Does 'Green' Feel Good? 5 Tips

Do you celebrate 'green' or are you skeptical? Here are 5 tips for ensuring that green feels good to you and your customers:

Sustainability and Flooring Marketing: 'Green Should Feel Good'

Thanks for reading!

Best,

C.B.

Customers Want Solutions... Right?

If you'd like to read my latest Flooring The Consumer article, please click on Customers Want Solutions From The Retail Experience.

How does what I describe compare to your experience? Do you see differences based on whether your experience is online or in-store? What is your most remarkable experience?

Oh, and which retailers stand apart in your mind?

Thanks for reading.

Best,
C.B. 

Making Social Meaningful in Flooring

Here follows my article titled "How to make 'social' meaningful in flooring" from the January 3/10, 2011 issue of Floor Covering Weekly.

How to make ‘social’ meaningful in flooring

By Christine B. Whittemore

‘Social’ is happening in flooring and it’s leading to stronger relationships with customers. Imagine, though, making it even more meaningful…

A challenge associated with ‘social’ has to do with how easy it is to set up a basic presence. Creating profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter or a basic blog are almost trivial.  And yet, as easy as the infrastructure is to set up, living, breathing and performing ‘social’ on an ongoing, consistent basis, in a way that truly strengthens ties with customers and delivers business benefits, can bring you to your knees if you don’t know what you’re doing.

The reality is that taking part in social networks takes time. Doing so without a defined business objective can fritter away resources you can’t afford to waste. Furthermore, if you don’t nurture your online content and keep it fresh, it can act against you, sending signals that your business isn’t all that sophisticated and not really serious about being social with customers.

There’s a better way – meaningful, deliberate and strategic – to use social media tools.  One that embraces a well-thought out, sustainable – as in something you can commit to long term – content based strategy that readers and potential customers gravitate towards and respond to. The kind that allows you to establish expertise and demonstrate relevant value, and represents the building blocks for building meaningful trust with potential customers.

Here’s why.

Picture this 50+ year old McGraw-Hill advertisement of acurmudgeon sitting in a chair, looking out at us skeptically saying: I don’tknow who you are, what you do, what your products are, whether you are relevantto me in any way. And you expect me to buy from you?

Customers today ask themselves the same questions. The best way to respond is by engaging that potential customer with meaningful content, in person as well as online, and consistently, deliberately and strategically establishing credibility and building trust BEFORE it’s time for her to make her purchase decision.

Establishing trust is why you do ‘social’. Credibility comes from showing up and engaging consistently over time, not just in-store, but also online via social channels where you can be yourself, demonstrate your passion and knowledge, be solution-oriented, approachable, willing to engage in conversation, answer questions, listen intensely and be genuinely interested. Online allows you do to so 24/7, when your customer is searching and your store is closed. Doing so with high quality content means that your content can work for you while you’re off duty. It ensures that the last person a customer interacts with isn’t always ‘at the bottom’ to quote Tom Jennings in his 9/6-13/10 column.  It enables you to make more effective your existing marketing assets.

Casual and superficial social activity – i.e., random tweets, irrelevant Facebook updates, inconsistent blog posts that promote only yourself – doesn’t build trust; quite the opposite. It puts people on guard. It makes them suspicious and unwilling to do business with you.

Better to build trust through a well-thought out, deliberate content marketing strategy based on internalizing what you learn from customers and the marketplace. It demonstrates that you understand the issues they face with your product and category, and enables you to respond with content – information, education, advice – that answers questions, resolves problems, offers advice and provides solutions that existing and potential customers consider relevant and valuable.

Once your content marketing strategy solidly developed, you can easily decide which social tool to use for which message and how frequently to update whether the platform be Facebook, Twitter or your and others’ blogs. You are able to maintain consistency of purpose and presence, able to build off of content created by others in your space – thereby enhancing your and their credibility – and able to do so indefinitely into the future.

As a result of those meaningful social efforts, you are more likely to become a destination that existing and potential customers consider relevant, gravitate towards, and willingly spend money with over time.

The alternative – superficial social interaction – guarantees that you operate in a lonely void, pushing endless messages about yourself that customers consistently shun and mark as spam.

Wouldn’t it be better to make your social efforts meaningful?

Be Social In-Store and Online

This article titled "Be social in-store and online" appeared in the August 23/30, 2010 issue of Floor Covering Weekly.

Being Social In-Store and Online

By Christine B. Whittemore

Would you agree that retail, by its very nature, is a social business?

After all it is about people – customers or buyers – coming into contact with other people – sellers – to acquire something. The two groups interact, asking questions, expressing interest, learning from one another and exchanging value. The interaction is what leads to a purchase decision -- when done correctly. It also determines whether the transaction warrants future retail interactions. Social interaction leads to building trust and a profitable retail relationship.

What goes into making a social interaction successful in-store and online?

There’s the store itself and how neat, appealing, up-to-date, organized and thoughtful an impression it communicates to a visitor. The physical environment creates a backdrop or frame of reference for customer-focused social interaction. It sets expectations and tells a story. Ideally, it even introduces employees – as LuluLemon Athletica does via a wall of employee pictures which includes each’s 5 and 10 year life goals.

The first social contact with your visitor further sets expectations not only about how welcoming you are, but also your knowledge, how much you care about your business and how willing you are to interact with customers. Being social means acting more like a consultant and customer advocate than a salesperson or order taker. It requires being truly hospitable and customer-focused. Imagine being a visitor to your store. How well do store representatives welcome you, show respect, listen, and methodically capture and absorb information? Do they follow-up and take care of the details associated with customer interactions? What about the ultimate social tool – the telephone – how do they use it?

All of these social courtesies set the stage for a relationship of multiple transactions with customers. They build trust and remove barriers associated with potential problems.

That’s in-store.

Managing an online presence is no different. There, too, you set expectations, express common social courtesies and generally anticipate the needs of customers. You do so through relevant and engaging content. Content is what communicates personality, uniqueness, competence... It takes multiple forms: words on a website, video, podcasts, interaction on social networks, slide presentations, photos… Just as your store and the people within, your online content demonstrates to visitors and potential customers that you are knowledgeable, real, accessible, welcoming and trustworthy.

Consider your website from your visitor’s perspective. How up-to-date is your content? How genuinely welcoming is your home page? Do you include information about you, your associates and company history as well as pictures of you and your people? Can visitors easily find your contact information, store hours and directions? Have you set expectations so site visitors know how quickly you will return an email or phone call? Do you detail how you handle issues? What about fresh ideas and inspiration for visitors? Look at what Carpetright in the UK has done with its web-based design tips and trend boards.

