EMOTIONAL DESIGN in retailing
THE FIVE SENSE EXPERIENCE
Linda Cahan • Cahan & Company • Retail Design Strategy
“Emotion is at the foundation of people buying things they don’t need.
Reason is always secondary in the purchase decision.”
From Why People Buy Things They Don’t Need by Pamela N. Danziger
In 2000 over 40% of consumer spending was discretionary This doesn’t include essentials: food, basic clothing, furniture, household equipment, and basic medical care, housing and housing operations.
It’s only gone up since then!
Why do we buy things we don’t need?
RETAIL THERAPY! An emotional band-aid or, a delightful reward.
Emotional design gives up permission to buy things we want but don’t need.Other than need – we buy because of: stress, anxiety, desire, fear, delight, reward &comfort.
In our stores we want to create feelings of:
Happiness
Wonder
The joy of discovery and adventure
Rewarding ourselves for something good
What we don’t want to create includes feelings of:
Irritation – such as we feel on long lines
Rage – generally when we feel something is very unfair
Jealousy – why can other people afford this but I can’t
Despair – my life will never get better, I’m doomed to 1. Never be able to shop at a store
like this or, 2. Always have to shop at a store like this
Melancholy – Nothing feels good in my life, I’m so depressed
Embarrassment – I can’t believe I have to step out of the dressing room in front of
everyone to see how huge my butt looks in these pants.
Positive emotions are engaged through sensory merchandising.
How we remember and retain information:A different education study:
Just seeing = 23% retention
Seeing + Hearing = 43% retention
Seeing + Hearing + Touching = 80% retention
Imagine adding taste and smell – you’ll be over 100%!
EMOTIONAL DESIGN • THE FIVE + SENSES
SENSE ONE: SIGHT
Keep it simple.
The mind is like a computer – it can take in just so much information before it “shuts down” to process input. The more simple the message, the more the message is repeated and, the more geometric it is – the better it is remembered and retained.
Think the bulls-eye for Target – repetitive image, repetitive colorNike swoosh, the angled white graphics in the orange box for Home Depot, American
Express, United Rentals, Circuit City’s circle, etc.
* Remember one damaged ceiling tile can downgrade or degrade the impression of the
merchandise not only in that department but also for the entire store.
We can influence positive emotional buying through the use of color.
RETAIL COLOR PSYCHOLOGY
Color influences us emotionally, physically, intellectually and spiritually. It influences
how we buy, how we perceive a store’s intended image, products – everything having to do with retail sales.
Often storeowners are afraid of color – afraid colorful merchandise will clash with bright wall colors. One basic rule of thumb is: if it works in nature – it will work in your store.
RED:
Sells the most, powerful, exciting, stimulating, hot, inspires people to eat and shop more,
in large amounts - creates anger and irritability. 5 minutes in a red area feels like 25 min.
Red represents life force energy! Best in small doses at point of sale or, toned down to
burgundy which is more refined, elegant and ideal for more expensive merchandise.
ORANGE:
Bright orange is considered to be the least favorite personal color in the world. It is
childlike, not serious and playful. Stimulates the appetite. Friendly and down-to-earth,
orange creates warmth/happiness. Annoying in large/bright amounts but most appreciated
by trendsetters and creative/artistic people – as well as children. It screams “affordable.”
Toned down to terra cotta – it becomes a warm, inviting neutral that is an excellent color
for many retail spaces. Peach tones are great for certain types of stores an always perfect
for dressing rooms as they enhance any skin-tone.
YELLOW:
First color perceived by the retina of the eye. Affordable, bright and friendly
it says “stop and think.” It represents the intellect and processing information. It’s all
about “gut feel.” Too much or too bright yellow = tension and irritability. Butter yellow
or soft tones enhance appetite and keep people alert as well as happy.
BLUE:
Most popular favorite color in the world. Represents trust, communication and teaching.
Calming! Healing. An appetite killer for most adults – not a color associated with food.
Cobalt Blue – very hot trend for housewares, gifts, appliances and cars in 2007, 2008.
Light blue: Expands space, cools and, lowers body temperature, encourages flights of
fantasy, enhances the imagination and can be depressing in large spaces – there is no “heart” in light blue. It is the blue tone of “I’m feeling blue.”
Indigo or Navy Blue: Excellent color to represent authority, wealth and power. It is the color that connects us to our intuition. It is not a great retail color.GREEN:
Healing, fresh, calming, relaxed, clean – it represents nature and growth of any kind.
Soft, muted, gray-greens are more sophisticated and appealing to wealthier people.
Lime green: This has lots of yellow so it attracts attention – generally preferred by younger people it also says “affordable.”
Deep green: Money, wealth, class as well as quality. It is also refreshing, relaxing and represents the outdoors and nature.
