The Science and Art of Building a Branded Customer Experience: Part 1

It seems I have been involved in store planning and design for what feels like forever. My dad started a store design business in 1947. After stints with C.E. Swanson and Raymond Loewy, he struck out on his own with a small retainer from Peterson, Harned and Von Maur, now known as Von Maur. His firm added to its stable of clients with independent department stores in the mid-west like Younker’s, H.C. Prange, Bergner’s, Carson Pirie Scott, Marshall Field’s and Dayton Hudson. Sadly, all are gone now except for Von Maur.

I joined the firm in 1968 and along with an incredible group of talented people, the firm grew to 80 professionals in Chicago with branch offices in Pasadena and Mexico City and an associate office in Bangkok. We continued to work with department stores and added big box, specialty, discount stores and grocery stores in the U.S., Mexico, South America, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. It was quite a ride! Along the way, we worked with more than 250 clients and I got a good sense of what it takes to win and lose at retail.

Family and founder operated stores usually have a historic brand rooted in the founder’s values, beliefs and passion for their business, employees and customers. They develop character-building brand attributes that we as designers can translate into in-store initiatives to shape a branded store experience in a way that stands out in the marketplace.

Unfortunately, the industry evolved in ways that squeezed most independent retailers out, in favor of large publicly owned corporations that are scrubbed clean of most distinguishing attributes by ever-changing executive suites. I know the difference between the customer experience delivered by Marshall Field’s in the 90s compared to the store that now occupies its former buildings.

I once interviewed with a large, publicly owned chain and I asked the CEO to describe his company, its brand and how it is recognized in the marketplace. He responded by reciting the prestige brands they carry in the store. Then he proudly said, “That’s who we are.” It was then that I realized that these guys have no idea what a brand is, much less understand the art and science of building a successful branded experience.

It became clear that before we could design the store experience, we needed to figure out what to design and why. That’s why we developed a tool to assess a client’s brand, its positioning and attributes so that we can create in-store initiatives to bring the brand to life as a store experience.

The path to a branded store experience involves:

• Understanding a Retail Brand in terms of its Positioning and Attributes.
• A thorough knowledge and understanding of the components of the Retail Experience.
• Creating initiatives for each component of the experience that is rooted in its brand attributes.
• Implementing all initiatives consistently across the entire store experience.

The Retail Brand

A retail brand resides in the mind of a consumer as the sum of experiences they associate with a store.

So, in a real sense, the experience a retailer creates in its stores and other customer touchpoints is their brand. Therefore, a store must align all channels and customer touchpoints to seamlessly and consistently reflect the desired positioning and attributes of the brand.

Positioning

A retail brand’s foundation is its positioning or value proposition. There are five retail positions:

• Low price
• Assortment – whether large or tightly focused
• Fashion forward or right product
• Products and services that make shopping easy
• Quickest, most convenient and organized

Some retailers combine two positions. The most common are low price and big assortment (category killer), and a high level of service with the right product (lifestyle store).

Successful retailers dedicate their associates, communications and marketing to that positioning and execute it consistently on a store level. They excel at what they do and remain relevant to their customer.

Brand Attributes

In order to make a brand more recognizable in the marketplace, companies create other attributes that further distinguish themselves and add personality to build relationships with their customers. Possible attributes are endless, but some might include:

• Expertise
• Authenticity
• Story telling
• Unique brand voice
• Humor
• Best in class
• Problem solving
• Product development
• Ingenuity
• Emotional connections
• Customer hospitality
• Immersive

These attributes add uniqueness and character to merchandise presentation, design and visual communications that make up the in-store experience.

In-Store Customer Experience

An in-store customer experience is comprised of five separate components or disciplines:

• Customer progression or layout
• Merchandise and its presentation
• Visual communications
• Service model
• Design and amenities

Based on the positioning and attributes, in-store initiatives are created for each of these components. The result is a one-of-a-kind branded customer experience that is relevant to its customers while standing out in the marketplace.

Obstacles to Success

I pause here to note two obstacles to success. The first is that every retail organization must have a brand with relevant and distinctive attributes. And the sad truth is that after decades of consolidation and copycat tactics, many, if not most, organizations do not have a brand backed by distinctive and relevant attributes. Many have lost their reason to exist in today’s challenging retail environment. Unfortunately, they will eventually fail or undergo a top-down transformation.

The second is that traditional organizational structures are not conducive to building a brand. A branded experience is comprised of coordinated initiatives across all channels and customer touchpoints. These initiatives must seamlessly support the brand and its attributes.

When the responsibility for each touchpoint resides in individual departments and silos, the result can become disjointed. Today, all departments and silos must act as a team that has oversight from a brand gatekeeper who is responsible for the overall customer experience.

Check back for part II in the coming weeks where we’ll explore in-store initiatives and how a hypothetical brand could tackle these design challenges.