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Retailers . . . consider this about your future! What are Hybridia Design’s general opinions on customer experience at retail – how is this changing, why is it important now? The world continues to evolve. People's lives are changing dramatically by the day. As a reaction to the unexpected global changes in these past 5 and more recently 2 years, such as increased gas prices, global warming, job losses and more; prospective customers are particular about where they will put their money. Moreover, retailers must look at their customers closely and never forget they are human. Retailer should not respond to their customer as a statistic. (Note: retailer’s who check sales reports and respond based only on sales keeping units are managing things, however not necessarily responding directly to the dynamics of real people). Shoppers must feel a connection to that which they are involved... it is an emotional inclination the shopper must have and a belief that the retailer understands them in order for the retailer to capture attention and sales. A perfect example of developing a product and a culture that envelopes it is Apple. Apple embeds it's personality into everything from advertising , product packaging to store design and the language created specifically to this culture. A successful retailer understands the following rules: 1.understand the human element and continue to monitor it. This does not mean how often shoppers shop, but understand their emotional reaction to something good or bad. 2.Develop a response to that customer's emotions. This is not just about a product, but rather about a whole set of imperatives that drive the customer to want a connection... then the product or products follow. 3.Create a physical setting that endorses great experiences. This is about knocking down yesterdays old standards of doing business and reinventing a living environment for tomorrow. A retailer and their physical stores must grow, make changes and respond with action. If the customer is changing through time, retailers must again clearly understand that being static instead of dynamic is a deadly or at minimum an erosive factor. 4.It is important to know your competition. However, there have been too many retailers who steal or mimic ideas and philosophies of others because they witness an element of effectiveness. This is wrong. Retailers must look at themselves and that for which they stand as it relates to their core target customer. Once retailers know what that is, they must build around it in all aspects of their operation. That means developing cohesive design of store environments, marketing / advertising and visual merchandising, employee's and company's credo's for excellence and integrity. Finally, retailers cannot to stand for everything! When all aspects mentioned are considered at once and not as separate, disjointed action points, only then can retailers see their relationship to customer’s and grow. These responses translate into developing a committed and loyal follower, hence increased success and sales. With exception of a few savvy retail players, the retail arena must be true to themselves and that may hurt their big ego's initially. It will only be those retailers who open their minds to more than numbers and bottom line decisions in order to emerge from a status quo position. This is a great time for assessment and creating positive change. It's time to shed cookie cutter thinking and become one of a kind leaders. In making the right bold choices during these tough times increase the odds for a positive, healthy and growing environment. Hybridia Design's interview with Customer Experience Magazine What was the mandate given to HD from NRF – what is the Customer Experience Sonic Bar supposed to accomplish? NRF and Hybridia Design together determined to extract two key areas of focus. Sustainable Seeing Green Future Store and Customer Experience Sonic Bar future music store. How are these Future Store concepts different from previous designs by Hybridia Design and what is fundamentally different? 2009's two future stores carry the same tradition as the past. HD continues to merge design and technology together within the context of a real store environment. However, we have distilled our ideas much more for these two emerging concepts. In previous years X0 Future Concepts possessed exciting technologies and design-related products, but told a general future story and not so specific. Seeing Green and Customer Experience Future Stores are adhering too more centralized ideas. "Sustainability" in Seeing Green Future Store and "Customer Experience" in the Sonic Bar. Technologies residing within each space will specifically impact these two fundamental areas of development. There is a congruent thread, which ties all shopping scenarios together. Retailers will witness a seamless host of solutions that respond to sustainability and customer experience. What are the various components of this Customer Experience Sonic Bar and how will retailers witness various attributes? It is important to present the context of our design before explaining how and why retailers will react to it. The Sonic Bar music store model was chosen because it represented obsolescence of yesterday’s music store. With music lovers purchasing music from the web via downloading from I Tunes, Napster etc., yesterday’s music stores had very little reason for existence. HD took this challenge to show retailers that understanding the current shifts in consumer interests and the music industry, a great solution could evolve. Also, implementing innovative and experiential ideas to shopping could morph from a dying music store model into magnetic selling machine. That being said, retailers might assume they will be entering a music store lined with fixtures loaded with products. The Sonic Bar will be quite the opposite. This space will be more open, allowing movement in many directions. Traffic will be guided by a series of LED lighting technologies leading shoppers to a destination. We are shedding the old means of fixture blockades that force traffic where the retailer wants them to move. Sonic Bar's space will live, because it will engage attendee's into several immersive, reactive and interactive scenarios. Experiential situations will occur wherever one moves. One example is our Sonic Music Stations. A shopper touches the screen choosing their favorite musical genre (for instance Jazz), a series of things will occur to immerse them further. Firstly, Jazz music will play within a very targeted invisible audio cone (step right, left or backward a few inches and you step out of the audio cone), followed by series of scents like leather, bourbon or tobacco to enhance the experience. The Sonic Music screen will bring a series of products, services, events and marketing relating to your musical genre. One might see available bourbon-dipped cigars from the local tobacconist, a collection of Jazz influenced leather club chairs from a furniture boutique or local concert tickets for a favorite jazz musician. Retailers will understand the exciting potential of how shopping in a store like Sonic Bar transcends far beyond sitting at home and downloading music or purchasing products from the web. On one corner of the store retailers will listen to their favorite band being broadcast live from LA exclusively at the Sonic Crib. A tune just played by the live band becomes immediately available for download at Sonic Bars download station. Sonic Bar supports a Social Network Environment connecting the musical community to one another as well as all music related offerings. A smart phone will become a key tool as you navigate to the store and during your visit inside of it. Point your smart phone at an active screen and snap a shot of a virtual product tag and get everything from a free ring tone, coupon to music-related products. Create your own avatar and begin gaming to tack up Sonic Bar purchasing points. Gaming can be done either by smart phone or on one of the Sonic Music Stations. In short Sonic Bar will disorient the shopper’s expectations and deliver something much more compelling for an overall shopping experience. |
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