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Abstract
Visual Merchandising plays a very important role in Brand loyalty for stores and
brands in general. Visual Merchandising is an important role in the store inter
ior & exterior. Store exterior includes window display, store formats, fixtures
and fittings and interior lighting etc. If retailers want to project the best si
de of their company in the minds of the customers and in turn brand loyalty they
have to make sure their visual display should be pleasing to the customers. Vis
ual Merchandising is a powerful tool in shaping consumers final decision inside
a store.
Most studies of satisfaction and loyalty focus on the brand level of decision ma
king. But in this paper I have tried to shift the focus on Visual merchandising
effects on brand and customer loyalty through explaining the important aspects o
f visual merchandise like store exteriors, interiors and displays. Satisfaction
plays a very important role in developing brand loyalty of a customer.
Companies use Visual Merchandise to carefully manage the ‘look and feel’ of the bran
d in store and for presenting products in the most effective ways. It means inve
sting in expertise and resources for the use of ‘best practice’ Visual merchandising
techniques to gain maximum control of selling process. It is a complementary fu
nction to the buying strategy and when used together can have dramatic effects o
n sales, profits and product performance. Getting an in store Visual merchandise
right is regarded critical to success and can make a huge difference between a
company’s success and failure.
Key words: Consumer Decision, Satisfaction, Best Practice.
INTRODUCTION
Retailers now-a-days have paid close attention to intensify its retail identity
by unique visual Merchandising strategies to arouse purchase. Mannequin format i
s an important criterion to influence the awareness stage and shop entry and the
sensory pleasure inside a store. The combination of mannequin, lighting and pro
ps in a window display and a store highlight can further intensify the decision
process where the former affects the affective pleasure of consumers and help th
em determine the suitability of a store’s retail identity to personal preference,
the latter intensifies the sensational feeling of consumers and encourage the te
ndency to try on or purchase which directly relates to the pre-purchase stage.
There are seven factors of brand loyalty and they are brand name, product qualit
y, product display, price, style, and service quality and store environment. It
is mentioned that a store having a good product display can gain loyalty from th
e customers thus supporting the statement of having a positive relationship betw
een customer loyalty and Visual Merchandising.
Visual Merchandising is the art and science of displaying and presenting product
on the sales floor and in the windows with the purpose to increase store traffi
c and sales volume. Along with your store design, it is a key component of your
store’s unique identity and your best form of advertising. Through them you are ab
le to communicate to your target customer your brand’s identity, what is unique an
d special about your offering and what makes you better than other stores. Of co
urse, like in advertising, the message has to be clear and consistent. Because i
f it is not, you will end up attracting the wrong customers or deliver the wrong
product and experience to them. If your store looks and feels high end but your
products are not, you might discourage your mid to low-income level target cust
omers from checking you out because they associate your expensive look with high
price merchandise. At the same time, the customers that you will attract, the m
ore affluent ones, will most likely not buy because your selection doesn’t meet th
eir expectations for pricier, more luxurious products. Whatever your brand’s uniqu
e identity is, you must create an environment where everything from the shopping
bags to the displays in the windows conveys the same clear and consistent messa
ge. This is the art of branding, and it is as necessary for environments as it i
s for products. Visual Merchandising is an extension of your store’s customer serv
ice. (Jim Dion)
More than two-thirds of shopping decisions are made at the point of sale. Theref
ore, for brands in nearly all categories from candy to computers the difference
between success and failure frequently is tied closely to retail presentation. E
ven with the growth of Web based shopping, which will change the shopper s point
-of sale environment, the importance of a brand s visual identity won t diminish
. Online shoppers will continue to view and select among numerous packages and l
ogos and make their decisions based largely on each brand s visual presentation.
