

• Different parts of the store have different potential to reach customers. A Nielsen study that compared 4th Quarter 2007 to 4th Quarter 2008 showed that while stopper audience numbers remained flat, their locations within the store had shifted. Many people who have previously shopped in the premium aisles (generally located around a store's perimeter) were moving to the center of the store and the more affordable options.
• If you're targeting women, avoid long, high aisles.
• Men and women engage different parts of their brains when shopping. Your store layout might work for one sex but not the other. Men like to buy and they take note of spatial dimensions. They are looking at how to get in and how to get out. Women, on the other hand, enjoy searching and looking for individual items. Different-sized aisles and color markers serve the female crowd well.

Not related to store design or layout but still pretty interesting: shopping trips, on average, are becoming shorter and more frequent. Also, shoppers are relying on grocery lists less and less. Instead, they will follow a path through a store that takes them past the items that most closely match what they have in their pantries at home.

It's almost scary what research can uncover regarding our shopping habits, but it's this info that will help retailers better serve their clientele. If it means a more enjoyable shopping experience for me, then I'm all for it. What about you?

GlobalShop Recap

Well, GlobalShop '09 has officially wrapped and The Diaries' is back in the office. Yes, that means I didn't win millions, but I did win back the $5 I put in the nickel slots. A small victory. I also came back with a wealth of information pertaining to the retail industry and its participants. A bigger victory.

The show floor was packed with booths of all shapes and sizes displaying wares related to six main categories: Store Fixturing, Visual Merchandising, At-Retail, Store Design & Operations, Digital, and Retail Marketing. In addition to product, exhibitors showed off some Vegas flair with mimes, magicians, poker, and happy hours -- FUN!

But it wasn't all fun and games. There was also some serious learning going on during the conference portion of the convention. Tuesday morning's keynote presentation about shopper marketing was a BIG highlight for me and I'll tell you all about it in Monday's post. Stay tuned.

Look Out GlobalShop, Here We Come!

GlobalShop starts today and The Dadson Diaries' is right in the middle of the action. That said, we're going to keep this short so we can get back to roaming the show floor and networking like crazy.

Just a reminder that we'll be back Thursday with a full show recap. It should be good. But if you can't wait that long, the Retail Design Diva will be blogging live from the scene of the show.

Viva Las Vegas!

When Times Are Tough, Go Fishin'

Retailers lament. Oh where have all the shoppers gone? Well, they've..um...gone fishing? Turns out one of America's favorite pastimes when times are tough involves a fishing pole, some bait, and a day on the water. "As Americans forgo expensive vacations, costly dinners and shopping mall splurges, many are opting instead for the quiet simplicity of fishing, according to the sport fishing industry and reports from bait shops and fishermen," writes Jason Szep in this article featured on MSN.com.

According to the National Sporting Goods Association, "In the last U.S. recession, from 2001 to 2002, spending on fishing rods and reels rose 12 percent to $343 million." And this recession is proving much the same with rod and reel sales hitting a 10-year high in 2007 when we started getting into this economic mess.

Admittedly, I'm not the fishing type. Other people, however, are finding it a cheap way to keep entertained and relax a bit; and if they are any good, they can bring their catch home for dinner (more money saved!).

Good news for sporting goods retailers who outfit these recreational fishermen and the bait shops by their local fishing holes. Bad news for fish, I guess.

Going to GlobalShop?

GlobalShop is just days away and the Dadson Diaries' will be trekking to Vegas to be in the thick of the action. Our goal is to connect with other people in retail and learn about how we can become more involved with the industry. If you're going to be at the show and would be interested in chatting, we'd love to set up a time to meet. Just shoot an email over to Liz at LizS@fcdadson.com.

See you at the show!

PS- Expect a full show recap upon our return next Thursday...unless we get lucky at the slot machines and decide to extend the vacation ;-)

Unconventional Funding

Judging by its dominant role in today's marketplace, creating a franchise has certainly become a very attractive way to grow a business. Unfortunately many of our franchise clients are experiencing a decline in store openings this year and it's not for lack of interest from potential franchisees.

While optimism is building in Washington and on Wall Street, conventional sources of business funding still remain tight. Many of these interested potential franchisees are having trouble finding the money to open their own franchise.

Unconventional times call for unconventional solutions and financing will no doubt be the topic of many conversations that happen at this week's International Franchise Expo in Washington, DC. (F.C. Dadson will be at Booth 353 if you want to stop by and say hi.) With a show floor full of qualified leads, all the exhibitors --franchisors and industry suppliers alike-- will be eager to find financing options for prospective franchisees.

