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INTRODUCTION
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PAST
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PRESENT
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technology
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consumer psychology
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five senses
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online shopping
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louis vuitton images
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john lewis images
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FUTURE
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CONLUSION
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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“The window into a brands soul”
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The art of window display and visual merchandising has always fascinated me. The combination of art, fashion, design and marketing. Discovering where it evolved from and the journey it’s been on was something I really wanted to explore. The purpose of both visual merchandising and window display is to attract, engage and help encourage consumers towards making a purchase. I’m going to explore how visual merchandising has gone from displaying cluttered merchandise on simple wooden shelves to the latest mind blowing robotic mannequins. Visual merchandising is seen as one of the most powerful tools in the world of marketing and branding, some would say it is ‘the window into the brands soul’.
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Visual merchandising and window display has changed and evolved massively since it first began in the 18th century and will continue to do so in years to come. Retail stores have always had some form of display as long as they’ve had windows. However it wasn’t until the birth of the department store in the early 20th century that visual merchandising, particularly window dressing became serious business.
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The beginning of the 20th century seemed to be the golden age for the department store and therefore of window display. But when the great depression hit the USA in 1929 the retail industry was seriously affected. American stores therefore needed to think of new and interesting ways to draw in consumers who were reluctant to spend money. Retailers began to think more about how to display their merchandise, instead of emphasizing quantity over quality like stores did in the 19th century, by piling up goods and cramming as much as they could into displays, they really started to think about layout and presentation.
‘Good design is good business’ - Thomas J Watson
Aristide Boucicaut was the man who created the world’s first department store – Le Bon Marché in Paris 1838. He believed he created “a town within a town”, a store where customers had the freedom to wander about and view all the various merchandise.
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Soon after Le Bon MarchÊ opened , other famous department stores followed suit, Macy’s in 1858, and Bloomingdales1865 in New York and Selfridges, London in 1909. Then came Gordon Selfridge, who became the benchmark of British retailing. Selfridge revolutionized the world of visual merchandising by leaving the window lights on at night, so even when the store was closed the public could still view and admire the displays, a great form of marketing.
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‘Design is thinking made visual’-Saul Bass 11
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Due to the vast improvements in technology over the years, the understanding of consumer psychology and shopping behaviour, visual merchandising has come a long way since the 19th century. Retail is a very colourful yet competitive industry, and visual marketing is crucial for brands to stand out from one another. It’s amazing what brands will do to differentiate themselves, through the use of window displays and shop floor design. But most of all it’s important that the brands identity and personality remains and is clearly reflected.
‘Window displays seem like one of those mediums destined to fade away: they’re too flat and reach too few people in the grand scheme of impressions’. The constant changing and advancement in technology however has allowed companies to do something completely different with their visual merchandising and create opportunities to really experiment with new and existing ideas. A great example of this has been interactive displays, whereby customers can control and interact with the shop windows. A brand who have been very successful in doing this have been Nike. To attract the attention of millions of tourists in the summer of 2012 for the Olympics, Selfridges enlisted the help of Nike and created 8 incredible Kinect-Powered window displays.
Every window displayed reacted to the passing public, some more than others. One window you’d stand on a blue dot on the pavement in front of the display and jump as high as you can. Then the system asked if you wanted to save your score, and the person would have responded by touching a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on the window. This involvement with both consumer and product creates a memorable and positive experience with the brand. This is also a great example of where interactive advertisement is headed.
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At the core of fashion marketing is the understanding of consumer shopping behaviour and how people think, feel and act. The connection between what your customers think and feel and the way in which you market to them makes a huge difference in how effective visual merchandising displays are. A shopper will arrive in a particular state of mind with a mission or purpose. Colour, lighting, smells and even times of day are all factors that can influence shoppers to make (or not make) a purchase.
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In comparison to the 19th and 20th century, retailers today have a real understanding of consumer psychology, something visual merchandisers and window dressers didn’t realise or think about back then. However nowadays it is one of the most important factors when it comes to visual merchandising. Retailers should really focus on stimulating the five senses, as it is proven to really attract the attention of the public and have a huge influence on consumer purchasing.
