Ideations
A Retail Publication
Retail Design Goes from
Mass to Personal
It’s a very important moment for design
right now. Business and society recognize
design’s essential role in brands, business
transformations, holistic experiences
and the triple bottom line: people, planet
and profits—because it creates value.
No more is it seen as sprinkles on the cake
or something only noticed in passing.
We’re in the midst of a growing trend for
retail chains to overhaul their shopping
and dining experiences, and they appear
to be relying on design to do the heavy
lifting. Starbucks and McDonald’s have
made major news with the strategies
behind their radical new concepts and the
high hopes they’ve placed on them. Stores,
after all, are “street menus,” competing
experiences to choose from. Anything
that looks refreshed and exciting in the
neighborhood shopping district disrupts
the old routine and draws customers
through its doors. People delight in finding
something new. Design gives it to them.
“Design makes a difference in everything,”
says Scott Jeffrey, Chief Creative Officer,
Interbrand Design Forum. “It’s a great
problem solver as well as one of the most
important ways to bring your company’s
‘brandness’ or personality to life in any new
space. Like people, brands show different
aspects of themselves when they’re thrust
into new situations. So like us, they need
to be frequently inspired to feel fresh and
interesting.”
There is also a behavioral trend that plays
into the growing importance of design in
winning market share today. Before the
digital era arrived, stores could be profitable
despite being uniformly “aloof.” Companies
“built it and let the customers come,”
training them to go up and down the
aisles by rote.
Now the shopper/store relationship is
reversed. Physical spaces must meet the
higher expectations spawned by our online
purchase experiences where you choose
how you want to be communicated with,
how you want to pay, whether you need
the guidance of an associate or prefer an
unbiased online recommendation. You
may want to bring your friends along or
do a quick replenishment run. As a result,
environments are being designed to
offer shoppers flexibility.
Issue 1 • 2011
“Over the years, we’ve found better ways
to understand what the shopper occasions
are and what it takes to feel delighted
and engaged with the brand,” says Jeffrey.
“So it’s gratifying to see our innovations
around the customer journey being widely
appreciated because of the insights they
bring to retail design. You get a more
productive design while pushing the
creativity. More of our design clients are
asking for shopping experiences that are
personal, and we’re hearing that red-hot
buzzword a lot—local.”
Speaking of which, the jury is still out
on Starbucks’ high profile “local” design
transformation. Some are calling it
dishonest, others see it as brilliant. With
thousands of its stores getting swept
along in a wave of American coffee
culture the brand itself created, the
coffeehouse had gone from innovator to
commodity. Design is helping it find its
way back to its roots as a third place. Four
highly flexible upscale concepts draw on
different aspects of the brand, inspired
by its various local cultures. Each new or
remodeled store has a distinctive place
name over the tag, “inspired by Starbucks.”
(continued on back)
Retail Observations
Everyone has a Role to Play
in Brand Delivery
I was recently at Disney in Orlando where
I was attending a restaurant brands
franchise meeting, one I’ve been proudly
involved with for almost 20 years. We
continue to work together for great
delivery of their brand. Having Disney
as a backdrop for the conference really
drove home just how important customer
engagement is as an “adhesive”—the
delivery of the experience that makes
customers stick to the brand.  even unfriendliness. The hardware store
In the mind of a typical business owner—
whether they run a restaurant, hospitality,
mass, fashion, automotive, financial, or
service brand—top priorities are relevant
offering, key products and great locations
along with clean easy-to-navigate spaces,
well-stocked and enticingly merchandised
inventory. And indeed they are vital. But
in the mind of the shopper, there is more.
Shoppers look to brands for an emotional
element that can only be delivered by
people. This is what Disney understands
and does so well.
The heroic feat that takes Disney to the
next level is its cast of characters. Every
person from the monorail operator to the
hotel greeter, the restaurant host and
server, even the custodian has a script—a
completely thought out role to play that
builds on the collection of engaging
interactions that bring the brand to life.
Interactions like these are possibly the
most meaningful and differentiating
aspects of what retail brands can
deliver today.
Think of the retail experiences out
there that are completely desolate of
engagement. The associate at the teen
apparel store who projects indifference,
worker too busy chatting to help. The
busser at the restaurant who neglects to
wipe crumbs, even the dishwasher who
leaves tableware unclean. How about
the resentful gas station clerk, or the
automobile salesperson who destabilizes
your feelings of trust. There is endless
opportunity to paint a completely
different picture.
