2012 will continue to be a tough environment for retailers. Consumers have no reason to throw off their new found sense of caution and propensity to put saving ahead of spending. If anything 2012 may produce even more reasons for them to retreat with some recent news of the financial services sector spruiking the need to lay off workers, and a sense that flat retail sales is placing huge pressure on retailers to reduce costs.
Holistic Retail Brand Experience.
October is a very busy month for me when it comes to birthdays and certainly not least my wife’s! Having not ventured down Chapel Street for quite some time, recently we both decided that Chapel Street this year would solve the usual question of “what would you like for your birthday?” in one foul retailing swoop.
The world of retailing is changing and the bricks & mortar ‘only’ strategy is truly under threat. What is required from retailers is a new paradigm based on integrated retailing. That is where physical shops are simply part of the offer to customers – a new mental model that actively pursues online as well as off-line sales environments. An approach that seeks to use technology to enhance shopper experiences, that gives consumers the choice as to where and how they research and consummate their purchases.
In case you haven’t heard the screams from Bourke Street, one of the biggest fashion retail names has opened its doors in Melbourne. Following its successful launch in Sydney, Spanish brand Zara, now has flagship stores in Australia’s two biggest markets. It has been publicised as one of the most exciting and eagerly anticipated launches this year. For some, it is as exciting as a new Apple product launch.
So what is it that makes Zara such an impressive and highly sought after brand? Is it just a new fad that will fade within a few months or will it really change the way fashion savvy Melburnians and indeed Australians shop? Is it just the cultural cringe biting again or is the brand truly special?
Welcome to the New Retail Era
The world of retail is changing more rapidly than ever. On-line stores compete with off-line stores, fashion boutiques feature new ranges every month, and it seems almost everything can be made in China for next to nothing, creating undifferentiated commodity markets where retailers of all description find themselves competing with similar product offers at a similar price point.
MUJI is a highly successful Japanese retail company that sells a wide variety of household and consumer goods. What is interesting is their ‘non brand’ market positioning. They decree for themselves the status of not being a brand, but paradoxically it is the great clarity they have around who they are and who they are not that makes them such a distinctive and compelling brand.
MUJI works very hard at claiming its non brand positioning. It’s name was derived from the first part of Mujirushi Ryohin, which translates into ‘No Brand Quality Goods’. It’s website declares in the very first sentence ‘… MUJI is not a brand.’ Instead it claims that MUJI creates products with a view toward global consumption of the future. That it does not create products that lure customers into believing that ‘this is the best’ or ‘I must have this’. Instead they like their customers to feel the rational sense of satisfaction that comes not with this is the best, but this is enough. Best becomes enough.
The Point of Point-of-sale
Recently we wrote about adidas’ augmented reality campaign for their Originals product line. Augmented reality is fast becoming a ‘must-have’ for any brand designing an integrated campaign – especially those with a customer interface such as retail. Lego has recently launched an augmented reality point-of-sale system that blows traditional POS out of the water. We’ve coined the term ‘Brandticipation’ – which describes a sense of heightened anticipation created by a great brand experience or a brand’s reputation. If the role of point-of-sale is to engage the customer at the point of purchase and create brandticipation to positively influence their decision to buy, Lego’s new augmented reality POS must be one of the snappiest examples anywhere in the world.
London’s aBuzz About ‘Unpackaged‘
London has long been one of the worlds greatest retail cities – a place where new concepts are launched and sunk every day with barely a ripple to mark their passing. As they say in the classics – ‘If you can make it there, you’ll make it anywhere…’. Into this buzzing retail landscape, old school food store ‘Unpackaged‘ was quietly launched four years ago as a market stall and over the ensuing years has grown to become a much loved and powerful little retail brand in a charming shop at 42 Amwell Street, London.
Fashion is one of those things that’s in our lives everyday and I must admit I don’t mind my fashion nor fashion brands, especially when one is so on brand and the experience you get (brand and all) is so memorable! Which label I hear you ask? G-Star!
Aside from the G-Star corporate image being so powerful and recognisable, the whole experience you get from the moment you walk into a store to the moment you walk out with your new purchases is just magical.
