Design Trends According to Jack

Head on over to Event Design Magazine's website this month and you'll be treated to a transcript of one of the "most well-received and on-point conversations" given at the magazine's annual Event Design Summit ever. Jack Rouse of Jack Rouse Associates, an experiential design firm, was asked to peer into his crystal ball and predict trends for the event and experiential design industry.

So what did he have to say? In a nutshell, he sees that design may be more "conservative, understated, and non-flamboyant," but that there is still a place for green design. Design in the future will involve getting into the minds of clients and creating solutions that not only make sense from a branding standpoint but also a business standpoint. Designers will also have to find a way to relate to consumers' changed attitudes as this downturn may have people making permanent changes to how they spend their leisure time.

You can check out the rest of Jack's predictions here.

Mr. Rouse definitely makes some valid points. Consumers are changing in response to this messy situation. They're reevaluating their spending, trading down in some instances and stopping completely in others. In a sense, they are developing new shopping habits and tastes. Even when the economy bounces back, it may be a while before the old habits reemerge -- if they ever do. As designers and suppliers to the industry, we'll have to remain flexible and understand that things may not quite return to "business as usual" as there may be a whole new "usual" by then.

Cashing In With Your Cash Wrap

In a time when retailers are trying to encourage sales, it makes sense to design the check out process to be as easy as possible, right? Unfortunately, checking out isn't always a breeze and I'm sure we all have our own horror stories to tell. It may have been an apathetic cashier or a perplexing store policy, but it might have also been a poorly designed cash wrap that fed the nightmare. While The Diaries can't offer much on fixing the first two, we can offer some advice on taking care of the last.

If may not look like a power player in the overall fixture package of a store, but the check out counter has real money making potential. A well-designed, functional cash wrap can decrease the time it takes the average customer to complete the check out process, increasing the number of transactions that can be completed in a given time. It also shortens the checkout queues, which could be a sales booster itself -- long lines tend to be a turnoff.

Maximizing your cash wraps' potential involves looking at it from two different perspectives: the employee and the customer.

Things to consider when considering employees:

• What are the different job functions they need to carry out at the cash wrap? (ringing up sales, bagging purchases, gift wrapping, handling returns, etc.)
• Will they need easy access to other areas of the store like stockrooms or the sales floor?

Things to consider when considering customers:

• Is there enough room for them to set down purses, wallets, etc.?
• Are cash wraps easy to find, easy to identify?
• Are you employing tactics to reduce the customers' perceived wait time?

For tips on how to improve your cash wraps, check out the "Cashing In With Your Cash Wrap" article on the F.C. Dadson website.

Sandwich Boards Are So Passe

There's a show on HBO called Flight of the Conchords about a two-man music group from New Zealand trying to make it in New York. Struggling to make ends meet, one of the main characters, Bret, takes a job as a sign holder. Watching him hold a sign for hot dogs during an episode, I wondered what kind of response rate his sign got. I figured it must be pretty high since he's seen a steady stream of sign-holding work come his way in subsequent episodes.

But in the real world, businesses have become ever more eager to capture attention and gain sales, and it sounds like the old sandwich board advertising campaigns just aren't cutting it anymore. Surfing the NY Times website yesterday morning, I stumbled across this article about people being paid to advertise on their bodies. Yes, it appears we've upgraded from sandwich boards to human billboards.

To be honest, the article didn't really suprise me. I remember reading something about a guy who has agreed to sport a different company's t-shirt for each day for 2009 -- for a fee of course. But that's small beans compared to some of these stunts described in the article. Permanently tattooing a company's website across your forehead? For $10,000, Golden Palace Casino found someone to do just that.

I guess if you're looking to generate a buzz for your business, the old shock-and-awe routine is a really effective way to get people talking. If this human billboard trend keeps up, our friend Bret might just need to find a new line of work. That or get "hot dogs" tattooed somewhere.

Do More With Less

Being that we are a company blog, it's only natural to do a bit of self-promotion every once in a while; and now seems like the perfect time for such a post with the launch of F.C. Dadson's new program aimed at helping frazzled store construction personnel who have been challenged to "do more with less" during this down economy. Read on for the details.

Opening new store locations is time intensive and can tie up a lot of internal resources. F.C. Dadson has developed a program that will free up those resources while still getting new locations open on time and on budget. It's called "Store in a Box" and it's a customized interior build out solution.

Tailored to each client's needs, "Store in a Box" packages include a mix of:

• Design
• Engineering
• Space planning & professional architectural services
• Custom millwork & displays
• Graphics & signage
• Furniture, equipment & decor
• Warehousing & nationwide delivery
• Dedicated project management

But it doesn't end there. With the help of our valued vendor partners, we can also help coordinate site selection, construction, and installation of any "Store in a Box" items ordered through F.C. Dadson.

