What
tricks of the trade do shops employ to make us dig deep into our pockets and
spend our hard-earned cash?
- Published on: Monday 2nd
December 2013
Supermarket
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Aroma and Authenticity
Freshly
baked bread is an example of an essential everyday item that is often placed at
the rear of the store. You need to walk through many enticing aisles in order
to reach it! However, you may wonder how the smell could be so strong
especially when the bread is cold, and there is no sign of recent baking in the
oven area. Supermarkets have found a way of venting desirable smells, directing
them through the store using the air conditioning system. This recirculates air
from the baking section into the shopping aisles. In fact, most supermarket
bread (despite being marketed as ‘just baked’) is cooked weeks or months before
in a factory miles away. It is then sent frozen to be
re-heated in the ‘in-store’ bakery.
Have you
ever noticed that some shops give place names to their food stuffs? Like the
use of baking smells to suggest the presence of a real baker, these names are
designed to make us think the food we buy comes from an identifiable and
specific location. This, in turn, makes us feel that the food is personally
produced rather than being the product of an industrial process. However, Tesco’s
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gets its chicken from all over the UK, and M&S’s
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does not come from a special farm on a Scottish loch but from farms all over
Scotland. These often 'rural' and 'nature-related' names are brandnames for products built on fictitious places.
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Product layout and pricing
You will
often find low-cost products, such as sweets and magazines, neatly displayed by
till points. Magazines are attractive if you are bored from waiting in a queue,
and if you are about to spend £100 on groceries, a few more pounds may seem
negligible. The most profitable brands are placed at eye level (or children's
eye level if they're targeted at them). However, profitable goods tend not to
be the best deals. Supermarkets know that shoppers form their impression of
whether a chain offers good value on a few staples, such as bread or milk or
apples. Those ‘price-sensitive’ lines appear cheap and pull you into the store,
often in the belief that everything else is equally as cheap. But supermarkets
hike up the prices on other items, operating an internal subsidy. So, the price
of specialist bread will be much higher while the standard white loaf will
remain low in price. This will also fluctuate within shops in the same chain –
supermarkets are allowed to use ‘dynamic pricing’ so that they will charge more
where they can get away with it. For example, ciabatta
bread may cost more in a Chelsea branch of Tesco than in Clacton!
Supermarkets
love to put organic and fair trade products on their shelves as these items
retail for a premium price. Supermarkets expect to make a profit margin of at
least 36% on anything they sell, the higher the price the more profit they
make. The placement of products is not random, it has been thought through by
market researchers, accountants, interior designers and psychologists. Ever
wondered why fruit, vegetables and flowers are by the entrance? It’s supposed
to make (particularly) female customers feel healthy and wholesome – if they
stock up on this first then they won’t feel guilty about buying the less healthy
stuff later. Big name brands are positioned in the middle of aisles so that you
have to pass everything else on your way, and likewise ‘destination’ goods such
as milk and eggs are often hidden at the back of the shop.
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Discount signs
In almost
every supermarket you will see signs – often red or orange and on a ‘gondola
end’ – advertising multibuys such as ‘3 for the price
of 2’ or ‘buy one get one free’. Sometimes you will find ‘special promotions’
advertised through the use of '£1' stickers on
products. Under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations Act,
the lower price sale should not last longer than the time the higher price was
available. But there is plenty of evidence that supermarkets regularly flout
this. Do you have the time and commitment as a consumer to play the supermarket
game? Can you become knowledgeable about the price over time of products so you
can avoid being out of pocket?
Whether
discounts are really a bargain depends on whether you know the normal price of
these goods. Supermarkets use arbitrary pack sizes so it can be difficult to
tell if the pack size has been reduced. This can result in you paying the same
price by weight as before while thinking you have bought yourself a bargain.
Some
shops are using ‘discounts’ to ease in and mask inflationary price rises; that
is, the brands return at a higher price once the promotion draws to an end. In
general, sales goods are often poorly organised, with unclear pricing and
layout. This presents a barrier to customers who would ideally want to spend
time working out if there are real benefits to buying them. They are more
likely to impulse buy and just take the signs for granted rather than
investigate further.
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Big trolleys
The
shopping trolley or cart allows you to move large quantities – up to 240 litres
– of consumer goods from store shelves to checkout to the boot of your car.
