Experiential Retail

If you are a Product Marketeer….

• How do you make your product stand-out from the rest?

• How do you demonstrate that your product is different?

• How do you even get noticed?

Disconnect between TV watching / desired outcome and advertising

If you are a retailer….

• How do you ensure that customers prefers your store over others ?

• How do you ensure that they come back to you and frequent your store ?

• Transactional Approach Vs Experience Creation

Retail Store

• Customer walks in with the intention to shop

• Perfect opportunity for brand owners & retailers alike• to demonstrate what their product is, what it tastes like, how convenient

it is, how versatile, what it costs and how much value it offers.

• To create meaningful experiences that demonstrate that you understand what consumers want better than other stores

Do you know ?

• A staggering 98% of consumers exposed to a brand will talk up a positive experience with 66% mentioning the brand in the process*.

• 80% of people state that out of all forms of communications, experiential marketing is most likely to provide the info needed to make an informed purchase*.

• 58% of all people that attend branded experiences go on to then purchase the sponsored product …86% of those that try it become regular customers*.

• Sampling can improve sales by 500-1,000% in comparison to pre-promotional activity. Sales figures are believed to stay well above the base-level for at least 12 weeks following. At the same time sales for competitors can fall by up to 40% below their base rate during the activity*.

Why focus on creating experiences ?

• Consumers buy with their hearts and not always with their heads

• They are motivated by their beliefs and desires

• Consumers are motivated to improve lifestyle quality – their bodies, relationships, work and home life.

• To be a part of something larger than themselves.

• “At a fundamental level, shoppers want direction, guidance and inspiration. • Said another way, “We want to feel the draw of possibility and the anticipation of better

experiences and a better life.”

Who do you wish to create the experiential Store for ?Identify your TG• Customers are not one uniform and homogeneous community

• Different motivations, fears, aspirations

• Different behaviours

• Who do you wish to cater to ?

• Why ?

Customers buy a product / visit a store for one of 5 reasons

Engaging the 5 Senses

Scent / Fragrance

Sampling

5 Pillars for the experiential store

1. Store – layout & ambience

2. Range of products

3. Shared Expertise

4. Services

5. Destination for anything else other than the core product ?

1. Leveraging the Store design

• Store Layout• Uniform rack displays with Aisles in between Vs

• A Store with

• Touch and feel• Materials and textures

• Lighting

• Music

• Merchandising

• Point of sale material

• Music

2. Range of Products

• What will stay ? What will go ?• Does the team understand the vision ?

• Define the norms clearly

• Are they equipped to handle it ?• Training / handholding

3. Shared Expertise

• Identify areas where as a retailer you can contribute and add value to a customer

1. Develop Expertise -

2. Share Expertise Internally

3. Share expertise with customers• Dispense information / knowledge in a sustained manner

• Recipe cards

• Newsletter

• Shelf talkers

• Through floor staff

Customer Service Vs Customer Experience• Treating people in a normal humane manner

• Pay attention to them, listen and respond appropriately

• Reactive Vs Proactive

4. Identify Unique Services

• Advocacy • for food pairing

• Nutrition and wellness needs for specific conditions / ailments

• Food Kits ? Fresh Foods ?• Home Delivery• Gifting Solutions

5. Events & ActivationsThat help strengthen brands position

• Sampling sessions

Sampling helps break the monotony of a retail journey• Helps elevate customer experience!• Perfect opportunity for brand owners to demonstrate what their product is, what it tastes like, how

convenient it is, how versatile, what it costs and how much value that offers.

• Helps create Word of mouth - the most effective form of marketing and promotion for your product.

• Creates valuable content and sharing opportunities for social media. It’s also a great way to ‘reward’ customers for engaging with the brand (with product and freebies) for sharing photos, tweeting, liking pages, etc.

• Your brand benefits tenfold from free publicity like this: • You get promoted by independent customers; • you also get free re-usable content for your own social media channels. • This can be leveraged before the live activity starts, during the implementation and post event.

Why Sampling works ?• Sampling Shows Confidence

• Consumers like to stick to what they know. It takes a little push in the right direction and guide them towards your product.

• Creates an emotional engagement with the customer which then builds positive brand association.

• Sampling activates the senses• More sensory clues / emotive triggers - stimulate greater product recall – leading to greater

likelihood of purchase.

• Sampling with properly trained brand ambassadors helps eliminate most obstacles at root level.

• leads to informed decisions to see, smell, taste & then purchase, rather than a decision to walk past it.

• Experiential sampling tells your brand story…

5. Events & ActivationsThat help strengthen brands position

• Learn directly from known Chefs at the store / Cook alongs• Engage with the chef (social / digital engagements)

Mixologist Shatbhi Basu teaching the fine art of mixing drinks during the Summer Cooler festival 2016

Chef Ajay Chopra - Cooking Demo part of the British Food Festival

Spanish Masterclass with Chef Manuel Oliviera Seller, Chef de Cuisine from Arola - JW Marriot, Mumbai

Making a Chef based activity a memorable experience

5. Events & ActivationsThat help strengthen brands position

• Meet health experts / nutritionists at a pre defined frequency at the outlets

• Meet the farmer / manufacturer sessions at the store• Book launches

Creating a differentiated Experience

• Larger than life visuals• Appropriate Fragrance / Sound / lighting• Ample availability of product• Point of sale material to share with customers• Informed Staff who understand the product• Expert opinion to enable onsite learning• Activities that break the monotony• Technology to inspire and impress• Social media to encourage brand engagement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duDNbKWEy5M