NEW 'Specialty Shop Retailing' Book

the 4th edition of the book Specialty Shop Retailing released last month,

with this revised and expanded edition offering an in-depth education for any retailer.

aimed at stores offering a specific product mix to a targeted niche demographic, 

the wealth of information within the pages will be of help to every retailer - 

from those who've grown up to take over a venerable family business 

to the entrepreneurial generation striking out to make their own mark.

whether you've been at it for years, or are just starting out, 

this book WILL help you - so get your hands on it and read it cover to cover!

I've spent a lifetime providing visual merchandising services to specialty retailers large and small - 

wineries, hotel gift shops, scrapbooking stores, local yarn shops, and finally,

the highly niche-dependent Walt Disney Corporation.

as i have learned through hands-on experience and through success and failure,

this kind of retail is not the same as 'we offer it all' department or big box stores, 

and this book provides an educational resource for attaining success in your specialty niche.

I highly recommend it!

author Carol Schroeder and I have been speakers at the same retail industry events for decades.

we have concurrently contributed to many of the same retail resources, 

including a killer visual merchandising Pinterest board ;) 

I am honored that she asked for a contribution from me for this book...

Carol included this photo of one of my displays for a winery on page 171,

in the 'Visual Merchandising: Displays That Sell' chapter:

I agree with Carol that this display works well as an example of cross-merchandising,

from the juxtaposition of products, textures, and shapes to the 'lifestyle' presentation style.

a 'vignette' of furniture and decorative accessories - linens, pottery, and floral elements - 

adds visual interest to the massed shelving of product (wine) accessible to shoppers,

and inspires customers to buy more than just wine...

which is the main reason to use this style of display:

offer more than expected to entice customers to increase their purchases.

click to see more of my winery displays in my portfolio

the book is available through major retailers - but let's go with the spirit of it,

and order/purchase from small specialty retailers!
Carol sells the book at her own store, Orange Tree Imports, 

and online at IndieBound.org and SpecialtyShopRetailing.com 

The Science of Display

The more people I talk with, the more I learn
that MOST retailers are completely mystified by visual merchandising.
They view it as some ethereal and intrinsic skill,
so they usually just 'wing it' or hand over the duty to a staff member -
who is just as likely to 'wing it'.

Yes, you can hire a stylist - like me - to come into your store
and make your displays look fabulous.
And I truly love working with retailers, artisans, and vendors in that way.

But do you know the REASON that I and other stylists can do this?

It's because we know what the science is behind successful merchandising:
We understand what makes customers approach, investigate, and select items.
We understand that display styling is another form of creating a piece of 'art',
just like a still life painting - and the 'rules' of art apply.
We can manipulate space, lighting, perspective, and materials
to create a mood, a theme, a style - an experience.
We can transport your customers to another place... another galaxy, even!

Although it doesn't hurt to have natural abilities in 'the art of arrangement', 
merchandising is a science - and a skill that can be taught and learned.

Let's look at a bit of the 'science of display':

By combining items in a singular theme, with similar colors,
arranging them in a cohesive manner using materials that coordinate with the theme,
and composing a 3-D 'still life' where there is a focal point,
stylists can create successful retail displays that sell your merchandise
AND tell your store's story.

What's the focal point here?
It's the mannequins and art piece up high on the table that the spotlight is shining on.
It can be seen from the entry to the store, catches your eye, and draws you closer.
(Walt called that 'the wienie' - the hot dog. The carrot on a string leading you along.
It's exactly what the Castle over in Disneyland does.)

Along with the main focal point, there are secondary focal points:
The merchandise that is lower in the display, and the wall behind it.
It's all coordinated in theme, color, and presentation style.
It helps make the focal point POP  - instead of distracting from it.

You can see that a specific selection of product is used here,
however there are variations -
Soft-surface tee shirts, pillows, backpacks and hats. Hard-surface art and small souvenirs.
Light colors and dark colors. Square and circular forms.
Matte and shiny finishes on merchandise and fixturing.
All of these combine in the display just as they would in a painting, adding interest.