Trolleys belong to the era of self-service shopping, which the supermarket
invented. Rather than relying on the product expertise of the grocer
salesperson, information is communicated via the product itself, in the words
and colours of its packaging, branding and display. With the elimination of the
counter and the free movement of customers along aisles and shelves, the amount
that was bought began to increase. Trolleys created new consumer habits,
encouraging you to think of a ‘weekly’ rather than ‘daily’ shop. Perhaps the
trolley has something to do with the fact that a staggering 40% of all food in
the UK is thrown out uneaten, as we end up buying far more than we actually
need.
Baskets
were first given to self-service shoppers in the 1920s, but shopkeepers noticed
the constraint that the size of the basket put on the volume of purchases. One
shopkeeper’s early solution to this was to offer the customer a second basket
while keeping the first behind the counter. In the 1930s, the trolley was
invented and became, after a few hiccups, wildly successful. Store owners had
to use pretend customers to walk the floors with the trolleys because shoppers
were resistant at first. Women thought that the trolleys were like prams,
another thing to push around; whereas men felt it emasculating to rely on
wheels rather than carry their shopping.
There
were earlier, unsuccessful attempts at creating wheeled containers, such as a
store in the US that had a raised track fitted with rails which ran along the
shelves, carrying baskets with tiny wheels. However, shoppers were forced to
walk down the aisles following the tracks, often moving at the same pace as
their neighbour. More like the car than the train, the modern shopping trolley
allows full mobility for the shopper to work the shelves at his or her own
pace, as an individual.
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Lulling music
Supermarkets
often play soft tempo music with no vocals, so there is no distraction from
lyrics. You will have noticed a seasonal dimension throughout the year, for
example, from mid-November onwards, Christmas songs are played continuously.
Despite many complaining that this ‘drives them mad’ when shopping at
Christmastime, all the evidence points to the desired outcome - inducing such
madness by creating a frenzied shopping atmosphere that typically results in
good sales. The hypnotically regular beats and circuitous tunes of Christmas
pop songs played at high volume excites the flow of adrenaline, raising the
speed of the heartbeat, and producing a 'flight or fight' syndrome. Therefore,
music is a key contributor to the consumer aggressiveness that is Christmas shopping.
It tempts people to depart from their shopping lists and lose their normal
sense of self-control.
Music was
first made available in shops in 1920s US where a way of piping music into
shops using a telephone system was devised by a company that became the Muzak Corporation, now known as Mood Music. The company had
psychologists and musical experts on their staff and discovered that specific
types of music have psychological effects: slower, more relaxed music makes
people slow down and browse for longer. They also discovered that when shops
play French music, sales of French wines rise and when they pipe German music,
shoppers buy more German wines. The term ‘musak’
though once a brand has now become a generic noun to describe any background
music that is ‘easy listening’. It has a simple melody so that it can be
unobtrusively looped back to the beginning. A key feature of musak is that it appears to come from no one source. It
feels as if it's coming at you from every direction; no one seems to control it
or has any responsibility for it. This is unlike other shops where it is
important for the brand that the shop assistants express their own
individuality through music.
Online shopping
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'Add to basket'
Is
virtual shopping anything like shopping in a physical shop? This ‘Add to
basket’ function allows the customer to take a serious step towards buying,
without ultimate commitment. As long as you have created a login username and
password, you can pursue many separate browsing episodes that result in you
putting items in your basket. Plus, the system remembers your selection for
when you return and login again. In this way, virtual shopping was invented as
an environment that would mimic being in a physical shop. It creates a staged
approach to commitment, putting items in your basket one at a time. However,
you can easily remove them if you change your mind before you get to the
checkout.
In the
early days of e-commerce, companies such as Amazon had ‘point-of-action
assurances’ to reinforce the idea that ‘adding to basket’ did not mean you were
at the point of no return - ‘you can always remove it later’. Later on, Amazon
and other companies downgraded the ‘Add to basket’ step so that now the ‘buy
straightaway’ option is equally visible.
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'Add to basket'
Is
virtual shopping anything like shopping in a physical shop? This ‘Add to
basket’ function allows the customer to take a serious step towards buying,
without ultimate commitment. As long as you have created a login username and
password, you can pursue many separate browsing episodes that result in you
putting items in your basket. Plus, the system remembers your selection for
when you return and login again. In this way, virtual shopping was invented as
an environment that would mimic being in a physical shop. It creates a staged
approach to commitment, putting items in your basket one at a time. However,
you can easily remove them if you change your mind before you get to the
checkout.