What about social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter? What do they communicate about your business? Is that content consistent with your in-store message? Are you social there, too? Do you interact and respond promptly, consistently and enthusiastically?

Whether in-store on online, consider the following social guidelines:

• Be welcoming & hospitable in-store and online

• Be fresh, new and interesting: update samples, windows, website, status…

• Be interested and interact: actively listen, ask questions, acknowledge, say thanks

• Be easy to contact: ask how best to stay in contact with visitors

• Be thoughtful: it’s about your customers and visitors, not you. Focus on how you can help them in-store and online.

• Be reliable and follow up on details: i.e., be trustworthy and dependable

• Be authentic & true to yourself: you are in business for the long haul, right?

• Be passionate about what you do: stand for something and be excited about it

• Be consistent: show up regularly and participate in the social interactions

• Be transparent: don’t lie, cheat, obfuscate or make things like price needlessly fuzzy; rid yourself of insider gobbledygook terms

Go, be social!

Women Call Retail Shots; Is Your Store Woman Friendly?

This article titled "Women call the retail shots... Is your store woman friendly?" appeared in the June 7/14, 2010 issue of Floor Covering Weekly.  I share it with you here.

Women call the retail shots. Is your store woman friendly?

By Christine B. Whittemore

Is your store woman friendly? It’s not difficult to be woman friendly, although it takes some getting used to. Critical is that you look at your store and retail experience from your customer’s perspective. Think ‘walking in her shoes.’

Why bother, you ask?

Women are becoming wealthier; 60 percent of women work, increasingly in managerial and professional positions. They own businesses, making them not only chief purchasing officers at home, but also at work. They represent the second largest group to purchase homes – ahead of single men. Powerful stuff; profitable stuff, too, if you understand the changes in the marketplace and accept that women call the retail shots.

Look, then, at your store and retail experience from your customer’s perspective.

Strip from your mind everything you know about flooring and carpet. Forget the lingo and the abbreviations. Rid your mind of the insider perspective. Instead, think in the same way that your consumer thinks. Refer to flooring in the same way she does. Consider flooring options – hard or soft – as a means to a very specific end for her. Is she looking for a textural look and feel [that has nothing to do with how we think of textures] or rather an elegant patterned look? What is it about the specific spaces she is seeking flooring for that really matter? Ask her questions to get to the root of what she has in mind for her home.

Women seek knowledge and want a sense of control, particularly for projects involving their homes, with relatively high price points – like flooring – that they have to live with for seven to ten years. Do you remember the Home Depot “Do It Herself” workshops which empowered women with knowledge and engaged them in their projects? The end result: terrific pride, enthusiasm and a great deal of word-of-mouth buzz – not to mention purchases that otherwise wouldn’t have taken place.

If you were to think of your retail experience as the equivalent of a project workshop, how differently might you think about it and prepare for it? I’m sure that the Home Depot workshops included a list of materials, instructions and additional reading – reference information, guidelines, recommendations - all materials that a participant would hold onto for future reference and certainly refer to as the project takes shape.

Extend that same thought-process to your retail experience. What might you offer your women customers [or even your male customers; they appreciate thoughtfulness and practicality, too]? Perhaps a project folder to keep track of all of the elements relating to this flooring project, including a check-off list for each stage of the purchase decision, explaining what to expect?

What about explaining how pad and carpet work together to form a flooring system and demonstrating how the pad investment affects the performance of the carpet and enhances the quality of the experience, too?

What about detailing what a consumer should anticipate in terms of caring for the various flooring options available? What is the ideal short-term maintenance plan and what will need to be done longer-term?

What if there are problems? Can you offer your customer a roadmap that outlines options, critical phone numbers, and what she can expect in terms of warranty support?

Be honest in describing the options. Think about which best capture the needs of your consumer. Don’t think only in terms of what is best for you. Rather, think of the world from your customer’s perspective… She will appreciate it and remember you for it.

Break each aspect of your customer’s purchase decision into its parts. If work takes place in the kitchen, for example, will your consumer need to have gas service turned off? Can you handle that for her? If not, what options does she have? Don’t abdicate responsibility for these kinds of decisions. They affect her overall shopping experience, and the better you anticipate, detail and describe so there are no surprises or negative aftereffects, the more satisfied she will be.

The more you anticipate her needs, the more woman friendly you will be, and the more a woman will call the shots in your favor.

What are you waiting for?

----------------
If you enjoyed this article, consider subscribing to Flooring The Consumer via email or RSS.  Thank you!

Different & Better Enough to Make People Care?

This article titled Are you different (& better) enough to make people care? appeared in the May 17-31, 2010 issue of Floor Covering Weekly.

Figuring out how you are different from competitors is critical to being successful in business. It comes up in every presentation I take part in. It's the basis for a strong marketing strategy, for creating memorable content and for making strong use of social media tools.

Do you know what value you contribute to your community? Do you know what makes your retail experience different and memorable for your customers?

----------------

Are You Different (& Better) Enough To Make People Care?

By Christine B. Whittemore

Have you noticed how important it is when you first introduce yourself to succinctly deliver an ‘elevator pitch’ that captures what makes you unique? When you do it well, your new acquaintance leaves with a distinct image in his/her mind about you and the relevance you offer.

The same goes for your customers. You want them to associate you and your retail experience with a positive and unique value proposition which distinguishes you from others in your marketplace. It must be specific enough to communicate what’s in it for them and relevant enough that they don’t think twice about engaging you in conversation. Once you start the conversation, you have the basis for building a relationship which may then lead to sales, satisfaction, word-of-mouth, and a retail community.

Imagine driving by a strip mall occupied completely by fellow flooring retailers. All look the same with carpet and wood samples parked in the windowsills and displays crammed within. The first store is called Al’s Flooring, the second Bill’s Floors, the third Charlie’s Carpets and so on. All have loud signs promoting Cheap! Sale! No Money Down! What’s to differentiate one from the other to a potential customer? These stores are only about price, bargains, and the deal of the day which will be meaningless tomorrow.

Then imagine in that competitive strip mall one store with a sunshiny yellow awning, flower boxes in windows which offer a clear view into an elegantly organized showroom. The name: Sunshine Floors & More – guaranteed to make you & your home shine!

That aura of sunshine permeates every element of the retail experience! Store events, sales, communications and interactions are themed around sunshine and ample information shared about making a home shine. Making the home shine is the passion of everyone in the store. It is the basis for the supporting community projects such as Habitat For Humanity to bring sunshine to other homes and homeowners regardless of their means. Sure to capture attention, don’t you think?

That sense of passion and commitment to the mission of making you and your home shine is so strong that it becomes the basis for a community of like-minded people who help tell your story about shine, value your perspectives and contribute back theirs. They gather based not on the price of floors, but rather because of shared affinity, a much more powerful and long-lasting basis for a community.