‘PSYCHOLOGY
IS A SCIENCE OF THE HUMAN MIND AND HUMAN BEHAVIOUR’ 19
Sight is probably the most important of the five senses, as customers are attracted to the merchandise by first looking at it, and the other senses act as contributing factors. Customers have only a few seconds to view and be attracted to the store displays, so it is crucial that the brand create something that immediately grabs the attention of the passing public and making them want to enter the store. Stores could use strong vibrant colours to attract the attention of passing by customers. This is something that Harvey Nichols are very successful at doing.
Lighting is another key factor in helping lure in customers and help increase sales. Research has shown that adding lighting to displays can boot sales by 107%, more than doubling them. This is because lighting attracts the eye and draws attention to the display, whether it be flashing lights, coloured lights or how they are positioned. Especially as 50% or purchases are impulse, catching the eye of the consumer is the stores top priority. 20
‘IF EYES ARE THE WINDOWS TO THE SOUL; THEN SHOP WINDOWS ARE JUST AS REVEALING. THEY REVEAL THE SOUL OF THE SHOP’ ~DEBRA TEMPLAR Colour accounts for 60% of a consumers initially impression of a store. Research has shown how colour can influence our moods. For example yellow is generally the first colour the human eye notices. Using bright, bold colour will instantly catch the eye of the passing public. Retail stores are utilising the use of colour in order to catch the eye of the passing public, as they only have a few seconds in which they can grab consumers attention as they walk down the street. Here are a variety of images from several Harvey Nichols window displays. Here they have successfully put bright florescent stock against a bright lime green background, which really allows the merchandise to pop out.
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Consumers upon entering a store may notice a slight scent, along the likes of Jasmine and Lavender for example. However the smell will be barely perceptible. Businesses hope that these faint scents will draw customers into a relaxed and content state, prompting them to buy more and on top of that remembering their brand through a specific scent. It is a known fact that our memory and smell are tied closely together, also known as the ‘Proust Phenomenon’. Scent can really bring out our emotions, and companies take serious advantage of this without us even realising. Brands will use scents (and sounds) to jolt the brain into liking something. A retailers secret behind successful marketing of a product is to pair a store or product with a specific smell. Therefore when consumers recognize a familiar scent, it makes them more relaxed and increases their chance of purchasing.
Good examples of this are Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch. Both stores use the smell of their famous aftershave on their products and is pumped around the store to maintain a consistent scent. This is probably become the USP for both brands and the scent is instantly identifiable to help lure in consumers. The unique smell is so powerful that it can usually be recognised from half way down the street.
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Nike stores do something a bit different. They use the power of scent once the consumer has entered the store. They use a mixed flower scent to direct us towards the more expensive shoes. This is a very clever and powerful way of marketing as retailers can do all of this without us even being aware. It’s almost as if we become puppets as soon as we enter a store, while they play and toy with our emotions to increase their chance in sales.
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Peoples sense of touch plays an important part in decision making and shopping behaviour in the retail environment. Majority of retail stores use tables within their displays to encourage shoppers to touch and interact with the items on them. Apple for example use “come and play” in their stores, inviting customers in to play around with their products. This allows customers to test and interact with products before purchasing. However, touch can also put off shoppers. Paco Underhill, an environmental psychologist and shopping behaviourist did an experiment whereby placing cameras around stores to research the relationship between shopping behaviour and touch. An interesting finding was made, known as the ‘butt brush’ theory, where shoppers are more unlikely to be irritated if touched from behind, say if they backed into a clothing rack due to narrow aisles.
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“WINDOW DRESSING IS AT FIRST GLANCE SO GORGEOUSLY USELESS THAT IT RESISTS ALL COMPARISON WITH OTHER DERIDED PROFESSIONS.” -SIMON DOONAN
Music like scent has a powerful impact on our emotions and has a direct influence on shopping behaviour without conscious awareness and is a very important in-store marketing technique. Retailers should create a mood with the music that adds to the stores brand mage. Studies have shown that if you successfully match music to the product being sold that people are willing to buy more. For example playing French classical music in a wine shop. The music played should set the mood and reflect the brands personality, so it’s key that retailers get the right music for the right target shopper. Stores shouldn’t have the music too loud as customers may find it overwhelming and want to leave or it could distract customers from viewing products. Psychological research indicates that slower tempo, low volume, familiar music leads to consumers staying slightly longer than fast tempo loud music. However, then again it does depend on the brand and its target market. Such as, if the younger generation saw a DJ set in one of their favourite high street stores this would attract them to enter the store.