A brand engagement strategy may seem
hard to materialize, especially if you don’t
have the deep pockets of Disney. And
I understand that employee turnover
can be well over 100 percent in some
categories. But when brand is intentional,
when everyone in the company under-
stands exactly how the brand connects
emotionally with shoppers and exactly
what their role is in the action, you can
begin to manage every aspect of how your
brand comes to life. It’s a strategy and a
set of tactics within everyone’s reach.
There are ways to create engagement
at any scale, from intensive employee
training programs to well-designed and
researched instore informational solutions
that serve to educate employees while
they’re on the sales floor, giving them the
confidence to deliver the brand.
Once you start exploring your brand and
how your customers shop, you’ll find
many ingenious ways to bake customer
engagement into everyone’s day-to-
day operations in a comprehensive way
without breaking the bank. Like a playbook
directing every position on the team, a
brand engagement plan codifies the
behavior of an organization. Then it only
requires occasional updating, like
your other best practices.
Great service is as good for the employee
as it is for the shopper. Retailers serious
about brand engagement have found
their employees to be more confident and
committed. Happier employees have a
higher retention rate—another benefit
for the store.
Don’t just put people in the store because
you have to. Add some value. Make them
brand players who understand their role.
In this competitive environment, winners
will be those whose shoppers feel cared for.
With a brand engagement strategy, you
can distinguish yourself in the marketplace.
Bruce Dybvad

The Sixth Sense of Sensory
Branding, A Love Story
Do you remember your first date? How
about your first kiss? Or that “best
Christmas ever” when you got the EasyBake
Oven or the Red Ryder BB gun with the
compass in the stock. These memories
are rich with emotion and transport you
to another time and place. Our memories
can be triggered by a song on the radio, the
smell of cookies baking, the feel of fabric on
your skin, the list goes on, but everything
on the list has to do with your senses.
Once that sense memory is triggered,
your mind reconnects you to a host of
other memories tied to other senses.
How cold was the theater where the kiss
occurred? Did the seats squeak? Was the
lip-gloss cherry? All of these senses are
interconnected and bundled together
as an experience. I can smell the Polo
cologne now.
One of my goals as a brand experience
designer is to create relevant and mutually
beneficial connections between people
and the brands we serve. When designing
a retail space, we need to remember that
memories will be created there. The more
“thread” we give our customers to weave
those connections the more likely we will
be remembered over our competitors.
I often put myself in the consumer’s shoes
when evaluating the sensory journey of a
retail experience. As I approach the store,
do the signs and exterior design create
excitement and anticipation? Does the
display window make me feel confident that
I’m making the right choice? Does the touch
of the door handle convey quality? Is the
attitude of the brand coming through in the
music that greets me when I enter? Does
the store smell great in a way that fits the
experience? The answer to these questions
should always be yes and each is merely the
tip of their respective sensory icebergs.
But all the senses aren’t relevant to all
brands right? It’s not a restaurant, so how
is taste relevant? The store is online, so why
Guest Feature
by Tom Kowalski
worry about smell or touch? This is the
predictable line of thinking that creates
opportunity for competitors. So when a
customer enjoys the amazing car shaped
mints at the register of that new auto
parts store, or easily and elegantly cracks
open the cleverly designed packaging from
widgets.com, the connections to that
brand are being made on a deeper level.
We all know that beauty is only skin deep,
and that the relationships that really last
are built on more than a charming smile. Tom Kowalksi
Even the one that connects with all five
Vice President, Design
senses, though fun for a while, is bound
Interbrand Design Forum
to get boring if there’s not something
even deeper. There’s a sixth sense, an
intellectual sensibility, that’s elusive and
potentially magical. Yes, your mother was Tom is responsible for
right, it really is the mind that you fall in
overseeing the synthesis of all
love with.
creative disciplines—planning,
Like that couple that finishes each others
environmental, interior and
sentences, great brand experiences
connect with customers by understanding, graphic design—into a cohesive
even anticipating their needs and over-
delivering. These aspects of the brand branded experience. His
experience have both strategic and experience in corporate design
operational implications. As such, they
require rigorous consumer insight to and communications and his
understand how to connect on an
close relationship with other
intellectual level with your customers.