Now, in the current scenario, your community is primarily geography based. Those in your immediate geographic community have become aware of you and associate your flooring store with sunshine and making both customer and home shine. Fantastic!

There’s more, though.

Your community does not need to be limited by geography. Simply extend and integrate all of your in-store and offline effort onto your online presence. Have your website reflect your unique value as does your retail presence. Offer valuable information based on the questions that customers ask in-store. Echo the look, feel, passion and commitment you share with your offline community. Make use of the tools of social media and offer educational advice on how to care for floors on your blog, post photos of your in-store Habitat For Humanity event on Facebook and share links to articles about eradicating homelessness in your town on Twitter.

The result is significant. Your unique value becomes permanently and digitally visible 24/7; it can’t be easily overshadowed by the latest price-based promotion. Furthermore, it reinforces the value you contribute to the community.

Before you purchase that yellow store awning and change your name, though, ask yourself these questions. How serious are you about delighting customers? Are you committed to listening to them and learning from them? How determined are you to be more than a commodity player? Do you feel passion for what you offer the marketplace and can contribute to those in your community? Are you not just willing but determined to share your knowledge and interests with others?

If your answer is no, then go back to the way you’ve been doing things.

If your answer is a resounding Yes!, then get ready for a rich journey building and nurturing a retail community that will give back as much as you offer.

Customer Experience "Powered By Service"

This article titled "Powered by service" about service and the customer experience was inspired by my visit to online retailer Zappos in early 2010. It appeared in the February 25th, 2010 issue of Floor Covering Weekly.

"Powered by service"

By Christine B. Whittemore

Have you heard of Zappos.com, the online purveyor of shoes, handbags and now clothing, etc.?  Their tagline - “powered by service” – captures how important service is to their overall customer experience.  Not just because of a 365-day return policy [with free return shipping], but more importantly because their entire corporate culture is about service.  As a result, word of mouth has propelled them from launch and almost no sales in 1999, to gross sales of $8.6 million in 2001, $32 million in 2002, more than $1 billion in 2009 and their recent acquisition by Amazon for $847 million.

Note the reference to ‘word-of-mouth’ rather than traditional advertising in driving growth.  WOM has forged long-lasting relationships with customers who are repeat, fiercely loyal purchasers.  They, in turn, have contributed increased profitability and competitive differentiation to Zappos.

What makes the Zappos service experience so memorable?  It embodies a consistently upbeat, supportive and worth-returning-to experience focused on satisfying customers the first time.  Every single employee believes in “powered by service” without exception.  Each has internalized the effect each customer-related touchpoint, direct or indirect, has on that overall experience.  Otherwise, the business model falls apart.

Zappos hires people for cultural fit, looking for commitment to 10 core values that employees re-interpret on a yearly basis. Zappos culture is as much internally as it is externally focused.  Based on positive psychology, happiness and satisfaction are a function of how much control and progress an employee perceives s/he has, how connected s/he feels to the organization and whether s/he is part of something greater than the individual. Anyone who doesn’t buy in is encouraged to leave within the first few weeks rather than risk cultural mismatch. 

While at Surfaces, I toured Zappos.com headquarters – something anyone can do; simply go online and make a reservation – to experience the legendary, even extreme customer service oriented Zappos culture and meet the people of Zappos.  From Zack who picked me up to Pam who led my solo tour and the many people in between, I encountered the real ‘powered by service’ deal: authentically passionate individuals committed to the company’s success and to customers’ delight.

Here’s how you might bring ‘powered by service’ to your organization.

• It starts at the top.  Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh routinely answers customer service calls.  He actively monitors and interacts on Twitter, the micro-blogging platform, listening to customers. He is easily accessible: you will find no offices, only workstations and conference rooms.

• Show employees you care; make employees’ lives easier so they can focus 110%+ on delivering service.  The Zappos reception area is more like a concierge desk where employees make travel arrangements and have dry cleaning picked-up or delivered.  Have a package to receive or send out? Do so from Zappos.  Working the night shift and need a nap? There’s a place for that.  Hungry? Zappos offers free meals.  Need financial or nutritional advice? Meet with a consultant.  Feeling down and losing focus as an organization?  Count on a motivational speaker to put things back into perspective.

• Combine structure with flexibility.  Core Zappos values provide the structure; they are renewed and reaffirmed every year.  The environment may be casual and creative, but goals and expectations are clearly stated and employees are empowered to deliver on them cooperatively, courteously and positively.

• ‘Powered by Service’ is a collaborative process.  Everyone at Zappos goes through cross training to better understand the company and how each other’s role affects others’.  Cross training makes it easier to help out during crunch times. 

I left with a copy of the Zappos 2009 Culture Book, a motivational business book [The 4-Hour Workweek] from the Zappos library, a Zappos t-shirt, a Polaroid of me in the Royalty chair complete with Zappos crown [which doubles up as a foot sizer], many pictures [including one of me at Tony’s desk] and a deep appreciation for ‘powered by service’.

‘Powered by service’ represents a deep commitment to customers – external and internal – and an upbeat other-focused attitude or culture that both employees and corporation live by. It’s hard to fake and it comes through in every action taken. It also creates a strong competitive differentiator and generates profitability.

How might you and your company become 'powered by service'?

Have You Adapted Your Retail Experience?

This article about the retail experience and adapting it to a changed consumer appeared in the January 25-February 1, 2010 issue of Floor Covering Weekly.

Have you adapted your retail experience?

By Christine B. Whittemore

Have you noticed that our flooring consumer has changed?  It’s a change both subtle and obvious - subtle because it’s a natural evolution of forces that have been building over time and obvious because it’s now fully operational.  The end result is that our consumer has a new definition of value.  Unless you adapt the retail experience you offer your customer, you will lose her completely.

I see three major fronts of opportunity, each interconnected, based on three categories of influence.

Let’s start with the influences.

The era of frugality.

Our consumer has embraced the era of frugality in reaction to the economic turmoil we’re in.  If she hasn’t been directly affected by job loss, someone in her family or neighborhood has and she’s being cautious.  It doesn’t mean that she won’t purchase. But it does mean that she needs good reasons to do so.

She doesn’t trust what marketers tell her.

She’s been lied to, disrespected, taken advantage of and she’s tired of it.  She has access to information 24/7 via the Internet and will make sure she knows all that she needs to know before entering a floor covering store. Furthermore, she will tap into her social networks – online and off – to obtain additional guidance, perspective and context.  She wants to maintain control over her interactions and transactions with retail salespeople.  If you are not careful, she won’t trust you, either.

Her definition of value includes wanting to improve the world with her purchase decisions.

