A Retail Designer's Challenge

If you're even remotely connected to the marketing profession, you're doing yourself a disservice if you don't regularly check out Seth Godin's blog. Lots of riffs and rants and things to make you go, "Hmm," and the best part is that more often than not, his thought for the day applies to more than just marketing. Today is one of those days.

"Here's a rule that's so inevitable that it's almost a law: As an organization grows and succeeds, it sows the seeds of its own demise by getting boring. With more to lose and more people to lose it, meetings and policies become more about avoiding risk than providing joy."

As creators of retail environments, I'd argue that our job is to give our clients the best of both worlds...as far as their retail spaces are concerned. Of course, being safe is a priority -- not just in the literal sense of keeping shoppers and store employees out of harm's way, but also that what we provide is "safe" in the sense that it fits our clients' budgets and helps them achieve their goals. But at the same time, we also strive to create environments that shoppers will find exciting and memorable, places that facilitate a "joyful" experience.

It isn't always easy to marry the two concepts together, but isn't that part of what makes a brilliant retail space so remarkable?