In fact, in an ideal world, this cerebral members of the Interbrand
connection needs to be discovered first
Design Forum team allow him
and will ultimately influence how the
other five, more superficial senses evolve. to develop concepts that convey
That differentiating brand mantra that
makes your brand more attractive, or brand messages to consumers.
that bold and energetic personality that Visit our blog to enjoy more of
alienates some but hits home with your
target audience, this is the magic of the his design wisdom and humor.
sixth sense.
Mass to Personal
Despite use of locally sourced, recycled
materials, work by local artists and LEED
certification, the initiative is viewed by
nay-sayers as a multinational brand’s
clumsy attempt to pass itself off as an
independent “authentic” experience
with soul. Jeffrey is on the side of those
who think it’s brilliant.
“The U.S. consumer often suffers from a
split personality,” says Jeffrey. “We want
the consistency of a familiar chain but we
also like things out of the ordinary. And
critics are getting hung up on semantics.
Starbucks is leveraging design to the
maximum degree and doing it beautifully.
They are pouring their brand ethos,
their ‘Starbuckness’ into every element.
If there’s still more work to be done to
bring the brand back, it falls to the staff
and the product. Maybe it’s time to offer
a better espresso.”
That same line of thinking could be applied
to McDonald’s. Can a new store concept
make a Big Mac taste better? The answer
seems to be yes. In 2006, after thirty years
of sameness and in spite of franchisee
resistance, McDonald’s threw out the
heavy plastic look in favor of clean simple
design that reflected a healthier upscale
menu. In 2008, the company renewed
the look of its packaging. Last year, it
began the rollout of a chic design aesthetic
inspired by its European restaurants.
There are four modifiable templates each
with three different occasion zones: family
flexible seating, grab-and-go and linger.
Early reports indicate the new look, with
its muted lighting and padded seating, is
having a positive impact on sales.
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“Even with the art deco panels, egg chairs
and Asian salads, McDonald’s is still true
to its roots,” says Jeffrey. “It’s bright and
friendly, and feels light and inviting. The
numbers show the power design has to
make us travel farther, stay longer and
maybe even overlook flavor shortcomings.”
Of great interest to Jeffrey is seeing where
brands go for creative inspiration, whether
it’s borrowing from Europe or, as more
and more mall stores seem to be doing,
finding a place in the city. When it comes
to retail spaces, he and his team have seen
just about everything there is to see in
adaptive re-use. “When I think about all
the places I’ve been, two that make my
top ten list have rounded out their brand
character by moving into older existing
spaces which have lent them more depth
and imagination. Which turns out to be
flattering to their customers. If they are
slightly more daring and fun, you are too.”
One is the turn-of-the-century bank that
became a Banana Republic store. The
old banking fixtures inspired creative
merchandising. Socks and ties took the
place of dollar bills in the old cash drawers,
vault spaces became dressing rooms.
“The brand showed great restraint by not
changing the space. It took a leap of faith,”
says Jeffrey, who believes such leaps are
the only way to win new share.
“The bohemian vibe paired with the
bank’s sculptural stone elements took
the brand to a new place, and the clever
merchandising made it seem like every
square inch of the store was waiting to
be discovered.”
J. Crew Liquor Store, another favorite,
didn’t even both to change the exterior
signage when it put a menswear boutique
into a ratty old bar in downtown
Manhattan. But who can resist such
shadowy charms? “I’d never seen such
great use of intrigue,” says Jeffrey. “Talk
about breaking from routine and giving
the brand another shade of fun and
sophistication.” Again, the designers let
the grit and patina of other lives remain
to add dimension and suggest drama. “If
your designers think in terms of full tear-
outs, they miss the opportunity to express
more about your brand. If you’re moving
into a church space, use the acoustics.
Do you even think about acoustics in
your standard mall concepts? Existing
architecture inspires you to think more
deeply, makes you more creative.”
Smart companies may decide that this
is their year to “go abroad,” to expose
themselves to new cultural landscapes
that build character and make them more
attractive. Inspired design can reveal a
new side of their personality and give
shoppers experiences to look forward to,
care about and talk about.
Ideations
A Retail Publication by
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Bruce Dybvad, CEO
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©2011