In the
early days of e-commerce, companies such as Amazon had ‘point-of-action
assurances’ to reinforce the idea that ‘adding to basket’ did not mean you were
at the point of no return - ‘you can always remove it later’. Later on, Amazon
and other companies downgraded the ‘Add to basket’ step so that now the ‘buy
straightaway’ option is equally visible.
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One-click buyingHave you
noticed how easy it is to purchase items online? Payment options include those
that are instantaneous and require minimal effort on behalf of the customer.
Amazon developed the first ‘one-click’ payment: by storing your payment card
details, if you are logged into the website you do not need to re-enter them.
This concept has reached its zenith in PayPal, a global online money transfer
and payment company which is available in 103 countries and 16 currencies.
In 2002,
eBay bought PayPal and has over one million users. Now 90% of
sellers state that they prefer you to pay with PayPal as well as making it the
default payment option. Free to the buyer, once you set up your PayPal
account, you can make secure payments from a variety of sources (credit card or
bank account) to a variety of recipients (such as eBay, online stores or your
landlord) without sharing your financial information. The recipient never sees
your account number or banking information and once you have entered those
details to PayPal, you don’t need ever to re-enter them. PayPal brought about a
speedier process in which there is less time to stop and reconsider, and where
there is hardly any time lag between wanting something and having it.
<![if !supportLists]>
·
<![endif]>
<![if !vml]><![endif]>Creative commons image
'Add to basket'
Is
virtual shopping anything like shopping in a physical shop? This ‘Add to
basket’ function allows the customer to take a serious step towards buying,
without ultimate commitment. As long as you have created a login username and
password, you can pursue many separate browsing episodes that result in you
putting items in your basket. Plus, the system remembers your selection for
when you return and login again. In this way, virtual shopping was invented as
an environment that would mimic being in a physical shop. It creates a staged
approach to commitment, putting items in your basket one at a time. However,
you can easily remove them if you change your mind before you get to the
checkout.
In the
early days of e-commerce, companies such as Amazon had ‘point-of-action
assurances’ to reinforce the idea that ‘adding to basket’ did not mean you were
at the point of no return - ‘you can always remove it later’. Later on, Amazon
and other companies downgraded the ‘Add to basket’ step so that now the ‘buy
straightaway’ option is equally visible.
<![if !supportLists]>
·
<![endif]>
<![if !vml]><![endif]>Creative commons image
One-click buying
Have you
noticed how easy it is to purchase items online? Payment options include those
that are instantaneous and require minimal effort on behalf of the customer.
Amazon developed the first ‘one-click’ payment: by storing your payment card
details, if you are logged into the website you do not need to re-enter them.
This concept has reached its zenith in PayPal, a global online money transfer
and payment company which is available in 103 countries and 16 currencies.
In 2002,
eBay bought PayPal and has over one million users. Now 90% of
sellers state that they prefer you to pay with PayPal as well as making it the
default payment option. Free to the buyer, once you set up your PayPal
account, you can make secure payments from a variety of sources (credit card or
bank account) to a variety of recipients (such as eBay, online stores or your
landlord) without sharing your financial information. The recipient never sees
your account number or banking information and once you have entered those
details to PayPal, you don’t need ever to re-enter them. PayPal brought about a
speedier process in which there is less time to stop and reconsider, and where
there is hardly any time lag between wanting something and having it.
<![if !supportLists]>
·
<![endif]>
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<![endif]>Creative commons image
Embedded marketing
Embedded
marketing is a way of customising and personalising your shopping experience
through tailored recommendations. The items on offer appear to be chosen just
for you based on some knowledge of your shopping preferences. It’s called
‘embedded’ as they are not a separate adverts, but a
method of building into your shopping process a relationship to you and your
online customer history. In this way, companies such as Amazon proactively
encourage customers in a further purchase when they next login.
These
recommendations also show you what other customers who bought the same products
as you went on to purchase. This makes you feel you are part of a social
community, a network of people with shared tastes and similar minds.
Online
supermarkets automatically create a shopping list with items that reappear,
based on what you routinely bought before – milk, bread and so on. That way,
your time and effort is reduced and you are relieved from the burden of having
to make so many decisions about what to buy.