Successful display is creating a composition, not a table piled with product.

 Look closely at those two side-by-side photos...
I took them at the same location in the D Street store at the Disneyland Resort,
one week apart.
While they may look quite different, they aren't.
The theme is exactly the same in both photos - Star Wars.
The fixtures - tables, racks, mannequins - are identical.
The containers holding small items are identical.
In both cases,  their placement in the display composition is different.
Only the actual product on the mannequins, racks, easel and hat stands have changed.

Take a look at the mechanics of this display,
and see if you can't pick out ways to re-arrange it and make it look different.
Take into account the product on the back wall, too...

These displays change weekly at the Disneyland Resort.
I hear the collective groan of retailers saying 'I don't have TIME for that!'
but once you realize how simple it is just to change a few things
and get a whole new fresh look that will draw customers in,
how can you not MAKE time for it?
Teach your staff HOW to do this. Teach them WHY.
Then give them half an hour a day to make changes in one display...
by the end of each week, you'll have fresh new looks all over your store.
You'll have empowered staff members.
And you'll all have a better understanding of the science of display.

Want to learn MORE about the science of retail?
The ultimate 'bible' of retail is 'Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping'
by retail anthropologist Paco Underhill.
I highly recommend it to all my clients and readers!
(click the title to find it on Amazon)

connect with me on social media:

Create Eyecatching Jewelry Displays with Paper!

I volunteer some of my time at a charity re-sale boutique,

where they graciously allow me to create displays in their store -

which helps them sell more of the donated product to raise money

for the many programs and services that they offer to families in need.
(find out more about Laura's House here)

.

 The thing about re-sale, second-hand, thrift and consignment shops is

that EVERYTHING is basically one of a kind.

You can't mass out a display with the same item, or fill shelves with it.
And when it comes to jewelry... well, for items that are already challenging to display,

the fact that it's all 'onesies' and 'orphans' means I have to get REALLY creative.

.
There are two things I've done to the jewelry display area in the store

that will work in any retail situation...

Find out what they are after the jump!

Selling in an Antiques Mall #101

'Selling in an Antique Mall: A Beginners' Guide'

written by Inis Lovely and Sue LaLumia,

is a new e-book available on Kindle through Amazon 

{click book title above}.

It's just $9.95 

and is a great resource of information and inspiration

for vintage/Antique dealers, or those of you who want to be!

This would be a great Holiday read - just in time for the new year.

Find out more info on their facebook Page and blog

Design Resources from Gingko Press

 

Today I received an email from Karen at Gingko Press, 

asking me to help them promote a new book release. 

More on that coming soon!

As I searched through their web site, I found a large selection of books that they have published that I consider valuable resources for the design of retail spaces. From fashion to food and brand image, these compilations of work by designers from around the world is sure to inspire and educate you.

Each title below links to the book's information page 

on the Gingko Press web site.

Super Identity
In Your Sight & In Your Mind
First impressions count. As that first perception is the most important one in real life, in the competitive world of commerce it has the potential to make or break a brand. Be it the visual identity for fashion branding or traffic signals, service industry manifestations or restaurants and food boutiques, Super Identity – In Your Sight and In Your Mind, unveils the ever changing, cutting edge of this visual language. 

Structural Displays

A brilliant collection of simple, novel and out-of-the ordinary packs and displays, this book illustrates perfectly how to showcase a product to its best advantage.

Nice To Meet You, Too

Visual Greetings from Business Cards and Self Promotion
Artists and studios featured range in their specialist fields from direction and design of moving image projects to product packaging, typography, event promotion, interior design, fashion, music photography, illustration, graphics, film, exhibitions and interior and product design.