25 minutes in a green room feels like 5 minutes. Time flies in a green space.
PINK:
Heals and opens the heart. It’s warm and fuzzy, lowers blood pressure, and makes people
enjoy a space more. It sells more by creating feelings of well being. Pink enhances taste and smell as is excellent if you want people to eat more.
Hot pink: This represents sexual energy and is a young, trendy color right now.
PURPLE:
Our connection to a higher power, spirituality/religion – it’s been said that people may steal less in a purple environment. It is a mix of life force energy and spirituality. Purples are complex, appealing colors – great for “new age” as well as creative merchandise spaces. They are also an excellent accent color for nature and garden related products.
SOFT CITRUS and LILAC – big color combination trend for 2007 – 2008
BROWN:
Friendly, grounded, earthy, trustworthy, calm, recessive and, most often seen in wood tones rather than in paint.
BEIGE, TAUPE & TAN:
No real emotional reaction but, these are warm rather than cool and are ideal neutrals for
people who don’t want to commit to brighter colors yet want the store to have a feeling of
color. These are easy to live with, simple and good basics to work off of.
GRAY:
Try to avoid if possible. Cool grays are emotion killers, dull and depressing. Warm grays (with a bit of brown) are more taupe-like and can work as long as it is not the main color.
WHITE:
Purity, simplicity, clarity, clean, upbeat, unspoiled, virginal, reflective. Bright white can be too much in a store – too stark – the eye has no place to rest and will bounce off the walls. Creamy whites are warmer, more appealing and can look great.BLACK:
Powerful, elegant, chic, strength, protection, can feel negative and/or depressing. Best used in combination with a bright color. Dark ceilings have no reflective qualities – will need more light to light up a store.
VERITCAL COLORIZATION
Geometric, easy to read, visually outstanding and attractive.
Create a voyage of discovery
If you have a geometric, 90% aisle plan – have interesting, fun and angled end caps.Make sure there is a great color presentation at the sight end of each aisle.
If you have a racetrack style store, find the focal points around the store and highlight them through color, shape and light.If you have a circuitous pathway through your store each twist and turn should bring the customer a new visual delight, display or grouping of merchandise that makes sense. Each turn creates a new focal point. Consider logical adjacencies.
FIVE SIMPLE VISUAL STEPS FOR MORE
EFFECTIVE EMOTIONAL RETAILING :
1. Identify and Create Formal focal points/areas throughout the store
2. Identifying graphic images in focal areas
3. Strong color/merchandise displays in focal areas
4. Light up the focal areas brightly!
5. Maintain and change these areas often
SENSE TWO: SOUND
Have music in the store that relates to a person’s nervous system at different ages of their lives.
Have the music be age appropriate for each area. If that is not possible – have music that relates to the store’s advertising.
Ideally – create “image identifying” music.
Music should: relate to your customers, relate to your merchandise and relate to your advertisements
A lack of music makes for a tomb-like store.
SENSE THREE: SMELL
Smell is the most evocative of all the senses. We retain odors in our memories more than any other stimulation.
Create a scent just for your stores. Think Abercrombie.
ScentAir and the Sony team created a subtle blend of blood orange combined with vanilla and cedarwood to be dispersed throughout all their stores to appeal to women as well as men. See TIME magazine, Oct. 16th, 2006, page 66 for more information.
Pleasant scents encourage shoppers to linger over a product, increase the number of
times they examine it and, in some cases, increase their willingness to pay higher
prices. North Jersey Media Group, 2/12/07, www.northjersey.com
Food scents are more appealing to the majority of people and are less annoying to scentallergy
prone people. Floral scents can irritate people.
Most important – whatever scent you choose to use – keep it light and faint.
Strong odors of any kind will turn off many people.
Some methods of dispersing scents:
Scent rings that go around incandescent bulbs
Scent balls that plug in
Scent diffusers – electric – best for larger spaces and for custom scents
Sticks in scented oil in glass bottles
Some retailers are using timed sequences of targeted smells to “decorate” an
environment.
SENSE FOUR: TOUCH
Our tactile sense is power and can be entertained by texture or, the illusion of texture.
All flat laminates will not create any sense of texture and you can’t rely on the
merchandise alone to give a textural feel to a store. Adding textured panels to the walls is
a start. Other ways of adding a sense of touch is cleanliness! Unwrapping one of each
item so a customer can see, touch and explore it is another way to engage the sense of touch.
Unless you’re a museum, avoid displaying under glass for items less than $50 (TBD).
SENSE FIVE: TASTE
This sense is the most ignored in non-food stores but goes a long way towards shopping memory retention. One piece of hard candy can create a positive memory. For higher priced goods, one chocolate kiss or small chocolate square can cement a shopping relationship.
Try to avoid the looser candy – red and white mints.
Give people water!