<![if !supportLists]>
·
<![endif]>
<![if !vml]><![endif]>Creative commons image
'Add to basket'
Is
virtual shopping anything like shopping in a physical shop? This ‘Add to
basket’ function allows the customer to take a serious step towards buying,
without ultimate commitment. As long as you have created a login username and
password, you can pursue many separate browsing episodes that result in you
putting items in your basket. Plus, the system remembers your selection for
when you return and login again. In this way, virtual shopping was invented as
an environment that would mimic being in a physical shop. It creates a staged
approach to commitment, putting items in your basket one at a time. However,
you can easily remove them if you change your mind before you get to the
checkout.
In the
early days of e-commerce, companies such as Amazon had ‘point-of-action
assurances’ to reinforce the idea that ‘adding to basket’ did not mean you were
at the point of no return - ‘you can always remove it later’. Later on, Amazon
and other companies downgraded the ‘Add to basket’ step so that now the ‘buy
straightaway’ option is equally visible.
<![if !supportLists]>
·
<![endif]>
<![if !vml]><![endif]>Creative commons image
One-click buying
Have you
noticed how easy it is to purchase items online? Payment options include those
that are instantaneous and require minimal effort on behalf of the customer.
Amazon developed the first ‘one-click’ payment: by storing your payment card
details, if you are logged into the website you do not need to re-enter them.
This concept has reached its zenith in PayPal, a global online money transfer
and payment company which is available in 103 countries and 16 currencies.
In 2002,
eBay bought PayPal and has over one million users. Now 90% of
sellers state that they prefer you to pay with PayPal as well as making it the
default payment option. Free to the buyer, once you set up your PayPal
account, you can make secure payments from a variety of sources (credit card or
bank account) to a variety of recipients (such as eBay, online stores or your
landlord) without sharing your financial information. The recipient never sees
your account number or banking information and once you have entered those
details to PayPal, you don’t need ever to re-enter them. PayPal brought about a
speedier process in which there is less time to stop and reconsider, and where
there is hardly any time lag between wanting something and having it.
<![if !supportLists]>
·
<![endif]>
<![if !vml]><![endif]>Creative commons image
Embedded marketing
Embedded
marketing is a way of customising and personalising your shopping experience
through tailored recommendations. The items on offer appear to be chosen just
for you based on some knowledge of your shopping preferences. It’s called
‘embedded’ as they are not a separate adverts, but a
method of building into your shopping process a relationship to you and your
online customer history. In this way, companies such as Amazon proactively
encourage customers in a further purchase when they next login.
These
recommendations also show you what other customers who bought the same products
as you went on to purchase. This makes you feel you are part of a social
community, a network of people with shared tastes and similar minds.
Online
supermarkets automatically create a shopping list with items that reappear,
based on what you routinely bought before – milk, bread and so on. That way,
your time and effort is reduced and you are relieved from the burden of having
to make so many decisions about what to buy.
<![if !supportLists]>
·
<![endif]>
<![if !vml]>
<![endif]>Creative commons image
Targeted adverts
The most
effective use and placement of adverts have been thoroughly researched by
marketing companies. Examples include a pop-up you have to click on to close
before proceeding, or an animated banner advert you need to click on to view.
The ‘click-through’ rate, the amount of times someone actually clicks on a
banner advert – the most widely used measure of online advertising
effectiveness – has declined rapidly. But research shows that adverts can have
an impact on consumers even if they don’t click through. You may not remember
seeing the advert but familiarisation with it over time creates a more positive
attitude to the product afterwards – is called the ‘mere exposure’ effect.
There are
a number of systematic methods by which advertisers implement online targeting.
One ‘static’ approach places adverts related to the content types of web pages.
For example, in the banner space at the top of a financial services web page
you will find adverts relating to financial products such as loans – regardless
of who is using the page. But it is the dynamic targeting methods that are
becoming increasingly used. These use information about an individual
customer’s online browsing behaviour collected via data analytics. One such
method is ‘user profile-based targeting’ which uses your profiles, such as
membership information, subscription data and online survey results to select
the adverts for an online user. So, if the data held about you indicates you live in Ibitha, when
you surf the net you won’t see any adverts for fur coats!
