796 The Marketing Book
Retailers have many ways of communicat-
ing with their own regular customers, both in
store and by mailings sent to account or
loyalty/store card holders. Major objectives of
media advertising are therefore to attract new
customers, or to increase the visit frequency/
expenditure of more marginal customers. Some
retailers also make use of sponsorship as a
promotional vehicle, which can avoid much of
the ‘clutter’ in conventional media advertising.
Retailers have become increasingly sophisti-
cated in their public relations (PR) activities,
which are directed not only to consumers but
also to shareholders, government, suppliers,
employees and unions.
Numeric and visual merchandising
Many innovations have occurred in the ways in
which store space is designed and allocated.
The store environment fulfils a number of
objectives, seeking to achieve a balance
between maximizing unplanned purchasing,
offering a wide assortment of goods, holding
adequate stock, and offering a convenient, safe
and pleasant place to shop. In pursuit of these
aims, the store has become an excellent labo-
ratory for the development and refinement of
merchandising techniques.
At the most detailed level, models have
been developed to allocate display space
between categories and individual lines.
Whereas some items are ‘space elastic’, with
sales increasing in response to higher alloca-
tions of space, others are not. It makes sense
therefore to study the response functions,
which are rarely simple or linear, and allocate
space to yield the best returns. To the equation,
however, should be added measures of direct
product profitability and estimates of shelf
replenishment frequencies/costs; an overall
view must also be taken of the impact of
revised allocations upon images of the store.
In its earlier incarnations, the science of
‘numeric’ merchandising gave little impression
of the ‘look’ of the displays. Improvements in
computer graphics have facilitated the develop-
ment of ‘visual’ merchandising, by which the
calculated allocations can be vividly portrayed,
such that the colours, sizes, shapes, etc. of
individual items can be arranged both effec-
tively and aesthetically. Visual merchandising
also helps to convey the intended appearance
of the displays to the individual stores.
Camera-based techniques, used by adver-
tising agencies to track eye movements in
response to advertising images, are now being
used to examine responses to displays. Cam-
eras are also used to track customer movements
within the store as a whole, leading to major
improvements in layout effectiveness. They
pinpoint areas of high, possibly dysfunctional
density, and ‘cold’ areas visited by few shop-
pers. They record where people stop to look
and where they tend to ignore the displays.
Sometimes, the store security system can pro-
vide sufficient detail: for more detailed analy-
ses, tiny cameras can be built into the
displays.Retail atmospherics
At the broader level of store design, a blend of
science and artistic creativity is also being
achieved. The lack of success of some expensive
refurbishments has given great impetus to the
quest to establish sound principles to govern
the choice of design components. The new
science of ‘atmospherics’ is gaining momen-
tum, as researchers seek to understand better
the effects of environmental cues upon feelings
and behaviours.
Research has investigated in some detail
the effects upon behaviour of different music
levels and types, giving retailers various
options to influence mood states, speed of
movement through the store and general
impressions of the store. The effects of colours
have also been researched, from their use on
individual packages and displays, to the decor
of the store as a whole. More recently, the use of
scents has been tested by researchers, to under-
stand better the influence of another factor that
often operates at the subconscious level.