International retailers and manufacturers lead the way in increasing impulse purchases and basket incidence through theatre and occasion based solutions. For Retail World Magazine.
The Shopper Marketing survey interviews we’ve been conducting during April are consistently identifying two key instore marketing areas of opportunity: occasion based solutions and instore theatre.
The major Australian grocery retailers’ relentless focus on clean store policies, particularly in centre store, is all well and good from an ease of shopping point of view. But an easy shopping experience isn’t necessarily a fun, exciting or enjoyable one.
Occasion based solutions and instore theatre provide a sense of delight and discovery that not only increase basket size but generate store and retailer loyalty by providing a genuine point of difference.
Following are some examples from overseas markets to demonstrate what can be done, with a few Australian iterations thrown in for good measure.
THEATRE STARTS OUTSIDE THE STORE
Westfield’s global retail tours highlight the creativity employed to draw traffic to store. The giant Louis Vuitton suitcase enveloping the Louis Vuitton store in New York comes to mind.
Figure 1. Just Sports exterior, Dallas, Texas
Figure 2. Whole Foods market, Los Angeles. Flowers and plants out front signify ‘Fresh’.
Outdoor chains in the USA such as Outdoor World, Bass Pro Shops, and Cabelas (the US versions of BCF – Boating Camping Fishing, except that they include large hunting departments) start the theatre outside the store with hunting trophies and stuffed animals. At centre store are huge dioramas of stuffed wildlife – deer, bears, mountain lions etc – as well as aquariums with live fish. These dioramas serve as points of navigation, dividing departments.
The stuffed animals ironically continue to ‘bring products to life’ at shelf.
Figure 3. Stuffed animals ‘enliven’ hiking boots in Bass Pro Shop, Nashville, Tennessee.
THE THEATRE OF FOOD – INSTORE FOOD PREPARATION
Mainstream and premium grocers in the USA ranging from HEB to Whole Foods to Bristol Farms increase their food sales margins by preparing food instore in front of shoppers.
At Whole Foods, for example, you can order your salmon cooked to specification. At Bristol Farms you can sit in the coffee shop located in the centre of the store. Foodland Adelaide’s Finest at Fairview Park is doing a version of this with its instore cafe and takeaway coffee.
Some grocery retailers such as HEB have a chef’s corner (eg HEB’s Cooking Connection) where they not only prepare recipes of the day and display ingredients and complementary products, but also provide advice, effectively acting as an instore salesperson.
Figure 4. Cooking Connection in HEB, Fredericksburg, Texas
Feels like this is a natural extension of the Feed the Family and Curtis Stone programs in Coles, if they chose to go there. Other Australian examples include SupaBarn in Canberra City, where they bake the bread in front of you (impulse sales based on the fresh bread smell alone!) and again Foodland Adelaide’s Finest, who have a chef’s corner.
THEATRE IN AISLE
Providing theatre in aisle and at shelf increases basket incidence of multiple categories by attracting top up shoppers who may otherwise only shop 1 category per aisle or second aisle. Australian examples of using fixturisation to increase category incidence include the much-cited and award winning Cafe At Home project from a few years ago. Below is an example of how Whole Foods approach the coffee ‘fixture.
Figure 5. Coffee ‘fixture’, Whole Foods, Los Angeles.
Figure 6. Craft beer tap handles in Old Chicago brewpub, Denver, Colorado
In US brewpubs (chain and independent pubs ranging many specialty and craft beers) the beer taps are centre stage, with the tap handles the engine room of discovery.
OCCASION BASED SOLUTIONS: SECONDARY DISPLAYS
One of the retail issues in the Australian market is that retailers are selling products, rather than solutions. Bunnings is a classic example, where by attempting to maintain a ‘warehouse feel’ they are missing the ‘this goes with that’ solution nature of the hardware category. Sure they have floor stacks in aisles, such as hammers where the nails are, but true solution based displays, eg ‘I’m building a deck, what are all the things I need?’, are thin on the ground.
Occasion based solutions, such as all breakfast elements (milk, bread, spreads, cereal etc) being placed together can drive AWOP as they increase the number of items in the basket.
However, for logistical, political and buying structure reasons, retailers aren’t going to just up and relocate a number of categories’ primary locations to group them together.
But shopper focussed solutions such as dinner tonight, lunch on the go, and entertaining can still be catered to with secondary and offlocation displays. (A nod here to Coles, where some of their renewal stores include a Food To Go chiller case). In the UK, pharmacy chains such as Boots and Superdrug offer food-to-go solutions in front-of-store chillers.
Figure 7. Food To Go area at Coles St Agnes, Adelaide SA
Figure 8. Takeaway Soup & Sandwich display, Whole Foods, California
This is the model being pursued in the USA, where smaller grocery and mass merchant suppliers who wouldn’t normally get an offlocation display look-in are banding together with complementary larger players to achieve impactful solution based displays.
Traditionally behind Australia in offpremise liquor execution, the USA is starting to catch up with a couple of ‘big box’ liquor chains gaining scale. Both Total Wine and Bevmo understand liquor consumption occasions. Aside from substantial gifting offers including boxes, bags, cards, glassware, wine openers etc in dedicated areas instore, they also play to entertaining occasions by ranging specialty cheese and gourmet crackers.
Figure 9. Cheese and Crackers unit in Bevmo, Arizona, USA. All that’s missing is the soft drink and mineral water.
So there are a few examples. Now that the basic ‘hygiene’ elements are in place, it’s time for Australian retailers to pick up their game.
We’ll discuss the role of interactivity and instore education in subsequent articles.
SHOPPER MARKETING SURVEY – HAVE YOUR SAY BEFORE TIME RUNS OUT
POPAI and ShopAbility are currently running the first industry benchmark study into the status of the Shopper Marketing, Category Management and POP functions in Australia.
Interviews have been conducted and now is your opportunity to have your say in the online survey, closes June 2. Participation is free, and study participants will receive a summary of the findings. To participate go to http://www.ys3.net.au/surveys/5/y100514register.asp