Another
method is ‘behavioural’ targeting based on user real-time behaviour, which
companies placing adverts on Yahoo and Google will pay for. For the user, it
means that adverts will come onto your screen tailored for you, based on a
personalised profile the system has created of your interests from a variety of
sources – prior search results, expressed interests, demographic and geographic
information. For example, if you have previously used a search engine to find
clothing from an online shop, when you next conduct a search into something
quite different, you will find related products from that shop placed next to
your search results.
Facebook
and other social network sites are now partnering with data vendors to match
data from consumer loyalty programmes (e.g. Tesco Clubcard
or Nectar) with their own Facebook user profiles in order to target adverts by
offline purchase habits. Email addresses or other membership information can be
matched with the information in users’ Facebook accounts.
<![if !supportLists]>
·
<![endif]>
<![if !vml]><![endif]>Creative commons image
'Add to basket'
Is
virtual shopping anything like shopping in a physical shop? This ‘Add to
basket’ function allows the customer to take a serious step towards buying,
without ultimate commitment. As long as you have created a login username and
password, you can pursue many separate browsing episodes that result in you
putting items in your basket. Plus, the system remembers your selection for
when you return and login again. In this way, virtual shopping was invented as
an environment that would mimic being in a physical shop. It creates a staged
approach to commitment, putting items in your basket one at a time. However,
you can easily remove them if you change your mind before you get to the
checkout.
In the
early days of e-commerce, companies such as Amazon had ‘point-of-action
assurances’ to reinforce the idea that ‘adding to basket’ did not mean you were
at the point of no return - ‘you can always remove it later’. Later on, Amazon
and other companies downgraded the ‘Add to basket’ step so that now the ‘buy
straightaway’ option is equally visible.
<![if !supportLists]>
·
<![endif]>
<![if !vml]><![endif]>Creative commons image
One-click buying
Have you
noticed how easy it is to purchase items online? Payment options include those
that are instantaneous and require minimal effort on behalf of the customer.
Amazon developed the first ‘one-click’ payment: by storing your payment card
details, if you are logged into the website you do not need to re-enter them.
This concept has reached its zenith in PayPal, a global online money transfer
and payment company which is available in 103 countries and 16 currencies.
In 2002,
eBay bought PayPal and has over one million users. Now 90% of
sellers state that they prefer you to pay with PayPal as well as making it the
default payment option. Free to the buyer, once you set up your PayPal
account, you can make secure payments from a variety of sources (credit card or
bank account) to a variety of recipients (such as eBay, online stores or your
landlord) without sharing your financial information. The recipient never sees
your account number or banking information and once you have entered those
details to PayPal, you don’t need ever to re-enter them. PayPal brought about a
speedier process in which there is less time to stop and reconsider, and where
there is hardly any time lag between wanting something and having it.
<![if !supportLists]>
·
<![endif]>
<![if !vml]><![endif]>Creative commons image
Embedded marketing
Embedded
marketing is a way of customising and personalising your shopping experience
through tailored recommendations. The items on offer appear to be chosen just
for you based on some knowledge of your shopping preferences. It’s called
‘embedded’ as they are not a separate adverts, but a
method of building into your shopping process a relationship to you and your
online customer history. In this way, companies such as Amazon proactively
encourage customers in a further purchase when they next login.
These
recommendations also show you what other customers who bought the same products
as you went on to purchase. This makes you feel you are part of a social
community, a network of people with shared tastes and similar minds.
Online
supermarkets automatically create a shopping list with items that reappear,
based on what you routinely bought before – milk, bread and so on. That way,
your time and effort is reduced and you are relieved from the burden of having
to make so many decisions about what to buy.
<![if !supportLists]>
·
<![endif]>
<![if !vml]><![endif]>Creative commons image
Targeted adverts
The most
effective use and placement of adverts have been thoroughly researched by
marketing companies. Examples include a pop-up you have to click on to close
before proceeding, or an animated banner advert you need to click on to view.
The ‘click-through’ rate, the amount of times someone actually clicks on a
banner advert – the most widely used measure of online advertising
effectiveness – has declined rapidly. But research shows that adverts can have
an impact on consumers even if they don’t click through. You may not remember
seeing the advert but familiarisation with it over time creates a more positive
attitude to the product afterwards – is called the ‘mere exposure’ effect.