(Scott Young)
Visual merchandising is correlative with all other sales promotion and publicity
media. The sales potential and the depth at the which visual merchandising can
affect a customer’s behavior depicts how important Visual Merchandising will be fo
r increasing Customer Loyalty of that store. (Charles Dirksen)
In current highly competitive environments, improving consumers’ loyalty to brands
allows firms to secure a comfortable long-term position in the market-place. Tw
o different approaches for analyzing brand loyalty are then discussed: the downs
tream one, based on observing consistent purchases of a brand over a period of t
ime and the upstream approach, which focuses on the motives that are behind a re
peat purchasing of a brand. (Abdelmajid Amine 1998)
Due to the similarity of merchandise, retailers utilize visual merchandising to
differentiate their offerings from others’ as well as to improve the desirability
of products. There is a pivotal relationship between college students’ impulse buy
ing behaviors and two types of visual merchandising practices: in store form/man
nequin display and promotional signage. In-store browsing may be a link between
internal and external factors, as an important component in the impulse buying p
rocess as well as a link between consumers’ impulse buying behavior and retail set
tings including exterior and interior display. As a customer browses longer, she
/he will tend to encounter more stimuli, which would tend to increase the likeli
hood of experiencing impulse urges. This supports Stern’s (1962) conceptualization
of impulse buying as a response to the consumer’s exposure to in-store stimuli. T
he more the store stimuli, such as visual merchandising, serves as a shopping ai
d, the more likely the possibility of a desire or need arising and finally creat
ing an impulse purchase. The importance of window display in relation to consume
rs’ buying behavior has received minimal attention in the literature. However, sin
ce a consumer’s choice of a store is influenced by the physical attractiveness of
a store (Darden at al., 1983), and the first impressions of the store image is n
ormally created at the façade level, it can be suggested that window display may i
nfluence, at least to some degree, consumers’ choice of a store when they do not s
et out with a specific purpose of visiting a certain store and purchasing a cert
ain item. The initial step to getting customers to purchase is getting them in t
he door. (Jiyeon Kim)
To build long-term customer loyalty, price, quality, variety, and right image ar
e very much needed. To attain this, the aesthetic appeal of the store and the wa
y the products are displayed at the store are very important. Thus, the visual m
erchandising (VM) is the need of the hour at the retail stores. Amidst this comp
etition where products and quality will be almost similar, the only point of dif
ferentiation will be the ‘experience’ that the consumers will get while shopping. Th
e biggest role of providing the shoppers with an unforgettable experience will b
e that of Visual Merchandising (VM). It is high time that Indian retailers under
stand and adopt the scientific and professional system of VM rather than conferr
ing to traditional displaying of products. Communication that transforms passive
environment as dynamic experiences by strategically placing brand visuals encou
rages active consumer participation. For this, we need to create successful POP
concepts which start with a clear understanding of all the components of VM, in
depth knowledge of problems faced in effective implementation of VM, and study o
f consumer preferences and buying behavior. Also important is conducting of comp
arative analysis of stores (so far a neglected area in Visual Merchandising), wh
ich can help in improvising the sales volume vis a vis competitors. (Shivani Sha
rma and Nirdesh K. Singh)
In a retail store, better attention is paid to what makes the store special and
unique. This can require reducing inventory, and/or selecting specific products
that better reflect the nature of the store brand. Notice how many successful re
tail stores have simple interiors. It takes skill to simplify elements down to t
hose few that are critical. (Herrainco Brand Strategy & design Inc.)
This would include:
> Eye catching store signs, photography, displays and graphics
> Unique, quality products
> Organized merchandise that is color blocked and neatly displayed
> Clear interior signage/ information
> Attentive, helpful staff
> Functional and pleasing fitting rooms
> Appropriate and appealing store scent and sound
> Be empathetic.
Better attention should be paid to in-store visual merchandising. When you consi
dering how important a company’s product or service are, it’s surprising how little
time and money is spent on professional photography. A few signature images shou
ld be created that define the brand emotionally and speak to customer aspiration
s. In every case there are certain colors, images, typography and even language
that will better reflect your specific style and story or history and, as such,
help you define your brand. It takes confidence and sometimes courage to drill d
own. Less is more. It’s true in almost every type of design from garden design to
restaurants and retail stores. As consumers, we often take for granted many of t
he successful brands around us, not realizing how much effort they make to ensur
e brand consistency. At the end of the day, your brand is a promise you make to
customers that the experience they have with you is repeatable. And in order for
you to repeat it, you must know all the elements that are entailed in detail, f
rom what colors, typefaces, sounds and smells best reflect your company, to how
merchandise is packaged and displayed.
VISUAL MERCHANDISING CAN HAVE THE FOLLOWING BENEFITS IF DONE IN A RIGHT WAY:
a) Increase footfalls for business
b) Creating Customer Loyalty
c) Improve the shopping experience
d) Raising the expectations of the customer
e) Increasing turnover
References:
1) The Impact of Visual Merchandising on the consumer decision process for
intimate apparel by Derry Law (Institute of textile clothing, The Hong Kong Poly
technic University, Hong Kong) and Joanne Yip (ACE style institute of intimate a
pparel, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong)
2) Influence of Brand Loyalty on Consumer Sportswear by Wong Foong Yee (Dep
artment of Management and Marketing, Faculty of Economics and Management, Univer
siti Putra Malaysia) and Yah Yah Sidek (Graduate School of Management, Universit
i Putra Malaysia)
3) Visual Merchandising - Make It A Feast For The Senses By Jim Dion
4) Putting the pieces together by Scott Young
5) Visual Merchandising Research series by Howard M. Cowee
6) Consumers true brand loyalty: the central role of commitment by Abdelmaj
id Amine (ESA, Universite´ Paris Val de Marne, IRG Cre´ teil and DMSP Dauphine Resea
rch Centers, 3–5 Voie Fe´ lix E´ boue´ , 94000 Cre´ teil, France)
7) College students apparel impulse buying behaviors in relation to visual
merchandising by Jiyeon Kim (Under the direction of Dr. Brigitte Burgess)
8) Nature and functioning of visual merchandising in organized food retaili
ng by Shivani Sharma, Nirdesh K. Singh, V.P.S Arora ( Agricultural Economics Res
earch review)
9) Herrainco brand strategy & design Inc. Canada
10) Brand Loyalty: the link between attitude and behavior by Allan L. Baldin
ger and Joel Rubinson
11) Effects of Brand loyalty on advertising and trade promotions: A game the
oretic analysis with empirical evidence by Deepak Agrawal (Purdue University)
12) Repurchase Loyalty: The Role of Involvement and Satisfaction By Svein Ot
tar olsen
13) Visual Merchandising: Dressing your business for success By Paula Reidy
14) Visual Merchandising by Alek Salzstrig
ANNEXURE
CASE STUDY: NORDSTROM
John Nordstrom was born in Alvik Neder Lulea, Sweden, in 1871. He left for Ameri
ca at age 16 with two pals and a little more than $100 -- an inheritance from hi
s father -- in his pocket. By his third day in America, after buying a new suit
for the journey, food, and boat and train passage, he was down to $5.