Women are concerned about the greater good and the environment they and their families live in.  They expect you to care, too, and be involved. If you aren’t involved in finding solutions to problems in your community, they will vote for others who are.

Furthermore, given a woman’s role of chief purchasing officer, chief moral promoter and chief home coordinator, you can be sure that she has generated discussion about these influences with each of her constituents.  She can help shape her children’s future by ensuring they don’t repeat our past excesses.

As dismal as you may consider the influences, they actually offer many opportunities – assuming you’re willing to adapt to our new consumer.

Make it simpler.

As much as the era of frugality is in response to the unfortunate economic environment, it’s also a reaction to excess.  In the consumer marketplace, consumers face an onslaught of choices.  Through frugality they can justify walking away from the overwhelming choices available.  Think of a sea of 50 similar beige carpet styles to choose from; each looks identical.  Having to figure out differences and benefits wastes her time.  Make the retail experience simpler.  Simplify product selection, edit the choices and offer meaningful options.  And don’t forget to include product maintenance solutions to tide her over until she decides to purchase new product.

Don’t lie to her or waste her time.

Our consumer is far from stupid. She also has access to more information than most flooring retail salespeople have available. Don’t even bother lying to her, she’ll find you out.  Don’t push product on her without truly understanding what she needs: that wastes her time.  Focus on consultative selling, on establishing relationships and offering solutions.  With that mindset, you and your retail salespeople have the opportunity to better understand the marketplace you do business in by exploring the world outside your store.  Ditch the hard sell and spend time listening to potential customers offline and online to hear what matters. 

Don’t make her regret that she gave you her money.

Your reputation matters – with your employees, your customers, in the community, with the environment.  How committed are you to outstanding customer service? What about product quality? Is your pricing deliberately confusing? Are you doing your share to support your community? How serious are you about green? Do you truly and actively support causes or are you a fake? She’s looking for authenticity and transparency.

Change is painful.  Ask our consumer. She’s had many changes to deal with. You have a great opportunity to adapt the retail experience you offer and create a customer for life.

Ten Tips To Be Found and Connect

This article about ensuring that your retail experience can be found online as well as in-store appeared in the October 5/12, 2009 issue of Floor Covering Weekly.

10 Tips To Be Found and Connect

By Christine B. Whittemore

You can have a great store that no one comes to. And a wonderful website that no one finds. How come? Do you know why both store and website aren’t found? It’s about searching. That’s how you know that a store or website exists.

We used to have the Yellow Pages. Who uses them anymore? Now, we type search terms into Google, and consider the results. Perhaps your website appears – maybe not.

More often than not, your store does not appear. Does it really exist, then, in the mind of the consumer? If she is looking to find you in the physical world and you aren’t there in the digital world, then you don’t exist.

So when people try to find your business, entering search terms relevant to you, do you come up first? If you don’t, then don’t be surprised when someone else takes your place not only online, but also in the REAL world.

My point is that you have to take steps to be found and discovered when people search for you online. And, then, you have to take steps to cement the connection and establish a relationship that carries seamlessly from your digital presence to your physical brick-and-mortar presence and back again.

Here are ten tips to be found and connect:

1. Eliminate your online flash applications. Content within a flash application is invisible to search engines. If you can’t, make them as unobtrusive as possible. Don’t have your content within that flash application.

2. Focus on content, specifically relevant, informative, and unbiased content that has your customers’ benefit at heart.

3. Make sure your relevant keywords – the ones that people would search – appear consistently in your content.

4. Start a blog and post frequently, consistently and relevantly about your business, your presence in the marketplace, and how you connect with your community. Tell your story and be genuine in sharing valuable information.

5. Make all of your content unique to you. That means don’t copy it from another site; don’t have the same content on your website that another website carries. Make it totally relevant to you and your geographic location. Tell your story.

6. Listen. Listen some more. Listen in your store. Listen to what your frontline employees say about your customers. Listen to what’s happening in your community. Figure out how to be relevant to what you hear. Listen online with freely available tools like Google alerts and Google Analytics. Then, address what you hear via your blog and web and in-store via your sales associates and marketing tools.

7. Forget the hard sell. Forget about it within your store; don’t dare do it online. The hard sell prevents you from connecting; it scares customers away and it drives negative word-of-mouth.

8. Look at your brick-and-mortar experience. What does it communicate to a first time visitor? Does it welcome and invite? Is it clean and inspiring? Now, look at your website. What does it communicate to a first time visitor? Is it difficult to navigate? Is it all about you or all about what your visitor might be searching for?

9. Promote your digital presence in your store and on brochures, business cards, ads, email signatures, etc. Be sure to promote your store location, phone number, etc. on your digital site.

10. Invite visitors to opt-in to your regular email newsletter communications. And then deliver an email newsletter that will wow your readers with the valuable information it contains.

The Greater Green & The Customer Experience

This article about sustainability [i.e., the 'greater green'] and the retail customer experience appeared in the November 23/30, 2009 issue of Floor Covering Weekly.

The Greater Green: How Does It Fit Into Your Customers’ Lives?

By Christine B. Whittemore


By now you’re fully prepared for that question “what do you have that’s green?” You’ve created a compelling green section in your store and filled it with bamboo, cork, wool and various other recycled and earth practical products. Fantastic! You’re set.

But are you truly set? Have you stopped to consider the greater green question and how the green product frenzy fits into your customers’ lives? Doesn’t that green flooring product actually represent more to them – possibly a solution to a greater green vision or aspect of their lives?  Otherwise, wouldn’t they simply buy the cheapest and most expedient flooring product?

So what about that bigger perspective, that greater green? How does it fit into your customers’ lives?

And then, how connected is your [green] retail experience to that bigger picture?

Our flooring consumer is time pressed, fiercely protective of her financial resources and skeptical of marketing claims – particularly green related ones which she assumes are false from the get go. She – the maker or influencer of over 80% of the purchase decisions affecting our industry – wants to do the right thing for her family and her community. She cares about environmental and social welfare because it holds the potential for making her place a better one for her children.

At the same time, she realizes that many greater green solutions – like climate change – are beyond her control. And, too often the issues are so large that they overwhelm as do the plethora of product choices and claims. The result: she avoids decisions and postpones new flooring.

However, she wants to be part of smaller human-scaled decisions and solutions which she can control.

Given all of that, how can green be of benefit to you and your retail experience? How can you be part of a greater green world of importance to your customers?

The question matters because – let’s face it – the world is trending toward increased environmental stewardship. We’re more aware that resources are limited, that our use of them has been irresponsible and wasteful, and that climate change is real. We’ve built up infrastructures that aren’t sustainable long term – kind of like the housing crisis. Overall, resources, including money, aren’t as readily available as they once were.

