Visual merchandising: The Art of Presentation

Visual merchandising is the activity of promoting the sale of goods, especially by their presentation in retail outlets.(New Oxford Dictionary of English, 1999, Oxford University Press). This includes combining products, environments, and spaces into a stimulating and engaging display to encourage the sale of a product or service. It has become such an important element in retailing that a team effort involving the senior management, architects, merchandising managers, buyers, the visual merchandising director, industrial designers, and staff is needed.

Visual Display

Why VM??

It helps educating the customers about the product/service in an effective and creative way.
It establish a creative medium to present merchandise in 3D environment, thereby enabling long lasting impact and recall value.
Setting the company apart in an exclusive position.
Establishing linkage between fashion, product design and marketing by keeping the product in prime focus.
Combining the creative, technical and operational aspects of a product and the business.
Drawing the attention of the customer to enable him to take purchase decision within shortest possible time, and thus augmenting the selling process.

Display:

A retailer's window is the most controllable element in relation to image and must match their merchandise's target demographic. Display windows may communicate style, content, and price point. They can be seductive, exciting or based on emotional stimulus through stimulation, or evocation of all five senses. Another direction taken by retailers who rely on volume sold is price-based selling. These clearly emphasize value for money with easy and obvious ticketing.

The best store windows can generate great excitement and are a talking point. They contribute to the environment by entertaining pedestrians, while simultaneously communicating the products and services on offer.

For a retailer willing to exploit the full potential that a window gives, the image-building process can be exciting and have enormous potential. A fashion retailer, for instance, will often change a window weekly to show the latest items on offer. A glance into a shop's window by a passerby establishes the time of the year and, very likely, a timely contemporary event. It might combine seasonal and festive points of the year such as Back-to-school, Spring, Summer, Easter, Christmas, New Year approaching, Diwali, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day etc. At other times the propping may be based on color schemes, materials or cultural themes.

http://soft-web-marketing.blogspot.com

Mumbai: A "Brand" new Destination

Mumbai, the city of dreams is India's largest city(by population) and is the financial and commercial capital of India as it generates 6.16% of the total GDP. It serves as an economic hub of India, contributing 10% of factory employment, 25% of industrial output, 33% of income tax collections, 60% of customs duty collections, 20% of central excise tax collections, 40% of India's foreign trade and 4,000 crore (US$868 million) in corporate taxes.

When it comes up to branding, Brand Mumbai has constantly endeavoured for a rise in the quality of life. Itnever ceases to surprise you. It has surprised the world with its cosmopolitan culture, humaneness and creativity. It is constantly innovating in every field, be it music, Bollywood, management or science. It has a conducive environment for new ventures to begin healthily and for old ventures to grow steadily.

Today Mumbai is considered the hot destination to invest in with a bunch of multinational brand making a huge investment in city. Experts say that by 2015, Mumbai would have 70% of world's top luxury brands with dedicated outlets in outskirts of the city.

With a rapid growth in its infrastructure, the city  of dreams may open a gateway to new opportunities.  

Brand Elements!!

There were probably mentioned before, one way or another all across this blog, and not only. I just feel the need to remind them and put them in a structure. No brand can live without them, all efficient brands have them.

The most important elements of a brand should be:

Brand Position

• Who is addressed by company’s branded products or services. What the company does and for whom
• The company’s unique value and how customers benefit from products and/or services
• Key competitive differentiators, what makes the brand be chosen, be different from its competitors

Brand Promise

• The ONE most important thing that the brand promises to deliver to its customers — Every time!
• What customers and partners should expect from every interaction, how should they feel as brand’s customers

Brand Personality

• What the brand is to be known for
• Personality traits that customers, partners, and employees use to describe the company. What comes to the (potential) customer’s mind when addressed about the brand

Brand Story

• The company’s history and how the history adds value and credibility to the brand
• A summary of products/services/solutions

Brand Associations

• Physical artifacts: name, logo, colors, taglines, fonts, imagery
• Ideally, it must reflect the all the above statements about the brand and the company.