Nordstrom found odd jobs with railroad crews, in coal mines, lumber camps and at
shipyards.
The work took him across the United States, from New York to Wisconsin, to the r
edwoods of California and eventually to Washington, where he learned of the Alas
kan Gold Rush. Nordstrom managed to make about $13,000 in Alaska.
So when Carl Wallin, a shoemaker Nordstrom had befriended in Alaska, asked him i
f he would be interested in opening a shoe store, he thought, "Why not?"
By 1928 Wallin and Nordstrom were regularly disagreeing about how to run the bus
iness. Nordstrom was ready to leave, but his son Everett was keenly interested i
n the shoe business.
Wallin sold his part of the business to Nordstrom, who then sold it to two of hi
s sons, Everett and Elmer.
The company s philosophy has remained unchanged for more than 100 years since it
s establishment by John W. Nordstrom in 1901: offer the customer the best possib
le service, selection, quality and value.
Nordstrom has basically given importance to three things in order to make sure t
heir customer service is excellent:
1) What senior managers can do: Managers create, maintain, and support the
corporate service culture. They consciously spread the culture of service throu
ghout the organization and among new hires.
a) Tool to value your employees: Employees who witness a colleague giving e
xcellent customer service are encouraged to write up a description of what they
saw and submit it to their manager. To give Nordstrom people a standard to aspir
e to and to surpass. Outstanding acts of customer service are rewarded.
b) Keys to success: Make customers feel comfortable by paying attention to
every detail of the experience – bricks and mortar or virtual. You must create an
inviting place to do business. Make your public voice or face a pleasant one. C
reate an atmosphere of helpfulness. Create an atmosphere of professionalism. Edu
cate your customer to make sound choices.
2) What supervisors can do to create Nordstrom style service: Nordstrom bel
ieves it is frontline supervisors that must create the atmosphere and the custom
er culture service to support senior managers.
a) How is it done? By hiring the right people, empowering staff, mentoring
employees, praising and rewarding employee successes or services. Hire the smile
; hire the personality and the confidence.
b) The Nordstrom Way includes hiring good people and keep working with them
, nurturing them, and giving them the tools to succeed
3) The Nordstrom Inverted pyramid:
At Nordstrom, our goal is to provide outstanding service every day, one customer
at a time. The Inverted Pyramid represents the company’s philosophy and structure
, placing customers at the top. Next are those who directly serve customers —our s
alespeople and those who support them. Department managers, buyers, merchandise
managers, store managers, regional managers, our executive team and our board of
directors then support this group. The Inverted Pyramid helps remind us that we
need to value those closest to our customers. We work hard to make decisions in
the best interest of our customers and those serving them.
All tiers of the pyramid are working to support customers and the frontline empl
oyees who have the most contact with customers.
4) What employees can do to create Nordstrom style customer service: Staff
must understand that they are on the frontlines in making an organization a cust
omer-service culture. Frontline people must have a thorough knowledge of the pro
ducts and services an organization offers because it is through those products a
nd services that relationships are created, nurtured, and maintained. Building a
nd maintaining relationships with customers are essential elements to a good cus
tomer service philosophy. Relationships are the essence of customer service.
Service = Sell Relationships
5) Relationship Building principles:
a) Give clients more than they expect.
b) Leave clients something to remember you by.
c) Think the project (problem through).
d) Ask yourself: “If I were the client would I pay for this”. Don’t give reasons
why it can’t be done – Tell how it can be done and the consequences.
e) Don’t wait to do it if it can be done now.
f) Service the client not the project.
g) You don’t know if you don’t ask.
h) Start a conversation with one new person every day.
i) Write ideas being discussed in front of clients.
6) Seven keys to delivering great service:
a) Right attitude
b) Understand the customer’s needs
c) Communicate clearly
d) Reach agreement
e) Check understanding
f) Take action
g) Build on satisfaction