Lecture 14: Spatial Layout, Signs, Symbols and Artefacts

MARK2316

Customer Insight

Lecture 14: Spatial Layout, Signs,

Symbols and Artefacts

INFLUENCING PURCHASING BEHAVIOURS

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the importance of understanding spatial layout and natural migration patterns.

• Explain shopping behaviour in different store zones, from decompression zone to checkout magnet.

• Learn how to read a sign, and a gain an understanding of how to optimise store layout and signs, symbols and artefacts to increase purchase behaviours.

Learning Recap

Remember to observe all dimensions in your Customer Journey Mapping exercises!

In-Store Migration Patterns

Overview

Spatial Layout & Functionality

This is about the spatial arrangement of fittings (furniture, plants, etc.) and their mutual position. It is also about the support that the spatial layout gives to achieving specific aims. An example of the latter is, for example, whether the tills in a store are clearly visible and easily accessible for the customers so that they can pay quickly. The addition of plants and flowers in public spaces and benches for sitting on, sometimes has substantial consequences for the behaviour in that space.

It is a known fact that people in spaces where they have to follow a route, walk faster across the second section. This applies to museums (Van Vliet, 2009) and to stores as well: “In general, as shoppers get nearer and nearer the checkout they shop faster and faster – using most of their ‘leisure time’ at the beginning of the trip. The phenomenon is so pronounced and regular that we refer to it as ‘the checkout magnet’.”

Landing Strip

Natural Migration Patterns

Impressions Count

Shopper Asymmetry

The retailer only has absolute control over only two points in the shoppers' trip - where they enter the store and where they check out and exit.

"Retailers who understand the natural migration patterns of shoppers can design stores that fit with shopper behaviour, rather than trying to change behaviour to fit the store."

Three Measures:

Counting Shoppers, Time and Direction

The Coriolis Effect in Shopping

Herb Sorensen, Inside the Mind of the Shopper, p.70

Advertisers have long used Reach and Frequency (Gross Rating Points) as a standard metric for advertising exposure.

Frequency and Time are closely related. Just as one person viewing a single advertisement five times results in the same five GRPs that five people seeing the advert once does, so 50 people visiting an aisle for an average of 20 seconds each results in the same 1,000 shopper seconds (Gross Rating Points) that 20 people for 50 seconds would. And just as with advertising's GRPS, it is the total shopper seconds that are the proper accounting of the opportunity of shoppers to buy - or the opportunity to sell, if we take a more active view.

Then, to the left

Shoppers need a landing strip - have you ever noticed the speed at which people move through a shopping car park or through the entrance? FAST!!

What part of the assignment captures this need?

Reducing Angst

Transition Mode

Why don't we see a pile up?

Watch customers closely. They are busily making adjustments - simultaneously they're slowing their pace, adjusting their eyes to the change in light and scale, and craning their necks to take in all there is to see. Meanwhile, their ears and noses and nerve endings are sorting out the rest of the stimuli - analysing the sounds and smells, judging whether the store is warm or cold. There's a lot going on. These shoppers are not truly in the store yet. If you watch long enough you'll be able to predict exactly where most shoppers slow down and make the transition from being outside to being inside. It's at just about the same place for everybody, depending on the layout of the front of the store.

Twilight Zone

Whatever's in this zone they cross before making that transition is pretty much lost on them. If there's a display of merchandise, they're not going to take it in. If there's a sign, they'll probably be moving too fast to absorb what it says. If the sales staff hits them with a hearty "Can I hlep you?" the answer's going to be "No thanks." Put a pile of fliers or a stack of shopping baskets just inside the door: Shoppers will barely see them and will almost never pick them up. Move them ten feet in and the fliers and baskets will disappear.

It's a law of nature - shoppers need a landing strip.

First Impressions Count

Solution?

Stop trying to accomplish something important here and try and take steps to keep this zone as small as possible.

Greet people too early and you scare them away. Talk to them too late and you get a whole lot of frustrated customers. Leave people alone for at least one minute!