Furthermore the economic environment is forcing us – individuals, municipalities and businesses alike – to question the status quo, to radically rethink assumptions and come up with new models. So why can’t those new models include a green element?

As consumers, we aren’t rushing off to the mall as frequently as we used to. We’re getting more use out of our cars and our clothes. We’re rediscovering local and community, taking part in group hikes, interacting on Facebook and reconnecting with long-lost friends. In the process, we’re figuring out how to solve problems, efficiently and effectively and, more often than not, with a green angle.

We are still spending, though. It’s just that we want our purchase decisions to stand for something and for our resources not to be wasted.

Can you connect with this zeitgeist? Can you offer solutions? Can you reshape the conversations that take place in your retail environment around your green products in terms broader, more concrete and more relevant to your customers? Can you create a conversation around your role in the greater green?

Look at your retail experience: have you simplified your offerings so they make sense, their claims are truthful and can be transparently evaluated? Can you present them in terms of the greater green?

Can you innovate your processes in terms of green? Improve your lighting both in efficiency and illumination? Repurpose waste? Eliminate Styrofoam? Be more effective with service calls? Eliminate quality issues and installation problems?

What about your organization, including employees and family: what matters to them?

Extend outward to past and current customers. Share with them what you’ve discovered. Ask what matters to them? Can you align yourselves with other businesses in your community? Can you create a regular event that gathers customers and community to eradicate local hunger? Can you gather folks to your store to rebuild a home perhaps in combination with a “Cash for Clunky Carpet” event? Can you volunteer to help cleanup the Conasauga River?

The interesting thing about being part of the greater green is that it opens you up to real conversation, to authentic relationships and to unexpected and new sources of business -- sustainable, long term business that your customer has a vested interest in ensuring the success of.

Hide, Seek, Be Found And Connect: Your Retail Experience

This article about the retail experience appeared in the May 18/25, 2009 issue of Floor Covering Weekly.

Hide, Seek, Be Found & Connect

By Christine B. Whittemore

Consider your brick-and-mortar store. It’s solid, three-dimensional, and occupies physical space. You probably have a sign over it stating your company name and purpose. Your store windows may draw visitors in. The entire effect may even stop people in their tracks.

Or, maybe despite your store being so clearly obvious [to you] and physically present, you can’t be found. You blend in and appear to hide. Visitors can’t find you and don’t generate business for you. Perhaps the same is true of your website presence.

Consider that in 2009 not only does your store need to be found in the physical brick-and-mortar world – with a memorable retail experience that exudes strong customer commitment – but you must also be found in the digital virtual world with an online experience that educates, communicates trustworthiness and customer commitment and also reinforces your store experience.

That means that, in either place, you want your customers to have that same good and consistent experience. Online or in your store, you don’t ‘scream’ at visitors and repel them with poor customer service, messy and disorganized store displays, dirty bathrooms or loud and interruptive noisy, flashy website distractions. Perhaps you consider them engaging, but to your website visitors those mind-numbing jingles or video clips of TV ad campaigns literally attack them as they browse through your site, possibly late at night with children finally asleep, a cup of soothing mint tea close by… They can’t find that mute button fast enough! [you do have a mute button?]

Put yourself in your customers’ or visitors’ shoes. How would you react? Is that what you expect and appreciate? Is that what makes you want to return, for more of the same?

What if, instead, both brick-and-mortar and digital experiences showcased how focused you are on the needs of your local customer base? You listen intensely both online and offline – so much so that you anticipate and respond to customer needs. You truly connect with your customers – capturing critical information about them, their lives and their product interests, sharing relevant information about yourself in the process. You truly care about them and how to offer them meaningful and relevant value.

What about beyond that first interaction? Are you connecting beyond your store or website? Gaining permission to contact them with news? Asking them how best to connect? By phone, mail, e-mail or even IM? And, asking them how frequently you might reach out? That gives them a reason to return, to check out what’s new. It invites them to be part of the energy and enthusiasm you generate – about your category, your employees, your community, your customers.

Asking permission is powerful. It sets expectations. Following up demonstrates how seriously you take your commitments and customers as well as your trustworthiness and authenticity.

Asking permission opens doors. It allows you to explain why you want to stay in touch. Perhaps you have an in-store event on how to care for what they’ve purchased, or design experts or fun facts to share or some community involvement. It’s only natural that you would want to talk about those events and programs and get the word out. After all, these events offer value to those interested.

Asking permission takes place not just in-store, but also online. Both physical and virtual experiences must be consistent and reflect the same concern for courtesy. That’s how you set the stage for meaningful connections that lead to a community. Communities are vibrant: members talk to and about one another, share ideas and create new value for one another as you deliver more value to them.

Here’s the beautiful aspect of all of these connections. If you’re truly passionate about your business and customers, and truly committed to forging connections and establishing community, not only will you connect with others, but you’ll also easily be found by future like-minded customers when they start to seek out information about your products, and your brand.

Not only is it more fun, but it’s more profitable. That’s why I say: Hide no more! Be found and connect.

The Retail Experience Roadmap

This article, titled "The Retail Experience Roadmap," appeared in the February 9/16, 2009 issue of Floor Covering Weekly, in my column "flooring the customer."


What serves as your retail experience roadmap? Three resources ground me when I think about the retail experience: Paco Underhill’s "Why We Buy," Raymond R. Burke’s "10 Principles of Retail Shoppability," and Pamela Danziger’s "Pop! Equation: Field Guide to Shops That Pop" from her recent book Shopping.

Paco states that amenability and profitability are inextricably linked. To that end, he applies the tools of an anthropologist to retail environments, examining how shoppers behave and interact with product, displays, signage, and people in stores. The more comfortable and convenient a store, the more likely a shopper is to spend time and eventually buy. Makes sense.

Raymond R. Burke, professor of business at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, studies retail including marketing research, retailing, shopper behavior, and data mining. His "10 Principles of Retail Shoppability" represent the common elements he identified across a range of successful retail formats. Although the 10 principles may seem basic, they are critical and yet often aren’t addressed in the retail environment.

Show the product
Provide effective navigational aids
Simplify product organization and presentation
Minimize clutter
Maximize product affordance
Showcase new items and new ideas
Make the shopping experience convenient
Make the shopping experience enjoyable
Speak with authority
Maintain flexibility

Pamela Danziger’s "Pop! Equation: Field Guide to Shops that Pop" captures the soul or magic that great stores infuse into their retail experience. Her equation assumes that the basics have not only been covered, but also elevated to new heights to deliver more for the consumer. Such stores should:

Offer high levels of customer involvement and interaction
Excite consumer curiosity to explore & experience
Exude contagious energy & excitement
Represent a fine synergy between tangible and intangible elements
Capture an authentic concept
Offer superior value at a reasonable cost
Welcome all with an inclusive [not exclusive] attitude

Let’s take a visit to the Apple Store as an example. You position yourself first outside the store and watch to see how subjects approach the store, what they look at, how they enter. You follow. Once inside, what do they do? Where do they go? How do they interact with displays? How long do they stay? Do they buy?

