Active Design: design should not only look great but make shoppers act

Retailing and design have long been associated together. We can all think of great retail design concepts that have captured our imaginations.

However, changes in the marketing landscape are creating fresh challenges for retailers and brand owners. The design industry is ideally positioned to take advantage of these changes — but only if it gets out of its ivory tower and wakes up to the realities of shopping in the 21st century.

Few would dispute that the job of any designer is to capture the essence and values of any brand for which they are working, whether that be designing a piece of packaging or a whole environment. But in a world where virtually every product category is suffering from brand proliferation and time-pressured shoppers are being enticed by ever more sophisticated retail offerings, effective design has to do more. It must work for the benefit of the shopper as well as the retailer and brand owner. It has to sell actively.

By definition, the world’s great retail environments are the result of great design thinking and execution. This has been most obvious in categories where the shopping experience is part of the brand experience (whether that be retailers themselves like Selfridges in London, Printemps in Paris, or brand owners like Prada and Ralph Lauren).

Our move into the “experience economy” has furthered this trend, with brands like Lego creating stores where young consumers can immerse themselves in the brand. As retailers seek to both differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive marketplace and build a deeper connection with their shoppers (beyond traditional attributes centered around price and value), we can see examples of a “branded experience” in previously more functional channels and categories, such as grocery and consumer electronics.

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Source, The Hub, September/October 2007