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This is the most difficult of the senses, especially if you’re not in the food or drink industry where you can hand out tasters to attract customers into the store. So instead retail stores should think about providing coffee shops and restaurants in stores. For example John Lewis has both a restaurant and cafÊ and Waterstones has joined up with Starbucks. This gives customers a change to refresh themselves and take a break, putting them in a relaxed mood for when they continue their shopping and hopefully increasing their chances of spending.
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Shopping today is becoming much more of an online experience due to it being a cheaper and more convenient option. High street retailers will have to try much harder to draw in consumers and give them a reason to continue shopping in their stores. Retailers will have to think of new and existing ways to entice consumers in to shops, making them leave their homes and return to shopping in the high street. This will lead window displays to become much more competitive on the high street, as they will all be trying to grab the passing public’s attention.
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CHRISTMAS DISPLAY 2013
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In future years garment display and visual merchandising will become much more technologically driven and interactive with customers. It will become much more important as retailers will have excite and entertain customers who are being distracted though media and technology at home. Consumers will be so used to engaging and interacting with iPhones, iPads, and laptops that stores visuals need to go up a level to create the perfect in-store experience. It will turn out that consumers would have already seen all the products through online shopping so therefore a brands job is to create an exciting retail experience for the shoppers and give them a reason to come into the store rather than just order it online.
As the world is becoming so technologically advanced it would be nice to think that retail would be a place where people can escape from all that, where they can really experience beauty, colour and texture in real life, helping them feel better connected to a brand beyond the technological world.
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“VISUAL MERCHANDISING TAKES YOUR CONSUMER FROM THE RETAIL DISPLAY TO THE CASH REGISTER. ENCOURAGING SALES THROUGH CREATIVE COLOR AND COMMERCIAL RETAIL DESIGN IS A KEY ELEMENT TO KEEPING A CUSTOMER INTERESTED.”
So what could happen? Computer screens could end up replacing store windows and display projection shows, allowing brands to really experiment with graphics and imagery. For an idea of where visual advertising is headed, the first robot mannequin was recently invented in Tokyo. The department store Takashimiya fitted a lifelike fembot in its display window to attract shoppers for Valentine’s day. The robot is able to make 60 different facial expressions and is fitted with facial recognition software so it can interact with the passing public.
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Visual merchandising is arguably one of the most important forms of marketing, which over the years has become more and more important at promoting brands in the high street all over the world. Marketing is defined as ‘the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising’. This is exactly what visual merchandising and window display does, they advertise and promote products in exciting and interesting ways that grab the consumers attention in the hope of increasing sales. Visual merchandising has changed and grown massively since it first began in the 18th century. Nowadays instead of piling and cramming merchandise into small shop windows, there is a logic and understanding behind a brands visual display. This is why visual merchandising’s become such an important part of marketing. Every aspect of the in-store experience from the shop floors to the window displays is done in a specific way in order to increase consumer purchasing and maximise sales. Imagine if there wasn’t any form of visual merchandising. Consumers remember and identify brands predominantly from an in-store experience they’ve had. So if there was no such thing, consumers would find it very difficult to differentiate shops and brands from one another. Visual merchandising has impacted the world of fashion marketing massively. Before online shopping was introduced, it was the epitome of marketing as consumers had to go to the store in order to make a purchase. Visual merchandising was the only was retailers could connect and promote their products to customers. Visual merchandising has been on a fascinating journey and regardless of what direction businesses go towards in the future it will constantly evolve and remain a huge part of the fashion industry.
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BOOKS
DIAMOND, J. 2010. Contemporary visual merchandising.
HAUGTVEDT, CURTIS P. HERR, PAUL M. KARDES, FRANK R. 2012. Handbook of Consumer Psychology
MORGAN, T. 2011. Visual Merchandising. Laurence King.