Then, step back and observe the store itself. Remember that a store is about bringing people and product together, so both can interact. Successful store experiences engage the senses, as a store is about the product seducing the shopper into making a purchase.

The Apple Store is a sparse contemporary environment: plain white box; bright ethereal lights; very clean. The product, though, shines! It is available throughout the store on simple, accessible rectilinear tables. Shoppers are encouraged to play with it, interact, consult MapQuest, listen to music, ask questions, consult a Genius, obtain training. Bold graphics celebrate the beauty of the product, its stylishness, its newness.

If you need help in an Apple Store, you can easily consult the Genius Bar or an employee dressed in uniform t-shirt with an identification badge hanging from his or her neck.

Listen to the buzz of the store. It’s alive with energy, excitement, enthusiasm. Not only are shoppers involved with product, but they interact with one another. They are curious about what they don’t know and eager to share with others. It’s contagious! It also demonstrates the value associated with Apple products. An Apple product welcomes you into the Apple community. Whether you buy or not, you are invited to spend as much time in the store as you’d like.

Now, leave that Apple store. Keep that template or roadmap in mind and go back to your store. What do you now see that would improve your retail experience?

Technorati Tags: retail experience Paco Underhill Raymond R. Burke Pamela Danziger customer experience Del.icio.us Tags: retail experience Paco Underhill Raymond R. Burke Pamela Danziger customer experience

The Meaning of Green...To Me

In honor of Earth Day, I share with you here my article titled "The meaning of green... to me" from the November 3/10, 2008 issue of Floor Covering Weekly.


I love green. I vacillate between teal green and acid green. Currently, I’ve settled on spring green; intense in its energy, soothing in the promise it suggests, and inspiring in how it enables me to concentrate. But, that’s me.

Green used to be a private color. It’s now a public color with added meaning about our planet, the environment, sustainability, and hope for the future -- all positive associations, but also abstract ones open to interpretation.

Unfortunately, something happens when you combine a multitude of interpretations of green with too many calls-to-action that businesses and goodwill organizations have issued in the name of green. Confusion ensues.

My solution – and that of most people around me – is to develop my own definition. One that aligns itself with what’s within my control and benefits my constituents: my family and community.

That means that I recycle with gusto – paper and comingled cans and bottles - I’ve been doing so for at least 20 years. I prefer not to purchase bottled water. I used to compost, but now it attracts bears and raccoons. I use public transportation exclusively whenever possible – except where I live. We have no sidewalks, no local jitney and enough hills to discourage the practical cyclist. However, I hike with my family on weekends, thereby avoiding the malls.

I object to SUVs [a.k.a., Urban Assault Vehicles], preferring high performance sedans. I would love to drive a Mini Cooper some day. In principle, hybrids appeal to me. Unfortunately, what’s available doesn’t’ match my self-image. That doesn’t make me a bad person. I’ve cut back on unnecessary car outings and, when I do drive, I maximize my MPG like you wouldn’t believe. Shame on those people who accelerate irresponsibly to pass me!

When it comes to green claims from corporate entities, I’m predisposed to skepticism. How can I trust the claims I hear? They seem overly self-interested. I wonder if all of this isn’t meant to deliberately distract me from what matters.

What about quality, for example. Quality matters. Quality means that something will last, won’t disintegrate before my very eyes, will delight me and provide me with peace-of-mind and beauty over an extended period of time. Quality is why I’m willing to pay more for better tailoring, materials and construction in a business suit, or why I feel so strongly about the iPhone and my high-performance car.

And what about longer term or big picture? That definitely matters. My definition of green includes long term solutions that require that we all radically change how we think, act, do, live, drive. They necessitate that we work together across families, communities, political parties, nationalities, geographies.

Green has the potential to reinvent the world and reverse economic woes, requiring – and justifying – the kind of breakthrough thinking that can transform society, businesses, even retail experiences. Think about it. I have.

I want to be astounded by new retail models, particularly in flooring, about solar powered cars and home-specific wind-powered electrical generators. I’m pumped about spinning bikes that generate power for the grid. I want to eliminate global hunger and carpet the way for world peace. I want consumers to encounter memorable customer service, and for everyone to have access to the Internet. I want us to stop wasting resources. I also want to be part of the solution and I’m pitching in via the means I have access to and control over. Won’t you do the same?

Speak to me about the big picture and how you and your products can truly create value into the future. Tell me how you are making a difference as an individual and an organization. Please be transparent and truthful about what you say and do. I’ll do the same.

Make it easy for me to compare what you do to what others do. Make sure it’s believable – as I will check your claims and if you are deliberately tricking or confusing me, I will never trust you again. But, if you’re authentic in expressing your passion and pay attention to what matters to me, they I will welcome you into my community and help you.

Together we can make a difference. Together, we can create meaningful meaning for green.

--------------------------------
Related articles:

+ Study: 'Green' Products Leave Consumers Puzzled from 7/15/2008 Brandweek

+ Product Labels: Missed Marketing Opportunity from 3/31/2009 Media Post News suggests that marketers tell consumers the story behind a sustainable product to help connect value with quality.


Technorati Tags: Christine B. Whittemore FCW Earth Day the meaning of green sustainability Del.icio.us Tags: Christine B. Whittemore FCW Earth Day the meaning of green sustainability

Integrate Your Retail Experience

This article, titled "Integrate Your Retail Experience!" appeared in the September 15, 2008 issue of Floor Covering Weekly.


Have you considered that what matters to your customers is what makes your retail experience distinct from anyone else’s in your marketplace? And, further, that it constitutes your value in the marketplace?

What is it that matters to your customers? Is it a store stunning in its details? Is product selection second to none? Are your installers perfection personified?

Imagine having a flooring store that resembles The Apple Store. It infuses customers with Zen vibes and relentless passion. Customers immediately relax upon entering. They like to linger, considering possibilities. They willingly and enthusiastically take the plunge and purchase from you. They expect only the best. But, then, your store representative measures your customer’s room inaccurately. To make matters worse, your installer botches the job. In fact, this is the experience most of your customers encounter once they leave your store. What will your customers say to one another? How long will you survive?

