ARTYSMITH2: WORDPLAY

For me, visual presentation has always been the most important factor when it comes to catching customers’ attention. We buy with our eyes (most of the time), but sometimes we need a bit more!

The big retailers are usually on the money when it comes to rolling out their slick retail campaigns with snappy titles and clever use of words. I often wonder why independent retailers aren’t doing the same. Sorry, that’s a very sweeping generalisation, some independents do a great job and in some cases better than the big guys, but they tend to be in the minority.

When it comes to merchandising and display giving a title to what you’re doing gives focus to help communicate the story to your customers. It also makes the marketing of your hard work so much easier, helping you fine tune the detail across every line of communication. The result is a clear and cohesive message to your customers, one that lets you repeat it over and over again through your many communication channels, creating many opportunities for your customers to respond.

So here’s the thing, next time you’re planning to install a new window or in store display give it a working title, a title that does the work for you! It doesn’t need to be complicated or clever you just need to come up with something. Easier said than done maybe! Not really, you need to decide what you want to promote and why, when you plan to do it and where and how you're going to tell your customers about it – shop window, in store, website, emarketing, print media and of course the biggy social media.

If you’re really stuck for ideas try looking at song titles, proverbs, short quotes, film titles and common phrases that you can put your own take on. The White Stuff shop window above is a good example that really illustrates this play on words. When I first saw this shop window my instant recognition was The Sound of Music. The staging, imagery and title are totally suggestive of this popular film but of course, it isn’t, it’s The Sound of White Stuff. Clever it may be but it made me look and look twice! Clearly this campaign works best on customers of a certain age but this just reaffirms how important it is to understand your customer base if you really want connect with them.

So what you waiting for, other than inspiration…