And if you happen to be someone who is looking for alternative funding options, Jeff Elgin offers up 5 in this article on Entrepreneur.com.

Retail Design in the Digital Age

When e-commerce emerged on the scene, there was a lot of speculation as to how it was going to revolutionize retail. There was even talk that it would render bricks and mortar stores obsolete with consumers eventually doing all their shopping online.

Fast forward to today. E-commerce has now been around for a while. Sure, it's gained quite a bit of traction, but it has yet to eliminate consumer trips to retail stores. That's not to say that the internet hasn't had any influence on the way we shop. Having this endless resource of product information and reviews and ability to customize our shopping experience has left us feeling entitled to the same experience inside a retailer's physical location.

So, how can retailers recreate that experience in their retail environment? It's all about going digital. A quick trip to the mall these days turns up a number of examples of how retailers are adding interactivity to the shopping experience: kiosks that display in-depth product information with the swipe of a barcode, TVs that run promotions and other advertising content, digital signage, touch screens and so on.

If improving the customer experience wasn't enough, digital displays and signage allow added control and easy deployment because content can be managed and sent to multiple locations from a central point. This also helps retailers keep content fresh and up-to-date, drawing another parallel to the e-commerce experience.

Thought of some other ways going digital can help retailers? See any cool digital displays, signage or campaigns lately? We'd love to hear about them.

Determining Selling Space

I've always been curious as to how retailers figure out what size their stores should be. It's clear that one size doesn't fit all, but how to they find that perfect fit? Most of F.C. Dadson's clients approach us with an ideal square footage already in mind, so there isn't much talk around the office about that part of the store opening process.

But, lo and behold, the answer came to me this morning as I was hunting for fodder for this Diaries entry. Turns out there's a fairly simple equation that retailers can use to determine the amount of selling space their stores should have.

Selling Volume / Sales per Square Foot = Selling Space

where
Sales Volume = your store's planned sales volume and
Sales per Square Foot = your industry's average sales per square foot stat.

See, it's pretty simple. Ok, it does require some thought and research to solve and you'll have to remember to tack on extra square footage for things like storage and bathrooms, but it's a start anyway.

And it's another retail mystery solved -- at least for me it is.

Barry Manilow as Crime Deterrent?

There are a lot of points that can be made as to why the slowing economy isn't entirely gloomy. One such point is that it's forcing us all to be a bit more creative in our work. A perfect example of this creativity in action: a city in New Zealand is planning to use Barry Manilow's music to keep teens from loitering in its central mall district.

Yeah, I couldn't really believe it either, but after reading the article I have to at least applaud their efforts. They've been having trouble with teens loitering, vandalizing, and bothering shoppers. By infusing the mellow musical stylings of Mr. Manilow into the regular music mix that plays throughout the mall, officials are hoping to "pacify unruly teens who congregate there, or at least convince them to go elsewhere."

I'm not sure if the city is seeing the results they're hoping for (the article didn't mention anything), but it's still a simple, cost-effective idea that might just solve a "mall rat" problem. Take that, recession!


Photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com @ Flickr

IFA Convention Recap

Before we left for the International Franchise Association's annual convention a couple weeks back, we mentioned a show recap once we returned. Well, we're back and instead of making you read about the experience, we thought we'd show you. Enjoy!

The IFA convention was in San Diego this year. Albert Hammond may have said that it never rains in Southern California, but we beg to differ. It rained quite a bit while FCD was there, but it wasn't when Tim snapped this show of the cityscape.




Bill Clinton gave the keynote speech and helped get things started.








F.C. Dadson showed off the new booth backdrop, complete with a snazzy sign promoting our new "Store in a Box" program.







We even managed to learn a thing or two, thanks to the show's educational sessions. (That's FCD's own Larry Myer behind the podium, moderating a panel on the 10 Biggest Challenges of Getting from Sold to Open. Tim Matey and Bruce Olans, two of our other talented retail consultants, also joined in the teaching fun by participating in a round table and super session.)



But we didn't forget to have our fun either. That Franchise All-Star Band really knows how to close a show!







The general consensus from the FCD team was that this year's show was the best one yet for the company and we all can't wait for next year. Until then, we thought we'd end this show recap the same way we ended the show --looking out into the sunset.










Thanks to Tim Matey and Collin Gruthoff for serving as The Diaries' "eyes" at the show.