There are
a number of systematic methods by which advertisers implement online targeting.
One ‘static’ approach places adverts related to the content types of web pages.
For example, in the banner space at the top of a financial services web page
you will find adverts relating to financial products such as loans – regardless
of who is using the page. But it is the dynamic targeting methods that are
becoming increasingly used. These use information about an individual
customer’s online browsing behaviour collected via data analytics. One such
method is ‘user profile-based targeting’ which uses your profiles, such as
membership information, subscription data and online survey results to select
the adverts for an online user. So, if the data held about you indicates you live in Ibitha, when
you surf the net you won’t see any adverts for fur coats!
Another
method is ‘behavioural’ targeting based on user real-time behaviour, which
companies placing adverts on Yahoo and Google will pay for. For the user, it
means that adverts will come onto your screen tailored for you, based on a
personalised profile the system has created of your interests from a variety of
sources – prior search results, expressed interests, demographic and geographic
information. For example, if you have previously used a search engine to find
clothing from an online shop, when you next conduct a search into something
quite different, you will find related products from that shop placed next to
your search results.
Facebook
and other social network sites are now partnering with data vendors to match
data from consumer loyalty programmes (e.g. Tesco Clubcard
or Nectar) with their own Facebook user profiles in order to target adverts by
offline purchase habits. Email addresses or other membership information can be
matched with the information in users’ Facebook accounts.
<![if !supportLists]>
·
<![endif]>
<![if !vml]>
<![endif]>Creative commons image
Review the brand
Have you
ever posted a review of a product or service on a shop’s website, or been
influenced by a review you’ve read? Shops opting for this kind of ‘user
generated content’ are conveying the grown up relationship they have with their
customers. You are encouraged freely and independently to express your views of
a product. You find this function especially in online clothing stores, where
reviewers supply a service to other customers by giving valuable customer
advice about things like sizing accuracy or a good customer services
department. Whether or not the reviews are good, the culture of reviewing helps
to make a brand come over as honest. It acts counter-factually to the
marketing. Studies have shown that consumer recommendations are the most
trusted form of advertising.
n some
online shops customers can also rate the reviews as to whether they are useful
or not. At Amazon, reviewers are honoured for the ‘help’ they have given other
Amazon customers via a peer-ranking system that awards them a yearly Hall of
Fame recognition and a badge.
Clothing boutique
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Personalised assistance
Have you
ever reflected on how you relate to shop assistants in different kinds of
clothing shops? When you enter high-end clothing boutiques, you are likely to
be welcomed and asked whether you need any help. Assistants really are acting
as assistants to the customer, and are not there to simply stock the shelves,
or stand in rows behind a large counter (as is common in some larger chain
stores). Assistants appear to be almost as interested as you are in finding
that illusive item you’ve been searching for, and will encourage you to try on
clothes as soon as possible. They will demonstrate their knowledge of the
clothes, how they reflect current trends or how they represent an innovation in
the shop’s own clothing lines; that is, the materials they are made from and
how you can put clothes together to make an outfit.
It is
hard not to try on clothing once you have established a relationship with the
assistant who appears to have invested him- or herself
in your clothing decisions. And you are one major step along the process
towards making a purchase if you can proceed to the changing room.
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Displays and interior decor
The
boutique as a whole – its layout, lighting, use of furniture and display
methods – creates a distinct image and personality for the product and an
identity for the customer. Boutiques typically convey a feeling of spaciousness
and sense of luxury. They do this by adopting a free-form layout so that
customers meander around the perimeter of the shop – the whole store can easily
be viewed as one space. This is in contrast to the cluttered ‘pile them high’
approach of the larger chains, with their many aisles of densely packed
clothing that emphasises huge quantity and choice of styles to suit different
kinds of people. While national chain stores are about low price, achieved
through bulk buying and spending as little as possible on ‘extras’ like
interior décor, boutiques need to impress you with the high quality of their
finely selected clothes. Often, each garment in a high-end boutique has had far
more labour expended on it and is made of superior quality textiles. You are
addressed as a discerning customer who knows why you have chosen this shop and
the items it specialises in. So it is assumed you don’t need to be presented with
the large range of the chains.