Growing Graphics

Design for Kids
There is a visual universe that children immediately recognize. Enter a bookshop with your children, and you can be sure they will quickly be drawn to the department aimed at their own age. Growing Graphics – Design for Kids opens a window to this visual universe of children at different ages, presenting a multitude of graphics aimed at them: Logos and characters, corporate identity, packaging, labels, catalogs, brochures, posters, invitation cards, books, educational material, web and multimedia design, exhibitions, signage etc.

Design Taste
Graphics & Interiors for Bars & Restaurants
In a frenetically paced, time poor world 'dining out' has become a frequent activity and accordingly, patrons of restaurants, hotels, coffee lounges, clubs and bars have become more discerning. To succeed, each requires its own particular brand of ambiance and an image with which its guests can readily identify, from the soft and subtle to the bold and daring. Design Taste is a brilliant collection of identity designs covering everything from external signs and entrances to logos, menu cards, tableware, uniforms and interior design, and how to visually create a unique experience for the patron.

Stay tuned for information on their latest release here...

{Image and All Book Descriptions 

property of Gingko Press; 

All Rights Reserved}

Flea With Me!

I asked fans on my Facebook Page to tell me what kinds of subjects they'd like to see me discuss here on my blog... and several cited Decorating. Happy to oblige!

Check out the brand new blog for soon-to-be-released Flea Market Style magazine. The blog just launched, the mag is on its way. Headed by Ki Nassauer (formerly of JunkMarket and now of Junk Bonanza & Junk Revolution) and Matthew Mead (formerly of Country Home magazine and author), this new publication will provide a plethora of tips, tricks, and inspiration for using secondhand items and bonafide JUNK to create stunning decor. The very talented staff is a virtual who's who of decor & blogging pros with a penchant for vintage style. I'm meeting my friend Heather Bullard, contributing editor, this weekend in Portland. I can't wait to hear more about what she's working on for upcoming issues!

You can see why I am on the bandwagon here, right? I've been preachin' this gospel to retailers for years now, and decorating myown home this way all my life. And it's ever so hip: When it comes to display & merchandising, as well as home decor, this is a whole new way to Go Green!

Creating Business Success

“I have never been interested in being ‘in business’.
I have been interested in creating things.

Business is creative.

What really matters is what you create.
Does it work? Does it make you proud?"

These statements are but a few of some phenomenal insights from one of the world's most successful and interesting businessmen. I am continually inspired by this man and his very un-corporate attitude.

I'm not going to tell you who he is...instead, I'm going to say go here and read more from this visionary human being. Then go here and buy his new book, wherein he literally rewrites the rules for doing business. Anything this guy writes is at the top of my list of resources!

Business - DIVAstyle!

Divas Doing Business: What the Guidebooks Don't Tell You About Being a Woman Entrepreneur
by Monique Hayward

Released Feb 19, 2008

I just ran across this book tonight, while investigating the many entrepreneur groups on Facebook. Since so many businesses are facing uncommon obstacles right now, this one sounds like a common-sense approach to dealing with challenges. I thought you would find it a valuable resource...and I am not being paid to endorse it.

About the Book (according to Amazon!):
Her husband wants sex, the bank has denied her small business loan, creditors are after her house, her kid's big school play is tonight, and her top employee just resigned. One more straw and the camel's back surely will break. Welcome to Divas Doing Business: What the Guidebooks Don't Tell You About Being a Woman Entrepreneur, arming women business owners with the tools and firepower to tackle the unique situations that will test their resolve, strength, and spirit as they start and manage their businesses.

About the Author:

"Monique Hayward, whose corporate experience includes a wide range of marketing, business development, public relations, and communications positions at Intel Corporation and Tektronix, Inc., has shared her expertise through mainstream media outlets such as the Denver Post and CNN. Monique is now releasing her first book, "Divas Doing Business: What the Guidebooks Don't Tell You About Being a Woman Entrepreneur".

Monique has spoken of the difficulties of shopping a book proposal in today's economy - given the recession, publishers are quick to shut the door on first-time authors. Monique decided to bring the book to market herself - a truly entrepreneurial response! Monique also owns and operates Dessert Noir Café & Bar in Beaverton, Oregon (www.dessertnoir.com), which she opened in January 2005."

