Winter Displays

What are you featuring in your windows and front zone displays right now? Have you restyled them to reflect the season and provide fresh inspiration - or are you waiting for new merchandise to arrive? It's very simple to refresh existing merchandise to look new and appealing to customers. 

It's important to get a fresh start after the holidays - your customers will be coming in with gift cards, gift certs, and money they received, and they deserve to see fresh new ideas. Inspiring them to buy what you offer can be as simple as taking what you already have and combining it in a new way to reflect the season.

The display shown in the photo above features white Vietri pottery, along with gorgeous brown linens, whimsical dotted glassware, and of course a lovely wine. It's a perfect mix for this 'bridge' season of late winter - early spring. Simple, contemporary, classic, and warmth of color & textures draw the customer in. Huge bare branches bring nature inside - you could even hang crystals (or leftover snowflake holiday ornaments) from the branches to add movement and sparkle to the display. 

Most of the products shown here were in displays in the store for the Holidays - the white Vietri was paired with red linens and snowflakes. The brown linens were displayed with brown pottery and pinecones. Combining them creates a fabulous new look, inspires your customers, AND saves you money. Go out on your sales floor and look at the components you already have - what possibilities exist to rethink, restyle, and sell them at full price right now?

Image Credit: Taken by DWK 2007; courtesy of Columbia Winery

I've Been Blogged

Many thanks to the kind folks at Blogged, who have reviewed & rated my blog  - and listed it in the number one spot under 'retail design / shopping'. Much appreciated...

PS: Blog Catalog has me at number 4  under 'retail display' , and number 6 under 'retail design'. I have work to do, apparently!

For Trade Show Exhibitors...

Are you going to be exhibiting jewelry at a gift or retail trade show this season? Do you plan to submit your product to a showcase display (often referred to as 'Launching Pad', 'New Product Display', etc.)? If so, here are a few tips to help you maximize the visual impact of your product, and make the most of this marketing opportunity:

1. Make sure that you choose STUNNING pieces of your work for the showcase. Think scale, color, composition, and uniqueness. You want items that will make people take notice. Don't be conservative! Go for 'WOW' factor.
2. Provide plenty of product for display designers to work with. 3 or 5 pieces are perfect for a display, so give them six items: Two large, two medium, and two small.

Here's the important thing: Your choices should coordinate, because the display designers can do MUCH more with a cohesive grouping than a slapdash bunch of leftovers. Provide six items that are all in gold metal, or turquoise stones, but each one has a different 'personality'... one is chunky and modern, another is dangly and feminine, yet another is classic and simple. You want impact here, not a hodgepodge of items. Get customers to notice your product, drive them to your booth with this display - then show them your selection firsthand.
3. Provide props or fixtures to enhance the presentation and viewing angles of your products. If you use neck forms, paint them your logo colors to tell your brand story. If you use natural materials - rough stones, metals, woods, shells - in your creations, provide rocks, sand, chunks of wood, or moss to enhance the elements of your designs. If your jewelry is modern, send glass blocks or bubble wrap rolls or tall glass vases to hang the necklaces & bracelets on. Display stylists will love you, AND your products will look better.
4. Be creative when you show off your products. If your jewelry is small, dainty, and hard to see, provide papers, cards, anything you can to help focus attention onto it. Photograph your delicate items and send large photos along with just one perfect item on a neck form. Better to show detail in large scale for impact than to have it overlooked.
5. This may seem to be a no-brainer, but when you drop off or send in items for the displays, make sure that your information is with your product! You company name, booth number, and show division should be included in the container. The name and cell phone number of a person at the show who can be contacted is very helpful - if something is broken, missing, or there are any questions about your product, you want the display stylists to be able to contact you/your employee on site for a solution. Calling the home office two states away isn't really helpful when a replacement part is needed.

6. Beat the submission deadline. If your items are supposed to be there by noon, get them there at 9 AM. If you are supposed to mail them in by the 10th, get them there by the first. Be prepared. Be early. Why? First come, first served. Your position on a list means nothing when it comes down to fitting it all into a small area. All trade show display stylists can tell you that the early birds get the best spots. (And no amount of wheelin', dealin', whining or bitching is going to make up for the fact that you brought us your product two hours after the deadline. Or on your way out of the show hall that night. Or worse, early on the morning that the show opens. You're in the back row, lower level, baby. And we don't care HOW many years you've been selling at this gift show - in which case, you really should know better.) This is your marketing.... take it seriously.

7. Check on your product. Early on the morning the show opens, go over to the display and look at your product. Make sure it is displayed properly (not upside down, etc.) and that your information is correct - your business name, booth number, and show division are all correct on the tent card provided by the show. If there is something that needs to be corrected, let the stylist know. NOW is the time to correct it, not in three hours when the stylist is done and gone.
Please do not walk into the display to do it yourself. Do not move another vendor's items to give yours more space. Do not add or swap items once the display is set. These are professional stylists who work hard to make your product and every other exhibitor's products look their very best. Respect their work, and thank them for their efforts.

8. Look at your competitor's products in this display. What did they send? How is it displayed? Does it express their image well? Does it catch the eye and stand out? Learn from what you see others doing.

