Over the past decades, the retail sector as a whole and the commercial practices of companies have undergone profound changes.
Many studies, aimed at illustrating the sociological implications of purchasing, have shown that there has been a significant change in consumer behaviour. Consumers are no longer oriented solely towards the natural response to a primary need, but rather towards the search for emotions and multi-sensory experiences exercised in stores, which more often than not end up dominating real needs and thus pushing them to purchase.
The PAD, Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance
In the 1970s, two American psychologists, Mehrabian and Russell, developed a theoretical model applied to the retail context, the PAD, aimed at describing and analysing the three dimensions, Pleasure, Arousal, Dominance that guide emotional responses to environmental stimuli. The first concerns emotions related to satisfaction and pleasure; the second those related to arousal and stimulation; the last is connected to the degree of control of the environment.
This model, based on the cognitivist stimulus-response frame-work, makes it possible to delineate the evolution of the shopping experience, understood as the interaction between brand and consumer: an omnichannel communication with contaminated forms of language, where visual merchandising captures the purchaser to elicit an emotional response through visual, musical and olfactory paths.
The shop, points of sale, is then charged with a strong strategic nature: a physical environment that is transformed into a place of socialisation, points of meeting, where one also experiences the complex of meanings associated with brand identity, where it is pleasant to spend part of one’s free time. In this new context, the consumer assumes a different position, a sort of key role that sees him involved at the most diverse levels: rational, emotional, sensorial and physical.
“Visual merchandising is a wide-ranging discipline that has evolved over the last 20 years, the importance of which has finally been understood by many companies – of luxury and fast fashion – because it coordinates the different levels and languages of brand communication, such as corporate identity, corporate design, interior design and the packaging of own-brand products.
The point of sale in this perspective is transformed into an all-round window, emphasising its added value in the global fashion system by leveraging the symbolic and iconic aspects of the brands. A model of customer value and experential focus has thus been built, for the satisfaction of the consumer who in the narrative becomes the user experience that makes the customer the protagonist of unforgettable moments.
At the same time, the shopping experience linked to touch leaves room for a type of ‘virtual’ experience towards the metaverse: realities that remind us of role-playing games such as The Sims and the now almost outdated Second Life.”
Communication and image interact synergistically and complementarily in the story of every company and represent two strategic elements of marketing, which imply a continuous interaction with different target audiences in order to maintain a competitive advantage in an increasingly fast-moving and evolving market.
In this process, the human-centred approach, developed by Stanford University, shows us how science, psychology and technology come into play to design a product aimed at creating interest and empathy, in terms of both material and immaterial factors.
“When we talk about design, I think of the design of a store, built starting from a concept or an element that then represents the guidelines for all the choices related to the atmosphere one wants to create in that particular place.At the beginning of my professional career I concentrated on shop windows, because coming from studies of scenography I was aware that windows are very important, because it is precisely here that the consumers’ perceptive journey begins, as they seek certain points of reference as soon as they enter a shop. I remember my first fittings in which I created sculptures by contaminating materials and languages, for example foam rubber and plastic: we thus transformed the spaces entrusted to me into stages, in an effort to make them three-dimensional and never static.
However, one must not think that creativity is enough, that would be a reductive vision: one must possess skills rooted in psychology and sociology. One must also be gifted with aesthetic taste to ensure that all elements come together harmoniously, reflecting the vision and mission of the brand.
Right now, the disciplines that come together in visual merchandising are many, and the ones that stimulate my interest the most are precisely those that involve different types of artistic language. Generally speaking, many times we find ourselves faced with the design of shop windows or the product itself, which tend only to repeat themselves over time without giving us that moment of ‘shock’ that leads us to photograph the shop window or the product itself. On the contrary, creative design also means overcoming certain limits that are those connected to ‘reality’ and more connected to the virtual world, 3D rendering, 3D printing, artificial intelligence, NFT, QR codes are all tools that are at the service of design.“
Visual merchandising involves both the fashion industry and its distribution because consumer satisfaction unites the two players in their respective marketing actions. In distribution, marchandising defines a series of actions: from the layout of equipment to the merchandise display.
