Marketing Communication Program (SMART) As you consider your advertising and promotion plan, it’s important to keep three (3) things in-mind: How can we maximize coverage, given budgets? What channels will be the most effective? How will we assess campaign performance? The first should be self-evident. While there may be temptation to match the proliferation of channels with an effort to be present in each, there is a finite limit to… Read More »Marketing Communication Program (SMART)

Communication Programs What you’ll learn to do: Explain how retailers build a brand image and increase customer loyalty by using communication programs Marketing and promotion help facilitate exchange by providing information and context to consumers to help them understand how specific good and services can meet their needs. Integrated Marketing Communication plays an essential role in this process, made even more important with the rise of the omni-channel. It (IMC) harnesses… Read More »Communication Programs

Integrated Marketing Communications and Promotions What you’ll learn to do: Explore the concept of integrated marketing communications and retail promotions As we begin, we need to emphasize the relevance of integrated in our discussion of Marketing Communication. As you know, the emergence of digital technology, social media and mobile devices has led to significant changes in how consumers shop for and engage with brands—the emergence of an omni-channel, i.e. the varied interactions in… Read More »Explore the concept of integrated marketing communications and retail promotions

Why It Matters: Integrated Marketing Communications and Promotions Let’s assume you’ve done all the work to establish your retail business. You’ve conducted rigorous strategic planning, evaluating opportunities… You’ve evaluated channels of distribution, selecting the one(s) that fit with your capabilities and growth prospects… You’ve selected a market, targeting a specific customer segment… You’ve built channel relationships, sourcing products and ensuring a well-merchandised store… You’ve hired capable staff, setting performance objectives… Read More »Integrated Marketing Communications and Promotions

Putting It Together: Retail Image: Layout and Visual Merchandising Whether a retailer is putting the rules of visual merchandising to work in a brick-and-mortar store, or on an online retail platform, he’s working to maximize sales.  Visual merchandising is just that – a tool to encourage a shopper to buy more. Luckily for us, shoppers are predictable.  The way they walk through the store, what they like and don’t like… Read More »Putting It Together: Retail Image: Layout and Visual Merchandising

Pros and Cons of an Online Store Online, brick-and-mortar, or both? There are advantages and disadvantages to both: Brick-and-mortar only The advantages of a brick-and-mortar store are pretty clear. The shopper can have an entirely immersive shopping experience, where you control everything from the product he sees to the music he hears while he views it. The visual display opportunities only end with your imagination, and add on sales are… Read More »Pros and Cons of an Online Store

User Experience The shopping experience. Brick-and-mortar retail stores are reinventing themselves to provide better, more engaging experiences for their shoppers, knowing that the physical shopping experience is what differentiates them from the crushing trends of online shopping. At the same time, ecommerce platforms are looking to up the ante on the shopping experiences they provide. Right now, most ecommerce is a bunch of pictures and a check out process that… Read More »User Experience

Online Store Design Layout, traffic flow and environment are an important part of the online shopping experience, and a web retailer must leverage those features of a site in order to maximize conversions. An appealing landing page This is like the front of the store. A good page doesn’t sell the shopper anything just yet—she’s in the “transition zone” where she’s still orienting herself. There’s no ‘add to cart’ here… Read More »Online Store Design

Atmosphere in Web Retailing What you’ll learn to do: Use nonstore-retailing atmospheric principles to analyze current web retailers Consider Macy’s, Kohl’s, and JC Penney. They are three huge names in retail. Two of the three of them are over a hundred years old. They’ve withstood the test of time by changing when they needed to, adapting to customers’ needs and behaviors. And yet, for two of the three, their sales are… Read More »Atmosphere in Web Retailing

Rewarding Shopping Experiences What you’ll learn to do: Illustrate how the store environment can create a rewarding shopping experience A store layout determines how your merchandise will be displayed and how your shoppers will move through your store. But add all the environmental elements—from the flooring to the building materials to the lighting—and then you’re starting to create a shopping experience for your shopper. Help your product along with some balanced,… Read More »how the store environment can create a rewarding shopping experience