What if you offer a selection of flooring products second to none and your deals are phenomenal. Unfortunately, your store's appearance is dreadful. Samples are strewn about the floor. The carpet underfoot is worn and stained; the bathrooms are best ignored. Consumers must undergo fumigation after walking through it. Despite the amazing deals and extensive product, how impressed is this shopper with you?

Picture this: your store is attractive; your installers are good, but no one follows up with the customer to ensure that the installation has been scheduled, let alone conveniently. No one has attempted to educate her about how to maintain her carpet. Your consumer encounters problems and learns that her warranty has been voided because she didn’t care for her carpet per IICRC and CRI recommendations. How satisfied do you think your customer will be?

These scenarios are common. Ask around. If you’re lucky, someone will be honest and share them with you. They all reflect a missed opportunity to better integrate all aspects of the retail experience so customers are delighted and impressed with us, talking about us in reverential rather than disgusted tones.

My mother is one of these disappointed consumers. Her experience was good enough from the average retailer’s perspective, but not from hers. Although her three projects look great, she endured three months of missed appointments, frustration, miscommunication and aggravation. One room was measured incorrectly, resulting in a backorder and a different, more expensive final solution. She personally had to pursue store representatives for basic information [when are you coming? Are you still coming? Where is my carpet?].

So, what’s going on? Experts will tell you that the back and front ends of the store experience haven’t been adequately integrated. Rather than work together as a team, they work competitively and at cross purposes.

Whereas such an approach might have been good enough not too long ago, those days are gone. Not only are we over-stored, but the social web offers consumers the tools to research, document and investigate reputation.

That places the consumer front and center. What matters to her, matters to you. Provide her with a flawless experience, and she will reward you with her business and her loyalty. Offer her a partially satisfactory solution and not only will she take her business elsewhere, but she will let everyone know to stay away.

Welcome to the new world order, where customers call the shots!

So, let’s rethink the situation. Aren’t consumers simply looking to find a perfect flooring solution for their beautiful home and a place where the relationship extends beyond the immediate transaction?

That requires that every aspect of your retail experience work seamlessly together, that all parts be integrated. It matters to her that you facilitate internal communications, and foster cross-departmental cooperation rather than competition so everyone can be a part of delivering solutions.

It matters to your customers. That means that it matters to you.

Technorati Tags: customer experience customer service retail experience integrated retail experience Del.icio.us Tags: customer experience customer service retail experience integrated retail experience

Buying decisions: From the heart or the mind?

My latest article titled "Buying decisions: From the heart or the mind?" appeared in the May 12, 2008 issue of Floor Covering Weekly.

Have you ever stopped to think about what triggers within you the decision to buy something? Is it your rational, practical left brain? Or, does it start in your eyes as you consider something, try it on for size and realize with a heart-pang that you just have to have it?

For example, what made you want to buy that large, flat screen, surround-sound TV? Was it the great deal at Best Buy? Or was it sitting in the Magnolia Home Theater, in that plush sofa, feeling the physicality of the game wash over you as you wanted to reach out and catch the ball? It felt that real. You had to have it. And, yes, it would benefit everyone in the family.

As human beings, we are highly emotional. We think our mind rules us, but the emotions are faster and stronger. Our emotions are most easily appealed to through our senses, and this is especially true in the surroundings we choose. We react to sensory input in all that we do: visual cues, language cues and vocal tones.

That emotional behavior absolutely translates into the retail environment, which – if constructed well – speaks to those emotions by feasting the senses.

Paco Underhill reminds us in "Why We Buy" that retail stores exist to bring shoppers and goods together. The goal is quite specific: to seduce us into buying. Obviously, depending on the store, the seduction can fail. But, successfully implemented, the store experience creates an atmosphere totally conducive to shopping -- exploring, considering and imagining and then buying.

The store can only do that by appealing to our senses and speaking to our emotions.

In many categories – including carpet – it is forgotten that, as practical an end product as flooring is, it isn’t purchased in a void. It is absolutely purchased in a context [often the home] that is as emotionally charged an environment as you can imagine.

Think about it: the home represents our most significant statement of who we are, where we come from, where we are going, what we want. It represents our embodiment of the American Dream. It’s our declaration of self. You bet it captures a few emotions.

What a let down, then, entering a flooring store, wanting to find the perfect solution to our home-related project and being greeted by an environment that looks as utilitarian as a shed, probably isn’t as well organized, and doesn’t seem committed to me as a customer, or interested in what I am trying to accomplish in my beautiful home.

Imagine instead a different store. One where I am entranced with jewel colors, while my hand can’t help running fingers through the tight twist of the textured frieze, or feeling the rough/smooth contrast of the level-cut-loop pattern. My ears want to be soothed with a relaxing toe-tapping tune. Comforting scents from freshly brewed coffee and hot-from-the-oven cookies would be greatly appreciated. Here, let me sit down, get my paint chips out, the pillow swatches organized. Now let me tell you about my project.

And it has nothing to do with your low price promotions, or no payments ‘til the next blue moon, or product that will last through a nuclear winter. For those are all rational, logical, practical considerations, as boring to me as buying insurance, in fact, so boring that I can easily decide to pass.

Now, go back to engaging my heart. Appeal to my senses; encourage me to participate in trying on these ideas. Do so, and I will guarantee that my mind will then work overtime to justify how absolutely critical the purchase of that dream carpet is to ensuring my well-being and that of my entire family.

Technorati Tags: retail experience Floor Covering Weekly carpet flooring Christine Whittemore Del.icio.us Tags: retail experience Floor Covering Weekly carpet flooring Christine Whittemore

Meet Kim Gavin, Editor, Floor Covering Weekly

I consider Kimberly Gavin, Editor, Floor Covering Weekly, a true champion of the floor covering industry. Not only does she understand the business [she is "a 21-plus year observer of the flooring industry"], but she never loses sight that the better the industry satisfies our coveted woman consumer, the more successful we will be.

I first met Kim when she interviewed me about marketing to women and the retail experience for FCW online in June 2005 and the printed edition of Floor Covering Weekly in October 2005. I was immediately taken with her quiet enthusiasm for my favorite topics. Ever since, I've considered her a kindred spirit.

CB: Kim, how did you get started in the floor covering business?
I stumbled into the industry - the way I'm sure many people do. I moved to Dalton, GA from having worked in the technical documentation world of mortgage banking. An opening at the local newspaper as editor of the "Dalton Carpet Journal" provided my entree into the industry and paved the way for me to join FCW, first as Dalton Correspondent, then as Dalton Editor, then Senior Editor, then Editor in 2000.

CB: What do you like most about the flooring business?
What I like most about the business are the people in it. We have some amazingly smart, talented, creative people and most of them happen to also be extremely nice. It's trying to be a fashion industry (and some are succeeding); I like that. I also like that it's about making interiors more beautiful, comfortable and practical for people. It's at the forefront of the sustainability movement.