Cider in the winter is a true gift and popcorn is always appreciated in certain types of stores. Most United Rental locations have free coffee for their customers.
SENSE SIX: FEEL/VIBES
This is the most illusive sense – and the most difficult to design into the shopping experience. This is the vibe, attitude, energy a store gives off. Target gives off the illusion of being trendy and cool – yet affordable.
Costco employees seem more pleasant than others – perhaps because they’re getting paid decently.
Kindness comes from the top – if corporate management treats the managers well they may, in kind, treat the store mangers well who will then pass this good energy down to their employees who will hopefully treat the customers well – which always translates into sales.
Fear management will work – but only for a while. Karma can reward or destroy a chain of stores. Time will tell.
Shopping should be a stress- reducing experience!
Basic stressors you can alleviate in your stores:
- Do I belong here?
- Where should I go in this store?
- Is there a place to go to the bathroom?
- What do you mean - the restroom is in the far left corner of the store - that’s a half mile away - are you kidding?
- Can I change the babies diaper once I get there?
- What if I have to breast feed the kid?- I need the men’s room but I’m with my little daughter -don’t you have a family
restroom so I don’t have to send her into the ladies room alone? Why not!!!!???????
What am I going to do? She has to GO - NOW!!!
- I’m with my 6 year old son. I can’t go into the men’s room and I’m sure as hell not
going to send him in there alone!
- Where’s the family restroom?
- I’m thirsty - is there water anywhere?
- I’m beat, I need to sit down - I wonder if there’s anyplace in this store where that’s
possible?
- My mother is in a wheelchair - is there a place where she’ll be comfortable in this store?
- Are the aisles wide enough for me to push her through?
- I can’t see the color of this sweater - will I get arrested if I take it over to the window?
- Is there a window?
- This dressing room is too dark - I can’t see anything!
- There’s no place for my purse or coat in the dressing room without putting them on the
floor - couldn’t they afford another few hooks? - Ewwwh - the floor is dirty!
- Am I getting a good price on this?
- Will the sales person give me a “look” if I ask how much this watch is?
- This department is too loud
- This department is too dark
- This department looks like everything fits the cast of “Friends”
- Where are the clothes for regular people?
- Where is a sign telling me where I belong?
- Is there anyone who can help me?
- Does anyone work here?
- I found what I want but there don’t seem to be any in stock.
-Oh, you have one - please, please -where is it - no, no, NO - don’t point - pretend I’m
blind - put it in my hand, please!
- I’m tired, I don’t want to go upstairs for my purchase - why don’t they make the kids
climb the stairs?
- I’m an XXL - what am I doing crawling on the floor looking for my size when the tinypeople buy their things at eye level - let the people closer to the floor bend a little! It’s
easier for them.
- I’ve finally finished shopping
and I’m out of time... the checkout line is too long - I can’t believe it.....
I’ve wasted my time here.
BREATHE
Make sure there is moving air in the store.
Make sure there are places to sit.
Make sure there are good directional signs.
Make sure the lighting is good enough for people to actually read a small sign.
Make sure people’s basic needs are met.
THE SEVENTH SENSE: EXPECTATIONS VS. REALITY
Our shopping experiences start from the first time we see or hear about a store. If a
person has never shopped at Target but has only seen their advertising – what do you
think their expectation of the actual shopping experience will be? What is the reality?
If you walk up to a Pet Smart – do you get what you expect when you’re inside?
The customer is molded psychologically by the advertising and external look of the store.
Your interiors must live up to the hype. A disconnect is never good for business. While
major store chains can do well even with a disconnect – imagine how much better they
could do if the disconnect was non-existent!
You can add enormously to a customers experience by meeting and exceeding their
expectations. If their expectation of shopping at your store includes great values – that’s
what you focus on in your in-store advertising – connecting the external ads with the instore
merchandise. If your advertising image is all about a customer having a fun and
fashionable experience – add some music to create a mood. Perhaps add some color to
focal walls behind the graphics. Make sure the graphics connect in some profound way
with your advertising graphics.
Keep the visual and emotional connection clear from the beginning to the end!
THE EIGHTH SENSE: THE MEMORY OF THE SHOPPING EXPERIENCEWhat is the follow-up to the sale? This can make or break the emotional memory.
1. The return experience
2. Pick-up and delivery
3. Service
4. Phone attitude and level of help
5. Alterations
6. Standing behind the merchandise
7. For large-item purchases - follow-up calls
OTHER EMOTIONAL FACTORS TO CONSIDER:
Create a shopping experience that is –
fun exciting interesting explorative magical
creative unexpected imaginative charming pleasant
ABOVE ALL – CREATE A BALANCE OF ALL THE SENSES!
Linda Cahan
Cahan & Company • Retail Visual Merchandising Strategy
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