Red Market won the Mercurius 2010 award for innovation

The Delhaize Group won the Mercurius 2010 award for innovation with its Red Market concept. Red Market is a new discount concept kicked off last year in Gembloux (Belgium). The group wants the open the next three years 250 new stores worldwide and within Europe Red Market will be a significant contributor to this. The concept is geared to 100 percent (anonymous) self-scanning. There are 250 individual hand-held scanners available, offering the customer, during shopping and without pre-registration, to scan his own products. At the cash desk - no assembly line - the Red Market chooses for the single line system used in airports. This new formula that combines quality products with competitive prices will also allow Delhaize to experiment with new systems and new work methods.

Source: Comereos

Club Med's upmarket strategy

The Club Med office on the Champs Elysees (France, Paris) is the illustration of their strategy to move upmarket. With the desire to create a "Dream Embassy", the ceiling has 36 screens that broadcast the images of different villages, their projections are reflected in the bright crystal suspensions of the master glassmaker William Saalburg. On the floor, blue deformed resin lines reproduce the appearance of the surface of a pool under the effect of rippling water. A green vegetal wall is designed to represent plants from 5 different continents. This small garden is visible from outside the agency and is beautifully lit at night. The sales areas are scattered islets, roundish and delimited by a curtain of yarns.

Source: Club Med

The Magic of Disney

The Disney Store retail chain unveiled its new store design earlier this year at The Shops at Montebello complex in Montebello, Calif. On Nov. 9, the company will celebrate its latest newly designed Disney store opening in New York's Times Square. The high-tech makeover of the Disney Store includes the first-ever Disney-Pixar CARS-branded RIDEMAKERZ experience, which allows kids to build toy custom cars in the store. The remodel also features multimedia technology, interactive storytelling, Disney Store exclusive merchandise and more. Disney Store unveiled its new state-of-the-art digital billboard in the heart of New York’s Times Square. The 2,000-sq.-ft. billboard is the highest resolution billboard of its size in Times Square, and stands six stories high. The two-story store will be the largest Disney Store in North America and will boast the innovative new concept design bringing the magic of Disney to Manhattan.

Source: Disney

Archigraphik

Combining architecture, graphics and communication, ... one of the answers for the quest to realise more store differentiation?

Signage is the key lever to enhance interaction with the consumer, to reenforce the brand values, to demonstrate your retail craftsmanship, ...

Technology is the facilitator. New printing techniques on many different materials to innovate: glass, cardboard, curved surfaces, ... Multi-touch screens to stimulate the interaction with the customer. Billboards fill-up the store windows. Augmented reality to assist in the customer selection process. Oversized led-screens to impress.

Some examples are: Villa Moda (Bahrein), Fiat 500 Flagship store (London), Alter Mundi (Paris), Sneakers Delight (Lisbon)

Which are the most attractive retail formats in 2010?

The Paris office of the global consulting firm, OC&C, has just published the results of a consumer study (in French) which was conducted in six countries (France, Germany, UK, the Netherlands, the US and China) in June-July 2010. 14000 consumers ranked 289 retail formats (50 in France) according to seven criteria, i.e. low prices, product quality, breadth of assortment, products which suit me, services, store organization, appearance & comfort and product-quality ratio.

Overall Amazon is the winner worldwide, n°1 in the US, UK and Germany.

In France, Picard ranks first, followed by Ikea, Sephora, Decathlon and Amazon.

By retail sector, the winners are Picard in food retail, venteprivee.com in fashion, Amazon in entertainment, Leroy-Merlin in DIY, Fnac in consumer electronics, Galeries Lafayette in department stores, Sephora in cosmetics & perfumes, Decathlon in sporting goods and Ikea in furniture & interior design.

Regarding the “store organization, appearance & comfort” criteria, Nature & Découvertes is N°1, Maisons du Mode N°2 and Sephora N°3.

The study reveals that these winning retail concepts have a significant competitive advantage.

Source: OC&C

Shop of the Future: what do French consumers expect?

The recent Viavoice/Equipmag survey reveals that French consumers have different expectations of the shop of the future which vary by sex, age and social category:

• The 25-34 year-old French consumers and the senior executives expect an efficient organization which helps them save time and choose more quickly;
• The younger consumers are more sensitive to a friendly atmosphere and to a distinctive shop design;
• Men and, to a lesser extent, women are looking for a new and more convivial shop concept.

A human relationship is a key buying incentive for most consumers. However men are swayed by new products and famous brand names, whereas women are more sensitive to the display, the shop window and to a relaxing shopping experience.

The survey concludes that most French consumers have noticed a change in the atmosphere of shops over the last 10 years. Today they want to save time when shopping and they are increasingly looking for warm welcome, some good advice and more human relationships in the shop of the future.

Source : http://www.salon-equipmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Sondage_Viavoice_Equipmag_2010.pdf

Using Neuromarketing for Store Design and Layout

The recently published book, “The Buying Brain: Secrets for Selling to the Subconscious Mind”, written by Dr A.K. Pradeep, gives very interesting and useful insights about neuromarketing.

It provides lots of information about the brain and how it functions, about EEG-based in-store neurological testing and helps you understand how consumers actually make purchase decisions. Furthermore, it includes plenty of examples showing how this new technology is a game changer and could help you in practical ways to get competitive advantage.

For example, we learn that the brain delights novelty, dislikes straight lines and sharp angles and prefers natural textures over artificial textures. So, knowledgeable retailers, store designers and lay-out professionals could use neuromarketing to develop competitive store formats. They could create retail spaces with new designs and innovative merchandising, new applications of lighting, sound and textures and emphasize curves, avoid sharp lines, develop innovative displays, etc.

Therefore, we highly recommend marketers and all retail professionals to read this really fascinating and helpful business book!

Source: “The Buying Brain: Secrets for Selling to the Subconscious Mind”, Dr A.K. Pradeep, Publisher, John Willey & sons, Inc. 2010