Many of these tips apply to other kinds of products as well, helping to elevate your merchandise above the ordinary. With a little preparation and planning, you can take advantage of many free and low-cost marketing opportunities like display showcases at trade shows. It's a great way to add to your presence and square footage at a show.

Photo Credits: DWK @ SGS & SFIGF 2007-8, of product displays created by DWK.
This post originally appeared here on my blog in 2008.

I send you all wishes for a very Merry Christmas!

You've done all you can do, my friends...

Step away from the store, and enjoy a day off.

Remember the Reason for the Season: LOVE.

H.U.G.E.

I'd like to introduce you to someone:

Oh, no, it's not really about Julia or Vivienne at all. It's about the fact that she's an incredibly happy, satisfied, loyal customer. One that is so happy, she'll spread the word about her experience with your products, service, and helpful staff to influential people. And to the competition...

Famous Last Words:

"Hi. I was in your shop the other day, remember me? 
You refused to help me. 

Big Mistake. H.U.G.E. "

(and if you have no clue what this is about, rent the movie 'Pretty Woman' and watch for the 'Shopping on Rodeo Drive' segment. LOTS of helpful retail info in there.)

The lesson? Treat every customer as an important customer, because they ARE. My friend & blog reader 'Bacchus' says it this way: "Treat every customer like they can spend a million, you never know which ones will."

Image Credits: Touchstone Pictures on IMDB, via Google image search

Next!

It's December 13th. 12 days 'till Christmas. Just 11 days left to sell, sell, sell.
Then a week to blow out the leftovers at ridiculously low prices.
That seems to be what everyone is focusing on right now, isn't it?

Not me. I wanna' know..... what are your plans for next month? Next year?

In the interest of stirring your imaginations and thoughts toward 'Building a Better Business in 2010', I'd like to revisit a post you may or may not have seen here before. It's got some great tips and ideas to help you envision your next year, so start imagining, start thinking, and start planning, my friends, because the new year is just around the corner!

It's always a good idea to get out of our day-to-day mindset and look ahead. Consider it the same thing as watching the weather segment on the news and waiting to see the extended forecast - we want to know what's coming up, how to plan, what to expect. In business, that can mean taking a singular message or concept, and creating a visual merchandising plan or an advertising or event plan that builds it from month to month or season to season. This basically tells your customers what to expect from you in the near future - and gives them something to look forward to. In retail psychology, it also creates a sense of urgency - a reason to buy NOW: 'Get this season's products before they are gone, and be ready to get the next season's hot deals as soon as they release!'

A few years ago, I created a visual merchandising design plan for Gene Juarez Salons here in the PNW. Although at the time all they asked me for were design concepts & proposals for Fall and Holiday, I went ahead and created concepts with stylesheets for Valentine's Day, Spring/Mother's Day, Spring/Youth and Summer. When I presented all six of the stylesheets to them in the meeting, they were blown away. My intention - along with getting the account - was to show them that I could work with their design team to brainstorm and create new ways to present the brand visually in cooperation with the seasonal programs they designed. In that, I was very successful.

I didn't get the account after all...actually, no one who pitched it did. The company was sold the next week and new management took over. In any case, it was a really good exercise for me in planning ahead. I was able to get into creative mode, play with color, style, concepts, and themes, and design a campaign that would build from one season to the next. One whole year of themes, built around one central concept... which is what GJ does flawlessly, year after year.

Their product is beauty. NO, it's not merchandise like hair gel and shampoo. It's not services like haircuts, massage, and facials. Those are just a means to an end, and a profit. What Gene Juarez Salons really offer women is beauty - which is based on providing them with the feeling that they are, each and every one of them, beautiful. And the key element in facilitating that feeling is a marketing campaign that makes beauty accessible, approachable, and attainable by a very wide scope of women. Advertising and merchandising make it clear that any and every woman can experience this at Gene Juarez Salons.

For each season, the color palette of the advertising collateral and product packaging reflects a new theme - but is grounded in the stylistic color palette that defines the GJ brand. That palette is all based around the colors of skin, hair, eyes, and lips. Yes, really! This brand image color palette is used by the Gene Juarez design team, which pulls colors from it for each season and creates a fresh new look six times a year. Beneath it all, the concept of Attainable Beauty reigns. Elements change, but that general idea is repeated. It IS the brand.

This approach is uber-successful. From teen girls to women in their nineties, the clients of Gene Juarez Salons all leave their appointments feeling beautiful, every season of the year. The loyalty of this customer base is legendary, second only to Nordstrom here in the PNW. It's a veritable heirloom, handed down by generations.

So, let me ask you...... what are you planning ahead for? 
How are you carrying your message, your brand, and your marketing forward into 2010 and beyond, to entice your customers to stick with you? How are you engendering loyalty and growth in your customer base each season, each year - THIS year? What are you offering that is new, fresh, exciting, to motivate your customers to plan ahead and visit your shop? 

Get inspired, and get busy....'cause you know what they say about 'failing to plan'. Right?

Image Credits: All stylesheets photos copyright DWK 2007; Gene Juarez and GJ stylistic logo copyright Gene Juarez Salons.