ARTICLES
CARTER,N. 2013. The Guardian: Multi –sensory retail: why stores must appeal to all five senses
DIFFIN, E. 2010. BBC: The art of window dressing
WAGSTAFF, K. 2012. Time Tech: WATCH: Tokyo Department Store Uses Android to Lure Shoppers
ADDITIONAL SOURCES WEBSITES http://www.creativebloq.com/graphic-design/window-display-design-10-exceptional-examples-1012920 http://thewindowdisplayblog.com/page/2/ http://thewindowdisplayblog.com/page/2/ http://www.slideshare.net/retailstorewindows/visual-merchandising-2020 http://thefashionteacher.com/category/fashion-49/history-of-visual-merchandising/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristide_Boucicaut http://www.slideshare.net/tinadhingra56/visual-merchandising-20418137 http://www.slideshare.net/dianhasan/iiscm-retail-innovation-seminar-jakarta-april-8-2011 http://storesupport.ca/visual-merchandising-companies-and-the-psychology-of-visual-merchandising/ http://merchandisingmatters.com/visual-merchandising/psychology-visual-merchandising/ http://www.boardretailers.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=RfhTx43q%2Bdw%3D&
http://www.utne.com/media/window-dressing-zm0z12mazsie.aspx http://www.visualmerchandiser.co.uk/news/londons-top-5-creative-stores/ http://www.retailstorewindows.com/p/visual-merchandising-2020.html http://retaildesignblog.net/category/visual-merchandising/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Frank_Baum http://www.redcliffe.co.uk/point_of_sale/boost-your-sales.htm http://thewindowdisplayblog.com/category/display-trends/ https://www.targetcomponents.co.uk/shoptalk/retail_window_displays_and_visual_merchandising/ the_art_of_retail_window_displays/ALL
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IMAGES Page 3: mannequins on tree http://www.pinterest.com/pin/291608144594736959/ Page 5: mannequin in mirror http://www.pinterest.com/pin/291608144594736945/ Page 7: woman and boy viewing shop in 19th century http://bygoneyears.tumblr.com/ post/2086985606/macys-holiday-window-display-1870s Winsow display19th century http://www.threadforthought.net/politics-mannequins-part/ Page 8-9: 20th century Christmas display http://threadforthought.net/wp-content/ uploads/2010/02/1940s-mannequin-christmas-display.jpg Mannequins in department store 1910 http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/wp-content/plugins/ portfolio-slideshow-pro/css/portfolio-slideshow-noscript.css?ver=1.7.2" />
Aristide Boucicaut http://thefashionteacher.com/category/fashion-49/history-of-visualmerchandising/ Page 10-11: All images http://thefashionteacher.com/category/fashion-49/history-of-visualmerchandising/ Page 15: All Nike images http://www.fastcodesign.com/1672213/nikes-kinect-powered-windowdisplays-are-watching-you Page 16-17: Louis Vuitton display http://www.pinterest.com/pin/291608144594701536/ Hanging mannequin http://www.pinterest.com/pin/291608144594529872/ Page 18-19: balloon dress http://www.pinterest.com/pin/291608144594529904/
Mannequins and confetti http://www.pinterest.com/pin/291608144594736961/ Page 20-21: colourful legs http://www.pinterest.com/pin/291608144594529949/ Harvey Nichols displays http://thewindowdisplayblog.com/page/3/ Page 22-23: Abercrombie store http://www.selldorf.com/projects/commercial/abercrombie-andfitch-flagship-stores/ Nike display http://www.newretailblog.com/just-retail-it/ Page 25: Moschino visual merchandise http://www.pinterest.com/pin/291608144594633636/ Page 26: mannequin and window display http://www.pinterest.com/pin/56154326577393733/ Page 29: Louis Vuitton cupcake http://www.pinterest.com/pin/291608144594529978/
Page 31: Lanvin leopard theme display http://www.pinterest.com/pin/291608144594736938/ Page 32-35: Louis Vuitton animal window displays and John Lewis Christmas Display 2013 http://www.pinterest.com/hobbs3083/visual-essay-pictures/ Page 37: Yellow and white dress http://www.pinterest.com/pin/291608144594529861/ Page 38-39: interactive display http://www.design4retail.co.uk/blog/stuff-we-like/adidas/ adidas-interactive-window-display Robot mannequin http://techland.time.com/2012/02/03/watch-tokyo-department-store-usesandroid-to-lure-shoppers/ Page 41: Chanel window display: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/291608144594529875/ 43
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