As with stage acting, a strong entrance sets the tone of the entire trip. First, notice that there are a lot of shopper seconds being invested just inside the entry. This is because nearly 100 percent of shoppers visit this area, and a very large number of them stop to pick up a cart (particularly in grocery). But this "landing strip" plays another role: Here is where the shoppers can spend their time to get their bearings as to where they are going to head and check their shopping list, if they have one.

Shop Window / Front

The huge majority of UK, Australian and Japanese consumers upon entering a store will turn left unconsciously. The first wall they see is often referred to as a "power wall", and acts as a high-impact first impression vehicle for the merchandise.

You also need to entice and arouse the customer's attention with the products put on display, whether it's new or seasonal items, high profit or high demand products, or a place you design to tell your product's stories and create vignettes.

Have them walk a path

Enter the Threshold

CLASS QUESTION

Why do UK, Australian and Japanese consumers upon entering a store turn left unconsciously?

On the street, how do you approach a display window? In almost every instance, from an angle. But most display windows are designed as though every viewer is just standing there staring into them head-on. Instead, wondows can be canted to one side, so they are more visible to passer-bys.

The same trend occurs for outdoor signs. Many retailers hang their signs parallel to street, so it can only be read from directly across the street. Instead, positioning it perpendicular to the building means it's visible to pedestrians approaching from either side.

Potential observations

Important early stage in journey

1. Was the store’s outside appearance attractive –

Did the store have curb appeal?

2. Was the window display inviting and attractive?

Is the display cluttered or easy to see merchandise?

3. Is the window display appropriately lit?

4. Did the outside appear to be clean – clear

pavements, clean windows and doors, etc.?

This will vary greatly depending on the size and general layout of a store, but knowing that customers want to turn left, you need to make sure that as they do that, they also continue walking throughout the store to gain the maximum exposure to products. This not only increases the chances of them making a purchase, but a well thought-out path can be a great way to strategically control the ebb and flow of the traffic in the store.

The threshold area, also known as the "decompression zone", is the very first space that prospective customers step into when they enter a store and typically consists of the first five to fifteen feet worth of space, depending on how big the store is. It's also the space where customers make the transition from the outside world and first experience what the store has to offer. They also make critical judgements like how cheap or expensive the store is likely to be and how well coordinated the lighting, fixtures, displays, and colours are.

Most stores use a circular path to the left to get customers to walk through to the back of the store and come to the front again. Some will make it even easier by covering the path with a different texture or look from the general flooring, paying homage to the old saying "where the eyes go, the feet will follow."

Another thing to keep in mind is that you want to use the path to lead your customers somewhere, which often means putting a eye-catching and attention-grabbing display at the end of an aisle for example.

Lastly, check them out (not literally)

But, slow them down

Where you place the check-out counter and POS in a physical retail store is an important question. A good rule of thumb to remember is that the checkout should be located at a natural stopping point in the shopping experience or path that you've purposefully created and designed.

So if customers naturally turn left when they enter, and you've managed to have them go through and circle all the way around, you'll realize that the right-hand side at the front is probably the ideal location for the checkout counter. However, this decision also depends on the size and layout of the store itself, which means you'll have to use your best gut judgement on what's the most natural point to have that check-out counter.

With all the effort and time retailers put into properly merchandising their products, the last thing you want to happen is for incoming customers to promptly hurry past them, ultimately limiting the number of products they'll purchase. One way retailers combat this is through creating breaks or what are sometimes referred to as "speed bumps." Essentially, this can be anything that gives customers a visual break and can be achieved through signage, and special or seasonal displays.

• Learning outcomes; recap
• The importance of spatial layout
• First impressions
• The Coriolis effect
• From 'landing strip to checkout magnet'
• How to read a sign
• Lessons learned

Observation Tips

Make sure they're comfortable

Other tips to keep in mind when observing the checkout counter are:

• Is the counter big enough for shoppers to place their bags and/or personal belongings?
• Has the retailer taken advantage of the wall behind the counter to create interesting and engaging displays
• Does the retailer encourage impulse or "last-minute" purchases by stocking items customers crave or commonly need close-by
• Is the employee polite in person by asking questions like "Were you able to find everything you were looking for?" and in signage regarding exchange or refund policies

Have you heard about the "butt-brush effect," coined by consumer behaviour expert Paco Underhill? Paco discovered that a typical customer, especially women, will avoid going after merchandise in an aisle where they could potentially brush another customer's butt or have their backside brushed. This holds true even if the customer is very interested in a given product. An easy way to avoid this problem is to ensure that the aisle, floor, and displays allow customers to have more than adequate personal space when browsing products.

