Every now and then we get to hear about a new concept store. We hear about concept cars, concept songs, concept movies in short future belongs to concept.
A concept is an individualistic idea that characterizes your brand/outlet in a unique manner with a recall value for your prospective customers. Today's retail management is about concept development techniques that can help you brand your retail well with a recall value.
Successful Store Stories: A decade ago the concept or the theme branding was still evolving, consumer economies were embracing this idea to create a niche for themselves; stores like IKEA, Harrods, Walmart, JCPenny, Carrefour, McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Gap, Starbucks, 7 Eleven, Toys r Us and Radioshack are all concept stores belonging various category. They emerged as concept stores initially but later propelled into chain and ultimately global franchises. They are the great success stories of stores marketed as concepts.
Following are some concept outlines for which agencies might charge you several thousand dollars we'll share few jests with you:
Image Definition:
Won't it be nice if customer will come running for your outlet- that's possible if only they have your brand image engraved in their minds. Look at Costa Coffee, Borders, Virgin, Radiocity and likes, don't you think all these products are easily available everywhere else, why do people get magnetized to them. The reason is their environment and psychological relevance for each of their categories. Therefore getting an image defined for your outlet is a great idea to begin with.
Niche Audit:
Auditing niche is easily for products, but as an outlet it is pretty tricky, because you must know what your specialty is. If you are food outlet-you must know your best selling recipe, if you are a drug store-you must know what type of drugs give you best profit and brings most sales, if you are in apparel- there must be a certain category of clothes that would sell most frequently; in simple words you can't sell all types of food and expect retention. KFC and Mc Donald's might have many commonly available fast food items but they are known for Fried Chicken and Burger respectively. If it's hard for you to figure out, conduct a customer feedback survey or bring an external professional advisor/consultant on board. He will help you think out of the box.
Demographic Scan:
Know your customer profile. The best way to do is conduct first hand research- get an external or temporary customer relation executive to help you out. If not, seek the help of professional firm to draft a customer survey form for you. After that compile the data, make sure to include mandatories such as indirect inquiry of income profile, size of the family, locality, education, ethnicity (quite important), profession etc. Some customers might not volunteer for such an activity- compensate them, they will become more than willing to do it; a gift hamper or a seasonal discount will go a long way for strong feedback, set up a desk with attractive facade, of course with a smiling CRO.
Corporate Experience:
Every outlet is a little bit exposed for familiar to seasonal promotional themes such as Christmas, Summer Holidays, Tourists campaigns, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Father's Day sort of occasion. Get your staff talking set up an appraisal program for the best idea, you may get pleasantly shocked by their loud thinking, if only you can get them talking. If you are not successful in getting their engines running, then the door of external help is always open for a consultant. Concluding it all, there is a lot more to it than just an essay, such as store assessment, trade show coaching, merchandising, buying strategy and retail marketing & growth strategy all these areas will plunge your outlet into surprising results.
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