End of Brand Worship Era in Fashion

"It’s not enough to be fashionable – one wishes to appear intelligent as well!"

Chanel, Dior, Gucci and the others will continue to develop luxury as a business. At the same time, we are seeing a complementary reaction, which is that a consumer may accept paying for the latest very trendy Dior bag, that she’s seen in all the magazines and advertisements; but she’ll see no shame in going to Zara and buying a T-shirt for 10 euros, because it’s pretty and it’s a fair quality for the price. Then she may go to another store, a bit more expensive but not as well known, perhaps run by a young designer, where she’ll buy a skirt. And these items, when brought together, reassure her and send a message to others that she’s an intelligent consumer, not dazzled by marketing, in charge of her own image.’

In other words, the era of slavish brand worship is over The designer Alber Elbaz, of Lanvin, recently commented, ‘We’ve reached a turning point. Nobody wears logos any more. People aren’t hesitating to mix Lanvin with Topshop. Everything is becoming more democratic.’ 

From "Fashion Brands", Mark Tungate, 2004 

Seeing New Products in the Stores makes Consumers Happy:)

“Recent studies have shown that when consumers go shopping and discover something new, the brain releases dopamine and serotonin (chemicals associated with feelings of well-being, happiness, and addiction). As Dr. David Lewis, the director of Mindlab International, has said: "Shopping experiences trigger brain activity that creates these 'euphoric moments'™ But what is most interesting is that these 'euphoric moments' can be created by the frequency of new items in the stores and the expectation of finding something unexpected."

Could it be the main reason of Zara's success?:) 

From: Lewis, Robin. “The New Rules of Retail.” St. Martin's Press, 

FOMO : Fear of Missing Out

According to Robin Lewis; the reason of our addiction to our mobile phones is FOMO;

“a chronic condition called Fear of Missing Out, or FOMO, anxiety or worry that one might be missing an opportunity for social interaction, a novel experience or some other satisfying event. British psychologist Andrew Przybylski led a study that found that the less people felt autonomy, competence and connectedness in their daily lives, the more they felt FOMO. 

People high in FOMO were also heavy users of social networks, which provide constant opportunity to compare one's status with those of others, and to make sure that you are having as much fun and excitement as you perceive that others are having.”

Lewis, Robin. “The New Rules of Retail.” St. Martin's Press

Human Mistake is Tolerated; what is not tolerated is not to take responsibility for shortcomings!

On September 11, 2001, Midwood Ambulance Service employees responded to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. Shortly afterward, an e-mail surfaced, which reported,

“My family owns an ambulance service in Brooklyn, NY. . . . My uncles were at ‘Ground Zero’ during the attack, to help the victims. They donated their time to help with this crisis, as many New Yorkers did. A great number of people were in shock from the devastation. As many of you know, shock victims are supposed to drink a lot of water. My uncle went to the Starbucks down the street to get bottles of water for the victims he was treating. Can you believe they actually charged him for it! He paid the $130 for three cases of bottled water out of his own pocket. Now, I would think that in a crisis such as this, vendors in the area would be more than happy to lend a little help by donating water.”
The e-mail continued, “I love Frappuccinos® as much as anyone, but any company that would try to make a profit off of a crisis like this doesn’t deserve the . . . public’s hard-earned money. Please forward this e-mail to anyone you know and encourage them to do the same.”
Unfortunately, this e-mail was accurate. A Starbucks store staff had chosen to charge full price and not give away $130 worth of water during the September 11, 2001, tragedy. In addition, several efforts to get the matter resolved were mishandled. When the e-mail surfaced, Starbucks leadership did the right thing. Then president and CEO Orin Smith not only had a $130 check delivered to the ambulance company, but he called a representative of the business personally to apologize. Independently, the Starbucks stores located at Ground Zero were operating around the clock and they were providing free beverages and pastries to rescue workers and volunteers.

“At a corporate level, Starbucks was making contributions in excess of a million dollars to the national relief fund. But the bad news of the water sale certainly made a big splash in the pool of public consciousness. Starbucks leadership fortunately understood that most people are willing to forgive human error. What they won’t tolerate is a failure to take responsibility for mistakes or an unwillingness to resolve the shortcoming.
With the grace of competent leadership, Starbucks did not seek to scapegoat or place blame on the store staff who made the errant decision in an unimaginably stressful situation. Instead, Orin Smith understood something that most great leaders appreciate: when you are wrong, admit it, fix the problem, and stay the course in areas where you are making a positive difference.

Ideas to Slip on

- While it’s natural to avoid contact with detractors, much can be gained by welcoming them into the early stages of problem-focused discussions.

- It is essential to correct misinformation swiftly.

- When errors are made, it is important to take direct, unequivocal responsibility and follow up with corrective action.

 From: Michelli, Joseph. “The Starbucks Experience.” McGraw-Hill, 2007. 

Start with Why - Simon Sinek

 

From TED TALKS series; worth listening;

 

Start with Why - Simon Sinek

 

 

With Respect to Paco Underhill -II

What Do Shoppers Love?

What do shoppers love? A few important things, we've learned, such as:

Touch:  We live in a tactile-deprived society, and shopping is one of our few chances to freely experience the material world firsthand. Almost all unplanned buying is a result of touching, hearing, smelling or tasting something on the premises of a store-which is why merchandising is more powerful than marketing.

Mirrors:  Stand and watch what happens at any reflective surface: We preen like chimps, men and women alike. Self-interest is a basic part of our species. From shopping to cosmetic surgery, we care about how we look. As we've said, mirrors slow shoppers in their tracks, a very good thing for whatever merchandise happens to be in the vicinity. But even around wearable items such as clothing, jewelry and cosmetics, where mirrors are crucial sales tools, stores fail to provide enough of them.

