Making shock waves: is the in-store marketing perishing? Revive it with tips in the consumer electronics industry
The consumer electronics station has learned the way to jump-start their sales using interactive displays and hands-on customer service–and the aftermarket can easily adapt some of these techniques due to their retail outlets.
„A great deal of these new displays are designed to have a entertainment component to them“
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As an instance, he says, digital cameras, that used to be merchandised behind glass, are showcased in live displays which have a universal power system so shoppers are able to look at the LCD or shoot pictures.
Walking into some one of these stores, gadget gurus are within an electronics dream as they perform the latest video games, rifle through iPod accessories and listen to featured CDs. Every experience is a hands-on, and several customers spend hours just walking the aisles.
So how do the aftermarket create excitement similar to this in the retail level? As an increasing number of vehicles are equipped with mobile amusement, and as more electronics are being designed for use in the vehicle as well as your house, the possibilities are endless.
Engaging electronics
Electronic merchandise is supposed to be entertaining; thus, interaction between the product and the customer is critical in making a sale. When it’s playing games about the newest mobile phone or watching football on HDTV, this is really where electronics retailers are focusing their efforts.
„The biggest thing is that the interactivity,“ offers Peter Breen, content manager with the In-Store advertising Institute. „For instance, when you look at video games in a mass retailer, they are all in boxes in a case. You then move to a Best Buy and you’ve got an Xbox there which lets you play the sport. It’s a large difference in presentation.“
A presentation that’s employed for Ultimate Electronics, a specialty retailer of home entertainment and consumer electronics which has been in business since 1968, is that their integrated handheld device displays. The merchant, that works with MTI, put these displays in all 32 of the locations at early June.
„They’re developing categories and we would like to optimize sales of these products and also show how (consumers) can incorporate them into different parts of their lives“
„We are trying to provide the consumer a fantastic experience from the store, also to allow the technologies to present the product accurately and describe them in ways they could understand.“
For car parts retailers, this idea is quite familiar: Walk-in customers unaware of the specific use of a component or product may feel uncomfortable purchasing themselves. Using merchandising displays that allow customers see, feel and touch that the product can drive sales and increase customer loyalty.
„Generally speaking, the basic challenge that CE retailers are facing is customer confusion,“ Goldberg says. „Years before, consumers just cared about three or four features to get a TV, such as size and manufacturer,“ but today they will need to understand about their cable card compatibility and also the way the TV will operate together with their existing video/DVD participant, he adds.
For aftermarket retailers, their long-term do-it-yourself customers may be confused with their newest endeavor as automobile technologies continue to increase.
„If I as an aftermarket merchant wish to maintain this DIY customer, I must instruct him how to operate on a newer car. If I do not help them make that jump, they will say they can not do it and will not purchase the product,“ explains Goldberg.
He suggests demonstrating how to use innovative diagnostic tools, possibly plugging them in to laptops directly at the store.
„Customers can sit at a house entertainment seat and listen to your surround sound. It makes the experience a lot more engaging to the consumer. There’s no reason that automotive stores can not have that experience.
„I’d love to see aftermarket retailers participate with customers and be enlightening. Do demonstrations which show the viscosity differences between oils“
Setting the scene
Stores that see a great deal of families looking for home entertainment systems, for instance, display amusement vignettes where house systems have been shown at a living area with couches to demonstrate the way the product would look and texture in the house, says Breen together with the In-Store advertising Institute.
Automobile parts retailers may get a chance to produce their very own vignettes, possibly a garage setting to showcase tools or gear on sale, or possibly a car in the corner of a store displaying the different types of <b>Best car speakers in the world Carspeakerland.com</b> .
For instance, Best Buy changes its store design three times every year to stay current with changes in stock, based on Joel Schwane, manager of sales and marketing to get Thorco Industries, Inc., a designer and maker of custom POP displays and fixtures for clients such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart.
While aftermarket retailers do not need to be this drastic, the concept might be you to embrace as the aftermarket tries to capture the attention of busier and busier customers.
Proper use of store space is also vital to your consumer’s experience, especially since almost everyone we spoke with noted that the longer a customer is at the store, the longer they will purchase.
„When customers walk into the store, restrain their travel walk them with of the accessories to the product they need,“ offers Goldberg. „Walk through storage cards prior to becoming to cameras and surely instruct the salespeople to create their presentations about those value-added accessories“
A jolting task
It’s easy to become overwhelmed by producing the perfect store experience, however, merchandising consultants and display manufacturers are able to give assistance.
Some companies produce a video program which may be performed on in-store TVs and offer it to independent retailers on a subscription basis. Or, if funds are tight, retailers could produce their own video, boosting weekly sales items and the way they work.
Retailers can ask their vendors what displays they offer or if they are eager to share fees.
To be able to collect fresh ideas, consumer electronics retailers frequently attend merchandising trade shows, states MTI’s Goldberg, that suggests retailers attend GlobalShop, a store design trade show in Las Vegas. Just as vital as the displays is training store employees about the best way best to use them not just functionally but at the sales process as well. MTI provides in-store training on proper care and how to use the display within a sales pitch, he also notes.
„More interactive displays have been adopted throughout the area,“ Breen shares. In the long run, it’s likely to be expected with consumers. If you do not have interactive technologies and ways for your shopper to experience the product, you are likely to be looked at as old school“
Lessons in the electronics world
Based on Rodger Roeser with Justice & Young Public Relations, electronics retailers have made a new identity and stuck with it.
„You wish to produce an excellent, positive, memorable experience from the store,“ he suggests. „If you do not embrace that new strategy upfront, you are desperately seeking straws and no additional advertising suggestion will do the job.“
Roeser says he want to see the aftermarket become more informative within their store sales, following the lead of electronics stores.
„It’d be better from a marketing perspective to show greater product demonstrations and possibly give coupons for consumers to try out product,“ he says. „People have a tendency to get stuck inside their brands regardless of the retailers that they visit, so it’s significant that (retailers) help consumers establish trial and take advantage of different products“
And Roeser thinks looking to other industries, such as the electronics station, is a fantastic idea for the aftermarket.
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„Look outside your own organization. There’s entirely too much swallowing of the Kool-Aid (from the aftermarket industry) in which a provider isn’t getting objectivity and consumer insight,“ he notes. „The experience of a Circuit City is considerably different than in a Best Buy, a Staples or a hhgregg. All of them provide the same sort of product, however all of them have a unique personality.“
From Casey Clapper
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