CB: What do you like least?
What I don't like is that some view flooring as a commodity and they market accordingly. Manufacturers and retailers who take this view do the consumer a disservice. Sheet rock is a commodity. Flooring is a personal extension of my creativity in a home. [When we sell flooring as a commodity], consumers reward us by being mostly motivated by price, which hurts margins all along the chain. It doesn't have to be this way. Also, I think with industry consolidation we have lost some of the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit the industry used to have.

CB: What do you like most about carpet?
What's not to like about carpet? It's warm, soft, comfortable to the touch. It's safer than hard surface when it comes to slip and fall - and we're not getting any younger. It has the advantage of trapping airborne particles until they can be vacuumed away. I have hard and soft surface, but really love the way carpet doesn't show dust, dirt and cat hair the way wood or tile will do. And stylistically you can do so much with it. It's a great product.

CB: Kim, what five things would you do differently to create a better retail experience in flooring?
To create a better retail experience:

1. Pay attention to the outside of the store. The inside and the outside should match and that often doesn't happen. Both should be as upscale as possible given the retailer's target demographic. If you're going after the Tiffany's shopper, there's your role model.

2. Do your own merchandising or join a group. Stop taking every display rack known to man. Most flooring stores look like a hodgepodge. And update those displays. Some stores are still carrying racks from long-defunct companies.

3. Hire more women, especially on the sales floor. I'm instantly skeptical that a guy can help me with interior selections. Unless he's gay, he's got a lot of proving to do to me. I'm just more comfortable that a woman can empathize with me. That's not to say there aren't some great sales men, but I think your odds are better with women selling to women.

4. Listen to the customer. Hear what she's saying and not what you think she's saying.

5. Don't be afraid to steer her in the right direction. She's coming to you for advice. Give it to her. If she's making a mistake, tell her so. Do it nicely, but do it.

CB: Kim, how do you see traditional and digital media working together for the flooring industry?
I have no idea how traditional and digital media will ultimately work together. What I think you'll see are the baby boomers will stick with traditional media while the younger generations will embrace digital on a much broader scale. How that plays out should be interesting to watch.

CB: Which blogs or news sites do you follow?
Honestly, I spend most of my time on news. I subscribe to The New York Times and The Wall St. Journal online and a local newspaper that I have delivered. I still like reading a newspaper each day.

CB: Thank you, Kim!

[The photos above are of Kim with Ann Hurley, caught in deep discussion.]

Technorati Tags: Kimberly Gavin FCW Floor Covering Weekly carpet flooring marketing to women Del.icio.us Tags: Kimberly Gavin FCW Floor Covering Weekly carpet flooring marketing to women

In Search Of An Experience

My article on 'In search of an experience' from the 11/12/2007 issue of FCW.

Experience:
a. An event or a series of events participated in or lived through.
b. The totality of such events in the past of an individual or group.

There's so much talk about experience, but what does it really mean? We yearn for experiences. Our consumers are no different. Increasingly, it’s what we routinely encounter shopping for groceries at Whole Foods Market, ordering java at Starbucks, celebrating a birthday party at American Girl Place or banking at WaMu.

According to Pine and Gilmore, authors of The Experience Economy: Work Is Theater & Every Business a Stage, experience is the sum total of every interaction a consumer has with your store before, during and after the transaction, the sum total of an individual’s perception [i.e., how that customer feels about you] of your organization. It's based on all the direct and indirect interactions she has with you.

Turn that around and experience becomes our opportunity to affect a customer’s perception and feeling by altering or gently manipulating every aspect of an encounter with us [virtual or real] to establish a positive relationship. Talk about effective.

No matter where in that customer’s life cycle she is, her interactions with you must be memorable, delightful, inspiring and repeatable. Buying goods or services from you goes beyond physical ownership to a realm where emotions reign supreme, creating something priceless and completely disassociated from commodity.

That means that your store can’t just offer any old ho-hum experience. Your store has to literally jump off the sidewalk and capture customers’ imaginations and curiosity, drawing them into your store. They emerge wanting to return again and again. They tell everyone they know about the experience you offer. They participate in a long term relationship filled with a multitude of transactions and interactions, possibly even joining a community of impassioned believers in your unique experience. Think Harley-Davidson or Apple.

As consumers, we are time-starved. We multi-task, over-schedule ourselves, and stress-out. We yearn for simplifying solutions and delightful experiences as we become intolerant of borderline service, inadequate products and uninspired retail environments. With so many options online and off, we call the shots.

Our most critical consumer decision-makers – women, making or influencing more than 85 percent of the purchase decisions – want value, quality and substance, with flair. They look for it in engaging, respectful, and fashionable retail environments. If they don’t find it, they walk away and share that disappointment with others.

Furthermore, for the first time ever, we live in a society where the majority of the population is over forty. People over 40 have basic needs taken care of. With more disposable income than when they were younger, they’ve accumulated quite a lot of stuff, which means they become pickier about how to spend hard-earned income. They won’t waste it on a lousy experience. Instead, they want to learn from the interaction; it should be the basis for something unexpected, unusual, uplifting and generally positive that engages emotions and senses.

Pine and Gilmore explain that our economy has progressed beyond raw materials, beyond goods, and beyond service to become experience-based. Competing on price being no longer an option, the only way to differentiate ourselves is through the experience we offer.

Aren’t you living Pine & Gilmore’s "The Experience Economy?" I am. I resent stepping foot into an uninspired retail store. I loathe dirty, sloppy and cluttered environments. Surly attitudes make me run in the other direction. I expect perfect product options at a fair price, and I demand convenience. My expectations are high, and, if I can’t find what I need in your store, I know exactly where to go instead - the Internet - or, I’ll simply pass.

Our basic survival needs have been dispatched. We no longer make cakes from scratch; forget cake mixes, and bakeries are somewhat passé. I may choose [or I may not] to offer my child a full birthday ‘experience.’ It will be memorable, unique and totally focused on her. So what if it costs $300 rather than $1. After all, my little girl will only be little once.

Unfortunately, our flooring store experience hasn’t kept up. Ours is about a raw material or goods economy experience, focused on the lowest price available. We tout features and benefits when she searches for the means to creating a beautiful and fashionable home.

How might we offer an ‘experience’ instead? Well, we need to go beyond price, beyond goods as commodity, and beyond service to the totality of her interactions with our store. She’s searching for that experience; let’s create it for her.

Hat tip to Jim Aaron from CCA Global University for the inspiration.

Technorati Tags: marketing to women retail experience Del.icio.us Tags: marketing to women retail experience