The
impression of personally chosen items for display is conveyed by making most of
the clothing visible, and displaying it in unique ways. No standardised lines
of deep racks used here; rather, sweaters might be folded and stacked on an
antique mahogany desk. A retro light might stand on a side table next to a long
mirror, to mimic your bedroom at home where you will dress for that special
night out. A dresser might have its top drawer open wide to show smaller
products, such as accessories. Comfortable, deep chairs allow you or friends to
linger or rest. The place where sales transactions take place is often discrete
so there is no imposing ‘shop counter’. Instead, a desk or an antique chest of
drawers in keeping with the shop style is used. It’s all about creating a
relaxed and intimate mood so that the buyer perceives unique added values.
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Shop assistants' clothing
Shop
assistants present themselves as individuals; there are no identical uniforms
as there are in the larger chains. While they may wear clothing of their own
choice (in keeping with the shop’s brand), it is more likely that they will
wear the shop’s own clothes. Their clothing will however be muted and not
extreme; they are not expressing themselves, so much as the values of the shop.
This gives them some authenticity when dealing with their customers as they are
walking manikins, demonstrating the clothes to their aspirant customers.
Assistants
who have the wrong accent and body size, or who are the wrong age (whether too
young or old) are likely to be filtered out in the applicant process because
they need to be able to match the demographic and self-image of their target
customer. This is not so important in the chain shops where the relationship
between the customer and the shop assistant is not critical to the brand or to
the ability to sell merchandise.
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Changing rooms
In larger
chain stores there is often a shop assistant who gate
keeps the changing room, checking how many items you have and issues you with a
plastic sign. On the whole they will not help you with any kind of personal
service, such as fetching different sizes. Boutiques operate very differently.
You are expected to try on your highly expensive purchases, so the changing
room is designed as a 'proper' room, which is easily visible from the main shop
area. Large boudoir-like changing rooms circle around a main room area with
sofas and armchairs for friends or family and multi-mirrors. This contributes
to a womb-like and relaxing atmosphere. In very expensive boutiques, there will
be a personal assistant on hand for each customer who will make suggestions or
collect clothes so that the customer does not have to leave the changing room.
Lighting will be as naturalistic as possible – no fluorescent lights, no green-
or yellow-toned lighting as it doesn’t flatter. Flooring will be ‘natural’ or
‘luxurious’ – either carpet or wood flooring, not the linoleum or harsh tiles
of the chain shops.
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Refined music
Some
boutiques play no music as it is considered at odds with the need to establish
a quieter, refined environment. However, if there is music it will not be ‘musak’ invisibly piped through the shop, but carefully
chosen and targeted to the demographics of the shop's customers. There might be
a high-quality hi-fi system in the corner of the room so that it comes from one
identifiable source. The music is low though, so as not to interfere with the
need for customers to communicate with the shop assistants. The kind of music
chosen in upmarket clothing boutiques will be used to create a feeling of
sophistication and relaxation. It will not be fast tempo; it may be classical
but not ‘difficult’; if popular music it won’t be chart music, but mellow,
slightly romantic-style female vocalists such as Dido.
Coffee
shop
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A home from home
Coffee
shops often aim to create a home-like environment. You will find an arrangement
of upholstered sofas and chairs and, in the chain coffee shops, these are often
offered in 'chocolatey'-coloured leather-effect
washable material. Wood panelling hints at the dark interiors of 18th Century
coffee houses and wooden flooring completes the look. Trendy independent coffee
shops may have distressed or bric à brac furniture, stripped pale
floors and quirky ornaments. Clusters of sofas, armchairs and low coffee tables
create intimate spaces for larger family-like groups. Very often these are visible
from the street to entice customers in.
However,
coffee shops have to strike a balance between making it attractive to linger
and the need for a fast turnover, so that they can sell more coffee per person.
Lounge areas will be therefore be balanced by small café tables and less
comfortable seats for one or two people. Other domestic touches are free
newspapers, to convey the generosity of the owner; and the works of local
artists on the walls to convey a community spirit.
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Loyal customers
At some
time you may have been given a ‘loyalty’ card which is stamped by a cashier to
encourage repeat custom. Sometimes you will receive a free coffee or cake for
collecting a certain number of stamps. But at least two big high street coffee
brands have decided to move away from the cardboard stamp system and towards
the plastic electronic loyalty cards akin to supermarkets. To obtain one, you
will need to provide identifying details, such as your email address, so that
you can ‘benefit from special offers’ and be sent vouchers and so on. This is a
great way for the shop to bombard you with marketing offers, reminding you of
their brand and to help you form the view that you are a loyal customer who
will want to return.
