Appealing to the Imagination

Extract from a recent article from Jon Bird.

Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of the legendary London department store which now bears his name, once said that “the whole art of merchandising consists of appealing to the imagination. Once the imagination is moved, the hand goes naturally to the pocket. But if the first appeal is to the purse, the imagination is apt to revolt and raise barriers against buying.”

Arguably, much of Australian retail is about appealing “to the purse” rather than “the imagination”. Hence we can end up with relatively sterile retail environments plastered with cardboard screaming about “this week’s offer”. The great retailers of the world, however, have always understood the importance of getting the customer’s juices going before asking for the order. And a big part of the stimulation has been in the form of exciting visual merchandising (VM).

According to David Jenkin in “What Great Retailers Do”, VM is a simple concept; “it’s all about presenting merchandise in the most eye-catching way.”UK and US retailers tend to put more emphasis on the importance of really inspiring VM. UK creative director and retail commentator Mary Portas resurrected Harvey Nichols in the UK by creating highly memorable shop windows and calls them “the art of the high street”. Mickey Drexler (now CEO of American apparel retailer J.Crew) built The Gap/Banana Republic/Old Navy empire on clever VM.
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It’s time for Australian retailers to lift their sights and embrace VM on a more sophisticated level. By appealing to “the imagination” first and “the purse” second you might just find wallets opening automatically. Jon Bird is CEO of retail marketing specialist IdeaWorks (www.ideaworks.com.au). He can be contacted at jon.bird@ideaworks.com.au.