The Benefits of Digital Signage: No. 1 Creating Store Atmosphere
I’ve always spoken about looking at the physical retail store as 2 parts.
There is the “Brand Box” which is the hard, expensive and permanent shell which includes the materials, flooring, lighting and fixtures & fittings. Then there is the “Dynamic Content” which includes visual merchandising, visual communication, customer service and events.
My passion is the store dynamic, the lifeblood of the brand, of sales and profit.
Todays competitive and volatile market demands that the lifeblood flows faster than ever, that excitement and inspiration are everywhere, to attract the diminishing customer footfall into each store and then to inspire a purchase and an explosion of social media excitement.
Visual Communication has always been intrinsic to this process and the new technologies of digital communication offer the possibility to develop these exciting and dynamic stores, which after the initial investment, can be as versatile and as inspiring as the limits of creative imagination.
“Creating Store Atmosphere” is the first huge benefit of digital signage.
The atmosphere can be subtle or bold depending on the brand. My first experience was a beautiful landscape screen in a Stradivarius store in Spain that was showing gently swaying Spring flowers. The effect stopped me in my tracks.
You don’t always need to in the customer’s face to get a reaction.
Movement & sound can help to complete an atmosphere such as in the latest Ferrari Stores or in Pro-Direct where the feeling of a busy, frantic newsroom is created for the leading online sports retailer.
However, the beauty of digital is the dynamic of the atmosphere that can be created quickly, seamlessly and personalised across locations and store types. It allows every store to be relevant in time, and each to store to be relevant by customer demographic and assortment allocation.
One of my favourites is the Hunter Store on Regent Street that uses a variety of graphic media to paint the store back-drop. And despite the demise of the brands fortunes, I am still mesmerised by the California beach scenes that take you directly to the home of Hollister.
So, come along to the summit and here more about Store Atmosphere as well as the other benefits of digital signage…
- Brand promotion
- Community interaction
- Customer analytics
- Staff training
Tim Radley:
“Digital Signage and its role in today’s store design, customer experience and the wider digital retail world’