sometimes leads to confusion and conflict. The result of these factors is that
consumers are likely to lose trust for brands that have only surface-level offer-
ings. This means that luxury brands need to differentiate themselves through
creating desirable products and selling them with effective techniques.
Merchandizing involves product display and layout, pricing and ticketing
display, product packaging, point-of-sale advertising, product zoning, traffic-
generation techniques, product hot-spots and inventory control.
Product and price-ticketing display is driven by imagination. A large
number of luxury brands often fall into the trap of sameness through lack of
creativity in product presentation. For example, the product packaging of
several luxury brands such as shopping bags and product boxes have a
uniform look in style and concept and little differentiating features. Also the
point-of-sale product display in the stores of numerous luxury fashion brands
is often bland and uninspiring. On the other hand, the point-of-sale could be
used as an advertising medium to introduce new products, showcase best sell-
ers or display ‘take-away’ complementary goods such as small leather goods.
However, when customers find these goods unappealingly displayed or
encounter employees that show a lack of enthusiasm in promoting these
goods, then the target of purchase probability will be lost.
Additional merchandizing techniques include ‘Product Zoning’, which
involves the placement of complementary products side by side; and ‘Traffic
Generation’, which features the positioning of high-demand products towards
the centre or rear of the store thereby obliging customers to walk through the
store to reach them. For example, leather goods such as bags and shoes are
logically placed close to apparel, which are positioned close to other acces-
sories such as belts and scarves. Jewellery and timepieces go together while
cosmetics and fragrances complement one another. Eyewear and other high
touch-based products are often grouped together. Other merchandizing tech-
niques include ‘Product Hot-Spots’, which display new products or interac-
tive products like fragrances, cosmetics and promotional goods. These
products are usually presented in groups or categories as well as in rankings
of importance, demand, relationship or interaction.
Window display is another important consideration in product merchan-
dizing, as both a sales medium and a communicative medium. It is an impor-
tant brand image projection tool because it addresses the public, which
includes luxury consumers, potential luxury consumers and non-luxury
consumers.
Window display merchandizing techniques currently require strong differ-
entiation. This is a result of the visible convergence of retailing tactics of
luxury brands with those of mass fashion brands, as a result of continuous
evolution of the fashion industry. For example, fashion brands that do not
advertise in the mass media, such as Zara, use their window displays as a
communicative tool and therefore place great emphasis on its design and
message. This is similar to luxury department stores such as Macy’s or92
luxury fashion branding