This article originally appears here:
http://newsonwomen.typepad.com/news_on_women/2009/02/monique-hayword-shares-her-expertise-and-her-desserts.html

To purchase this book, go to the author's blog for options:

http://moniquehayward.blogspot.com/

or click on the title to this post, which will direct you to Amazon.com

The author will donate a portion of the book's sales proceeds to PLAN!T NOW, Morgan Freeman's charity that provides information and assistance for victims of natural disasters. Learn more about PLAN!T NOW at www.planitnow.org. Mr. Freeman provides the introduction for Ms. Hayward's book.

Another One Bites the Dust

I just read on Deb Duesenberry's Curious Sofa retail blog that Country Home magazine from Meredith Corporation is the latest casualty in the shelter publications industry. Deb apparently received an email directly from Meredith, informing her that the magazine will cease production in the near future. Recently I also heard that Oprah's 'O at Home' magazine is no longer being published.

Just last month, Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion magazine announced that its publisher was not renewing their contract, and the November/December 2008 issue was the last one. A few years ago, Victoria magazine was shut down nearly overnight by Hearst Publishing. Victoria was revived in 2007 by Hoffman Publications (who also produce Tea Time and Paula Deen's magazines) and is now alive & well with tons of thrilled fans - hopefully, another publisher will step up to continue the excellence of MEHC and their mission of featuring artisans & shoppes in each issue. This one magazine did more for independent creative businesses than anything else I know of.

Country Home may not be so lucky. Though they have worked hard to stay abreast of trends and changes in the interior design industry, country-style decor is in a constant state of reinvention and varies widely across not just our nation but the world. As far as meeting the needs of a large demographic, they have a lot of competition out there - as did Oprah and many others - and that includes popular decorating blogs. If you can get your inspiration & information FREE on the Internet, why buy a magazine??? If you want to reduce your carbon footprint, reduce your use of paper - browse online and print out only what you need to.

If I had one suggestion for these now-defunct magazines, and others who worry that they'll follow suit, I'd say get busy fast to recreate a content-rich format of their websites, and keep them fresh each day - sort of a glorified/expanded blog theory. Sell ads & links, sell downloads, sell products - but keep those stories and ideas and inspiration coming to us via the Internet instead of the newsstand. Rethink what magazines are really offering us and focus on content instead of printing pages. Keep your staff employed because you can actually put more content on a website than you can in a 110 page printed publication.

Oh, and I'd also suggest that they stop selling magazine subscriptions on their websites when they decide to close down. It's disturbing and annoying to pay subscription fees, and then be informed that you will be receiving another magazine in its place.

OK, off my soapbox...

Retro Holiday

.
I found this book while thrifting awhile back
(at the Glorious Goodwill outlet in Seattle, which means I paid about forty five cents for it)
and thought you'd all love to see some fun things I found within it. Ready for a time warp?!

Check out this very mod tree:
 
(well, it was mod in 1953 when the book was published!)

and take a look at this thrifty nifty idea for a table cover:


Admittedly, not the grandest of decor ideas, but if you have a company party in a cafeteria, or something for the kids, this is a fun and simple idea - especially for the buffet table.

This photo makes me remember that when I was a kid all of the neighbors on our street wrapped their front doors like presents - loads of metallic foil papers and huge Santa faces and holly sprig prints, accented with giant ribbons and bows. Mom covered our stunning persimmon-orange door with red paper for the season, accenting the brown and white siding just perfectly. I see fast food restaurants wrap their hanging pictures like this every year, too! (Tho it's hard to coordinate holiday wrapping paper with the abstract patterns and bizarre colors of outdated 80's naugahyde upholstery....sigh).