Interested in learning more about F.C. Dadson and our "Store in a Box" program? Please call (800)728-0338 or visit our website.

A Ray of Light for Retail?

Retail sales are up 1% in January! Given the months of decline we've endured, an increase is cause for celebration, right? Experts caution maybe not.

According to this article on NYTimes.com, this 1% increase is better than "economists' expectations of an 0.8-percent decline." Still, sales are down 9.7% from where they were a year ago, adding emphasis that it's been a long fall down and a 1% increase isn't much in comparison.

But I say an increase is an increase, so one could certainly make an argument for a tiny celebration at least. Obviously retailers did something right in January. It may have been the longer store hours or the outrageous sales to shed leftover holiday inventory. Whatever it was, it worked.

Can we keep up the momentum through February? Fingers crossed. Throw a signed economic stimulus bill into the mix and it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

International Franchise Association's Annual Convention

Whew! Time sure flies when you're copying, collating, and binding for a presentation tomorrow. It's almost time to get out of here for the night, but before we leave, we wanted to take a moment to tell you about an exciting event we're headed to this week -- The International Franchise Association's annual conference!

Here's the official release F.C. Dadson typed up for the show:

"F.C. Dadson is pleased to announce that it will once again be an exhibitor at the annual International Franchise Association (IFA) convention. The show, which will take place February 14-17 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, features 4 days of educational sessions, round tables, networking events and an exhibition of the lastest products and services available to franchisors today.

This will be the company's 6th year exhibiting, but its representatives will be working more than the show floor. Angie Borchardt and Troy Schwehr will be participating as show ambassadors, helping new IFA members navigate the convention. In addition, Larry Myer, Bruce Olans and Tim Matey have been selected to participate in the show's educational series as panel moderator, super session participant and round table leader respectively. To close the show, Myer will make a final appearance at the Closing Gala as the Franchise All-Star Band reunites for this special event.

Adding to the excitement of an already busy show, F.C. Dadson will be debuting its new "Store in a Box" program at its booth. Aimed to help franchisees open their locations more efficiently, "Store in a Box" is a custom-tailored program of services ranging from pre-construction and design to fulfillment and final installation. Attendees, exhibitors and media members are invited to visit booth #309 to learn more."

And there you have it. F.C. Dadson always has a blast at IFA. This year should be no exception, and Dadson Diaries readers are in for a treat in the form of a complete show recap to be posted when we return.

Blue is the New Green

Just when it seems everyone is finally grasping the "green" concept, we're being thrown a new style of curve ball in the sustainability game and it's not green at all. In fact, it's blue.

Now, I hadn't heard a thing about "blue innovation" until I stumbled upon this post at PSFK.com, but judging from the companies profiled, blue thinking has been around for a bit. If you're like me and the "blue" concept is a stranger, here's what you need to know:

• It goes much deeper than a sustainability project; it's long-term strategic planning.
• It incorporates sustainability into brand strategy.
• It involves all of a company's stakeholders -- employees, customers, communities it serves.

In other words, it's a more integrated, emotionally-charged, and permanent form of green, and I think it's a smart move for companies touting their social responsibility and sustainability records. True sustainability is more a way of being than a few projects in a business plan. It can't be put on hold until a more convenient time. Fortunately, blue thinkers recognize this. Unfortunately, not all green-minded companies subscribe to the blue way of thinking -- yet.

With companies like IBM and Walmart leading the way, I think it'll only be a matter of time before more companies ride the blue wave. What do you think?

Give Me a Sign, Please

When it comes to encouraging sales at the registers, it helps to give customers a sign. As retail guru Paco Underhill puts it in this article on BusinessWeek.com, "It's all about in-store marketing."

After observing as many shoppers as Underhill has, you learn a thing or two. What he's learned about recent shopper tendencies is this: people are spending more time in the aisles, but, as we all know, the extra time isn't always adding up to more money in the cash register. The reason? Buyer's remorse, trade offs, and what we'll call selection overload (yes, having too many options isn't always a good thing).

To negate the effects of these, Underhill suggests using thoughtful, well-placed signs in your retail environments. But to say that once you put up a sign you can expect the sales to roll in would be wrong. You need to be concerned with the "dropout rate, or the percentage of people who don't read through an important piece of information." Signs can be too wordy, too small, in the wrong place, and so on.

What may seem like the perfect sign could turn out to be completely useless. Just as with any marketing project, you need to test, test, test to make sure you're getting it right.