Discovery: There's little more satisfying than walking into a store, picking up the (metaphorical) scent of something we've been hunting for and then tracking it to its lair. Too much signage and point of purchase display takes all the adventure out of a shopping trip; stores shouldn't be willfully confusing or obscure, but they should seduce shoppers through the aisles with suggestions and hints of what's to come.

Talking:  Stores that attract lots of couples, friends or groups of shoppers usually do very well. If you can create an atmosphere that fosters discussion of an outfit, say, or a particular cell phone, the merchandise begins to sell itself.

Recognition:  In that old TV show Cheers, the theme song went, "you want to go where everybody knows your name." This is a battlefield where the small, locally owned store can still best the national chains, and smart stores make the most of this advantage. Given a choice, people will shop where they feel wanted, and they'll even pay a lime more for the privilege. Even the smallest stores ·can build customer loyalty just by keeping track of what people buy and giving price breaks when appropriate. Our studies show that any contact initiated by a store employee-and I mean even a hello-increases the likelihood that a shopper will buy something. If the salesperson suggests a few things or offers information, the chances rise even higher. Of course, shoppers don't love pushy salespeople, so there's a line here.

Bargains: This seems obvious, but it goes beyond simply cutting prices. At Victoria's Secret, for example, underwear is frequently piled on a table and marked five pairs for $20, which sounds like a much better deal than the $5 a pair normally charged.

With Respect to Paco Underhill -I

Paco will be in Turkey for Local Chains Summit  (YerelZincirler Birliği) next week; 15-16 of April, an event to be followed certainly…

Please find some quotations below  from his book “Why We Buy?”

Advice for the Store Staff

Remember that more than 60 percent of what we buy wasn't on our list. This isn't the same as an impulse purchase. It's triggered by something proposing the question "Don't you need this? If not now, then maybe in the near future?" Use this feeling to boost your sales…

Offer help, try to get the stuff your customer needs to carry that limits her / his desire to put on the products, offer to put the coat/bag behind the counter....

Shoppers are more pressed for time than ever. They've grown accustomed to stores where everything for sale is on open display; and they expect all the information they need will be out in the open. Keep in mind while designing in store- signageand visuals.

Smile: Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton's homespun advice to retailers was that if you hire a sweet old lady just to say hello to incoming customers, none of them will dare steal.

Critical location Dressing Rooms : A shopper who talks to a salesperson and tries something on is twice as likely to buy as a shopper who does neither. Not only does shopper conversion rate increase by half when there is staff-initiated contact, it jumps by 100 percent when there is staff-initiated contact and use of the dressing room. 

Store Design & Signage

The Gap, Aeropostale and Anthropologie-all apparel store chains-put their discount sale products in the back left-hand corner of the store. They've trained their most veteran shoppers to visit the remotest corner of the store. Once they've gotten them to the back, their challenge is to make sure the pathway back to the front of the store is well merchandised and that at least some of the signage is facing the customer going back-to-front.

In the retail environment, a chair's main purpose is slightly different: When people go shopping in twos or threes, with spouses or children or friends along for the trip, seating is what keeps the non-shopping party comfortable and contented and cared for and off the shopper's backJ

Retailers should walk every foot of selling space asking this question: Can I stand here and shop without being jostled from behind? Any place where the answer is no is no place for merchandise requiring a careful look.

Aisles must also be wide enough for baby strollers. Adjacencies should be planned rather than accidental

For the most part, the men and women who design clothing stores do everything possible to allow us to touch all that's for sale. But then, when it's time to design the dressing rooms, they show how completely they misunderstand what happens inside that store. Where do they go wrong? They think of dressing rooms as bathrooms without the plumbing. They see them as booths where shoppers can strip, don the garment in question, emerge for a quick, dutiful glance into a mirror and then switch clothes again. They design dressing rooms with all the romance and glamour of changing stalls at public pools. It's the most misguided aspect of store architecture and design, a trade that at its best isn't terribly responsive to retailers or shoppers. They skimp on dressing rooms, I believe, because they don't want to "waste" space by making these rooms too large. They don't want to blow too much of the budget on rooms that will never be photographed by the fancier design magazines. In fact, the dressing room may be more important than the floor of the store. It's a truism that improving the quality of dressing rooms increases sales. It never fails. A dressing room isn't just a convenience- it's a selling tool, like a display or a window or advertising. It sells more effectively than all of those combined, if it's properly used.

Men & Women

86% of women look at price tags when they shop. Only 72% of men do. For a man, ignoring the price tag is almost a measure of his virility. As a result, men are far more easily upgraded than are women. They are also far more suggestible than women. 

Men now do more purchasing than ever before. That figure will continue to grow. As they stay single longer than ever, they learn to shop for things their fathers never had to buy. And because many marry women who work as long and hard as they do, they will be forced to shoulder more of the burden of shopping. 

Here's the actual breakdown of average shopping time from a study, performed at one branch of a national housewares chain:

Woman shopping with a female companion: 8 minutes, 15 seconds 

Woman with children: 7 minutes, 19 seconds 

Woman alone: 5 minutes, 2 seconds, 

Woman with man: 4 minutes, 41 seconds

A good general rule to design future: Take any category where women now predominate and figure out how to make it appealing to men without alienating women.

Competition

Today everybody is competing with everybody else, and so the threat can come from any direction. It is dangerously narrowminded for a store owner to believe that the only competition is from others in his or her category. .In truth, retailers compete with every other demand on consumer time and money. 

if the experience of spending twenty minutes of unused lunch hour browsing in a computer store is more enjoyable than visiting a bookstore, then it becomes likely that some software will be sold-and impossible that a book will be. The era of the visionary retailer or the manufacturing king is over. In the twenty-first century the consumer is king. Just as fashion comes from the street up, the world of retail is about following shoppers where they are going.