It is good for a company to be aware of all concrete manifestations, even the smallest, of customer care, elements that increase and enhance its reputation.
“If we consider an important element such as the perception of a brand’s closeness to its target audience, we cannot fail to mention the fast fashion giant Zara, which immediately after the end of the covid 19 lockdowns, when people were still afraid to enter the shops, had inserted a Qr Code in the window displays that allowed the items of the collection in the store to be viewed on smart phones. This attention naturally had a positive influence on customers because it made them realise how the company was penetrating their sentiment. And again, the health crisis has strongly transformed shopping habits by pushing towards online purchases. Fortunately, new technologies and platforms allowed companies such as Gucci, Balienciaga and Burberry to, with a simple application connected to the smart phone’s camera, ‘wear’ and thus ‘try on’ the chosen items, such as trainers and glasses, in their homes.
On the inclusivity side, I would like to mention Vestiare Collective – which for its new communication campaign – has designed 5 ‘shop assistants’ created with recycled clothes: Miss classic, Lady green, Rich, Hunter, Drop, who embody different attitudes and fashion styles. The message to the target community is clear: we need to encourage change in the fashion world towards sustainability, circular economy and genderlessness. This campaign embodies to the letter the dictates behind the construction of brand identity: recognising the brand as a person and being attracted to it. Also noteworthy is the great storytelling ability behind it.“
The radical transformations that have characterised retail distribution have led to an ever-increasing interest in merchandising.
In this scenario, the point of sale represents the means of communication closest to the consumer and, to be successful, it is indispensable, as mentioned, to provide the customer with the opportunity to live emotionally involving experiences through innovative narratives.
In fact, memory loss, or the tendency to forget – a phenomenon called duration neglect – is a very rapid process. To accentuate the memorability of jaw-dropping experiences, a new marketing approach, drawing on psychology and neuroscience, aims to accentuate emotional peaks to create a wow moment that consists of three elements: enjoyment, experience and engagement.
“When it comes to wow moments, we cannot fail to mention the work of XAG Studio, of which we have several examples of incredible set-ups. Those for the “i’m a plastic bag” campaign for Anya Hindmarch, an entire shop filled with plastic bottles: an example of how “on the crest of a wave” topics can be dealt with without being rhetorical. Moreover, this is not the first time this firm has amazed us by using a mix of new technologies. As in the Sephora shop in the Dubai Mall where it had set up the windows with a large LED screen that ‘captured’ the passer-by, transforming him into a superhero dominating lightning, thunderbolts and balls of energy. The ingenious layout hinted at the ‘Magnetic’ make-up collection.
The buyer wants to be transported into the virtual world: For example, by buying a DIESEL garment, one is entitled to have the NFT copy in the metaverse, allowing one’s avatar to wear it and make oneself recognisable by a certain tribe even in virtual reality. In this case, shopping is transformed into a space of entertainment, especially for the increasingly eclectic and multimedia generation Z.”
Skills
“Those involved in retail design and visual merchandising cannot do without basic knowledge related to the history of fashion, humanities and armoury. These subjects are all too often wrongly left out, because in my opinion one cannot fully understand new technology without a deep knowledge of what it will apply.
Of course, mastering 2D and 3D rendering and design programmes and all those tools related to the new way of shopping (NFT, NFC, Qr Corde etc.) is nowadays required. In terms of professional profiles, figures related to the user experience and user interface are in great demand: the applications are countless since the shopping experience has moved from the tactile to the digital. This is also where the new figure of the user interface designer was born, whose task is to design apps that improve system usability and facilitate interaction.
In all this, however, let us not forget craftsmanship understood as the art of manual dexterity, because if it is exciting to work in digital, it is wonderful to build a mannequin in tactile form. And if Maison Valentino, despite the evolution in the digital field, does not forget craftsmanship … there must be a reason!”