This book is like a peek into the past, revealing what was new and exciting in holiday decorating in 1953. No, not much there I can use now, but it's still fun to see what the Martha's of a past decade recommended!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

On Wednesday July 25, this blog o' mine will reach the milestone of it's first year!
(Now, I realize that this may not be a big deal in the larger Bloggiverse, but in the Diva's world, it's an accomplishment worth celebrating!)

Not only are most of my projects temporal in nature - intended for a short duration and even then, they are constantly subject to change - but I tend to have this annoying weakness of not being a good 'finisher'. I lack that brain cell necessary for sustained interest. Everything has to be new, fresh, changing, all.the.time. I need visual stimulation, and I need it NOW.

Books, magazines, tv shows, shopping....always on the lookout for the next idea, the next creative impulse. An addiction, really. And so this blogging thing is just my thing: I can surf, view, read, investigate, and get inspired by new and changing info daily. Hourly, even! And I can share my bizarre ideas and projects here - where things are constantly in a state of flux, just the way I like it.

The real upside to all of this is meeting amazing people from so many varied walks of life. It is incredible to me the scope of art and creativity and lifestyles that are present in the Bloggiverse. I am awed!!! You have to know that I am completely blown away that Bacchus and MJ and Rosanna (a true celeb!) and so many other wonderful visually like-minded souls pop in here to read my thoughts and share their comments, along with my friends Amy and FABulous Jen and a few others. You really keep me on my toes! I also love that this foray into blogging - necessitating hours on the computer, my former enemy - has resulted in my learning new skills (ahem....the Diva is a formerly technologically disenfranchised woman, remember? I'm gettin' better....I have actually learned HTML code. CODE. A year ago I thought 'code' was...well, a secret code. duh.) Yes, Jen, you are right: You CAN teach an old dog new tricks!

So, in celebration of this momentous anniversary, and to say thank you to all of you who drop in and read my ramblings here, I'd like to offer a 'door prize', if you will. I've got an extra copy of this FABulous book

and I'd just love to give it to YOU!

So leave me a comment, and tell me something you'd like me to write about. It can be something to do with retail display or seasonal decorating or small business branding or....well, you tell me!

When I return from the SFIGF next Sunday, I'll read thru all of the comments, choose one that stands out (for a GOOD reason!) and announce the winner in a post here on Monday. Then that person can send me their mailing info and I'll send off the book!

In the meantime, if you are at the SFIGF this week/weekend, look me up at the entrance to Moscone South Hall. I'll be camped out there creating a display of products on either side of the doors. Saturday, I'll be there early in the morning before I walk the show, then I'm heading out to do some 'tourista' things in the city - the ferry building, the cablecars, shoppping darling indie boutiques. Eating authentic Chinese food. Tea at the St. James. This is the only vacation I get this summer - a day and a half in San Fran. Gotta' make the best of it!

And when I return, we'll do the book thing, then I'll share what I saw at the show and around the city. (Yes, that's a warning that I'll be showing you my 'vacation photos'! LOL )

A Rainbow of Color

I wrote recently about one of my fave authors, Alexandra Stoddard , and her new book (her 25th!) titled 'You Are Your Choices'. I highly recommend this contemporary philosopher's perspectives on living beautifully in every facet of your life AND on color. She is fearless with it!

Today, I had the pleasure of meeting Sandie and hearing her speak on color. Her seminar at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show in Seattle was held in the very room where I present seminars on retail visual design & display - I will be remembering this day every time I walk into that room in the future! When it was announced that she would be signing books after the seminar, I purchased a copy of 'Time Alive', (which I hadn't known about!), and had her sign it. What a charming, vibrant, animated and inspiring woman...just like her books.

Alexandra (Sandie) and her husband Peter Brown, graciously signing my copy of her book. And how about that COLOR?! Love it. Absolutely. In her presentation, Sandie quoted Maya Angelou:
"When things look their darkest, look for the rainbow.
When things REALLY look their darkest, BE the rainbow."
I LOVE that. And this woman really knows how to shine in ANY color!