Journey of Excitement
Provide a Rewarding Experience for your customers
Step three: Journey of Excitement
Step One - Journey of Discovery
Step Two - Journey of Inspiration
Step Three - Journey of Excitement
Step Four - Journey of Trust
In the previous article in this series we looked at the Journey of Inspiration. The consumers in your catchment area have discovered you, and taken the time to come into your store. Your next challenge is to excite them so they leave singing your praises!
Basically, customers are bored with seeing products on retail shelves, they are looking for more exciting experiences. The challenge is, are you in the commodity business, selling products or are you providing an experience?
Now is the time for you to move on from being a commodity retailer and to start providing an experience. This means we should create an experience for the customer where they are fully engaged with what we are doing. In the USA, Pike Place Fish Market is looked on as the ultimate experience in Seattle’s retail scene. In Canada it’s Pete’s Frootique. In Australia, the Beechworth Bakery in Victoria, many would argue, creates the same experience. Whilst in South Africa, Lifestyle Garden Centre is recognised as a global leader in the experience market.
How do you create an experience?
Experience retailing should be exciting, if it is not, then consumers will fall back on convenience retailers to buy their products. However, everyone is different, what excites some people, will not excite others and therefore don’t think everyone will be stimulated by your displays, merchandising and awesome customer service. The best thing to do is focus on YOUR target market and make it exciting for them.
Who are your customers?
You can only excite some of the market. So you need to do some market research and find out who your target market is and what excites them. Are you targeting the female “IKEA” babies (Generation X) or the female “baby boomers” (45-60 year olds), both of which are major target markets at present. But each region will have a different demographic mix that will need to be addressed.
The challenge is how do you excite them?
You need to understand their lives and what appeals to them in fashion statements, colour, meal arrangements, garden design and so on. You then present those products in a “leading edge” not “bleeding edge.” way. If you are bleeding edge you may lose your customers as you are too far ahead of their thinking pattern.
Let me give you an example. I recently worked in Italy and had an opportunity to look at Italian furniture stores. I thought they were amazing, but if I had introduced the concepts en masse to my own town of Perth, they would have been rejected by the marketplace. In furniture, what is leading edge in Bergamo, Italy is bleeding edge in Perth, Australia.
How do you generate leading edge excitement?
Firstly, you need to ensure the whole of your team are behind the motion that you need to be leading edge. You can then divide the work between the whole team and, in my experience, they will enjoy coming up with new ideas and will want to be involved. The ideas come from a number of areas that include:
1.Lifestyle television
programmes.
2.Newspaper Lifestyle segments.
3.Fashion magazines.
4.Other retailers outside this industry.
5.Trends overseas within and outside your industry sector.
6.Lifestyle books, always check your bookshop for the latest books.
7.Conversations with customers.
8.Paint manufacturers, yes, they are leaders in fashion.
9.Ideas on the web.
10.The global leading edge retailers in what you do.
How do you put “Excitement” together?
The fun of creating excitement is that often all you need to do is take your existing products and rearrange them in a different way to create a new, exciting display.
This can also be achieved by ensuring displays are topical and you have introduced interesting display “props” to help set the scene. Don’t forget the importance of ambience; this is achieved by getting the space right for the consumer, getting the correct music and volume and the aroma of the place.
The team set the scene
Don’t fall into the trap of making your store look visually attractive and then having the team let you down. You are far better to have an enthusiastic team and dull display, than great displays and a dull team. The team control the atmosphere of your business. There is nothing worse for a customer to discover an exciting environment being let down by the team.
I recently stayed at one of those theme hotels while doing a conference in Las Vegas. Visually, the place was fantastic, but the team, in my experience, were average. They didn’t meet the visual expectations and as a result, it is the team that you remember, not the exciting props.
You must be consistent
The challenge is not in the creation of the excitement, the challenge is ensuring you do it consistently. I come across businesses that can achieve it in December but lose it in January. The customer expects a consistent message from the retailer. This is not easy to achieve and few businesses achieve it successfully.
Having said that, many people would argue that if Disneyworld, Pete’s Frootique, The Body Shop and Rainforest Cafés can achieve it, why can’t anyone. These organisations should be looked on as models. In all these organisations the business culture is critically important. They are not operated by managers, but by leaders.
Pete Luckett, of Pete’s Frootique, often mentions that the difference between a manager and a leader, is “that when a manager has a bad day the team knows about it. When a leader has a bad day the team are not aware of it.”
Consumers want a visit that excites them. It is our role not to disappoint them. For more ideas and strategies for creating an experience and maintaining it, consult my new book, Think FOR Your Customer (2004).
Don’t miss out on the next instalment on providing a rewarding experience for your customers. In the final article we look at the ‘trust factor’.
About the Author
John Stanley is a conference speaker and retail consultant with over 20 years experience in 15 countries. John Stanley Associates produce an e-newsletter specific to retailing, this includes innovative ideas and advice to help you grow your profits. If you would like to receive a regular copy please visit www.johnstanley.cc or email us on newsletter@johnstanley.cc.
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