But where
is the balance between the rewards offered to customers and the use the company
makes of your data to increase their profitability? A recent test case showed
that the coffee stamp card gives you proportionately five times the saving as a
plastic loyalty card. Loyalty cards can make you feel as though you are getting
a discount, but you may often save more money by shopping around to see if you
can get a coffee for less than the tiny reduction the loyalty scheme gives on
each cup.
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A place to work
Coffee
shops have adapted themselves to the needs of those who ‘work from home’ or
need a temporary office away from home. They are also attractive to those who
are travelling and need access to email or the internet. The availability of
plug sockets for laptops and mobile devices as well as free wifi
encourages people to remain longer and creates an alternative environment to
the office or home. You will find people holding meetings in their local coffee
shop as a way of legitimately being able to leave the office but remain at work
- and with better coffee than they can get from the kettle in their own office!
Coffee shops may be part of a culture where the boundary between leisure and
work is less obvious.
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A feast for the senses
Prominently
placed, shiny Italian-made coffee-making machines create noise and steam and,
together with the clattering of crockery, suggest the presence of a busy and
efficient service. At the same time it creats an
atmosphere reminiscent of an Italian cafe. Depending on the kind of shop it is,
a background soundtrack, perhaps of Jazz music, encourages customers to imagine
themselves as participants in a scene of mellow urban sophistication. There are
no televisions or screens in these environments, unlike pubs.
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Counter culture
Creating
a brand identity for the shop means that owners have to do much more than think
about making coffee and selling it. The building blocks of the brand are in all
the small details: the logo, menus, counter furniture,
lighting, service style, range of products and so on. You queue up to order and
pay for your coffee, being forced to pass a counter full of tempting snacks and
cakes. You can also buy the shop’s own coffee beans, ground coffee, branded
mugs and other paraphernalia but often these are placed away from the queuing
area to encourage free browsing. In this way, you are being encouraged to take
a bit of the identity of the coffee shop away with you and into your own home.
Car boot sale
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Selling in bundles
Often,
stall holders will sell large bundles or groups of things for one price; for
example, 10 pence for one bag of mixed items or a basket of different items all
priced the same. This may reflect the fact that the vendor sources a lot of his
or her merchandise from one place, including taking on some much cheaper items
as part of a deal. Selling lots of things cheaply at the front of the stall
creates a sense of generosity and entices the customer in.
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Haggling with stall holders
For the
customer, the car boot has a less anonymous, more social atmosphere. There are
no extra or hidden costs such as marketing, advertising or packaging. The
transactions are not formal and the prices are fluid, so it is entirely up to
the stall holder what he or she sells and at what price. Negotiating with
customers emphasises the importance of the relationship with stall holders.
Many participants feel the need for a ‘bargain’ and will make a point never to
pay the asking price. Prices may fluctuate over the course of a session and
deflate towards the end of the day.
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Positioning of goods
Plentiful
toys and very cheap items placed at or near ground level can easily attract
children to the stall. And where the children go, the parents often follow.
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Savvy stall holders and canny customers
At car
boot sales you see a diversity of goods including ‘new/unused’ branded goods,
such as toothbrushes and shampoo. The latter will only sell if the asking price
is lower than the retail price – shoppers know how much these items cost in the
shops and will not pay the same in a car boot context. Accordingly, vendors
will have very tight mark-ups and a bottom price beyond which they will not go.
Some
vendors may specialise or sell collectable items, for example guitars, tools or
retro furniture, and provide useful information about the item that is ‘added
value’ for the purchaser.
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The fun of the unexpected
Going to
a car boot is not like buying in a shop. It has the thrill of the unexpected –
customers go with the anticipation of finding a bargain and a chance
psychologically to sidestep shop prices. But, at the same time, they don’t know
in advance what exactly they will come find, if anything. It has a childish,
treasure-hunt aspect. Barriers to entry are low; anyone can be a vendor and a
great many stall holders are regulars and get to know each other over the
years. Stall holders are also often obsessive car boot buyers, buying up the
merchandise of other stall holders to sell on at a lower price. This is a
cash-only economy, with no credit cards.