You can also make the store comfortable by incorporating some type of waiting area with comfy seats and benches which will encourage customers to spend more time in your store.

Signs, Symbols & Artefacts

There are all kinds of explicit signs present in rooms, from labels (name of a company, advertising) and directional signs (‘exit’) to signs that communicate codes of conduct (‘no smoking’). However, there are also all kinds of implicit signs, symbols and artifacts that say something about the space: white table cloths and dimmed lights in a restaurant represent good service and high prices; the size of the desk and the certificates on the wall influence the image that people have of the manager or therapist. This is a complex totality that cannot always be kept ‘under control’ or is interpreted as was originally intended.

Store Experience

Each store has a pathway that subconsciously directs the customers through a pre-planned journey, encouraging customers to go all the way to the back of the store, a challenge for many retailers. The target market are not only distracted by the artefacts such as mirrors, lamp shades and chandeliers, ornate wardrobes and wingbacked chairs, but most importantly the clothing lines too. As a result, time in store & brand knowledge improve too.

Store signage is naturally used to support customer service and manage behaviours, as well as reinforce the brand personality. The execution is usually hand painted on walls, plus ingeniously included in ceramic tiles down the stairs and across the floors of some stores. Window vinyls and dressings uniquely communicate campaign messages and pull customers in.

Customer service and staff appearance reinforce the quality of the merchandise and brand proposition, with an attentive approach and ‘Ted-to-toe’ in Ted Baker outfits, they not only drive aspiration and latent needs, but brand loyalty for the young professional, with more disposable income than time.

Coursework 2

Due next seminar

1. Complete store layout

2. Draft/research segmentation tables

3. Draft shopper exit interview questions

4. Produce first two presentation slides

I'M HERE FOR YOU....

Please drop me an email anytime - nthomas@dmu.ac.uk

I would love to see you during surgery hours -

email to secure a spot on Tuesdays 9.30 to 10.30 am or drop by between 10.30 to 11.30 am

How to read a sign

Remember: People in stores are almost never still; they're moving from one place to another. We need to test whether people read a sign in situ.

Lessons Learned

First, you've got to measure how many people actually look at a sign.

Then you've got to be able to say whether they looked long enough to read what it says, because if they're not reading it, even the best sign won't work!

Have a stop watch (experience hotspot) and ideally stand behind the sign.

Try and put some alphanumeric values to it, e.g.:

• 17% notice the sign;
• of those, 12% bother to read it;
• Average viewing time is 2.9 seconds.

• In addition to finding out where shoppers spend most of their time, we can also discover the general direction of their movement.

• The "checkout magnet" draws shoppers in towards it like a vortex. We need to put in place 'speed bumps' to slow shoppers down.

• Gross Rating Points in retail mean that shopper seconds are the main currency. Measure this in your observations!

Sign advice

In zones where people move fast, a message has to be short and punchy - arresting.

In browsing zones, a little more detail can be given.

Make signs relevant, e.g. if customers are standing by a motor oil shelf, they'll be thinking about their cars. This may be an opportunity to tell them something about replacement windshield wipers.

By the tills, they will be standing still for a minute and a half, a perfect window for a longer message.

On their exit path, give them a thought for the road.....

Class Question

Can you think of an example where you've seen an effective sign?

There's probably many you've missed. Putting a sign that needs 12 seconds to read in a place where customers spend four seconds is just slightly more effective than putting it in your garage!

Smart Design

"Breaking the message into two or three parts, and communicating it a little at a time, as the customer gets farther into the store. Thinking that every sign must stand on its own and contain an entire message is not only unimaginative, it's ignorant of how human brains operate."

Paco Underhill, author Why We Buy