Product development is a gamble. This is real-time stuff. You’ve got to be ready at a moment’s notice. That means a large investment upfront. When the buyer says yes, they mean now. They won’t tell you to go away and come back in three months. If they say no, they mean no, and you’re potentially looking at a lot of wasted time and money.

To get a yes you have to stand out from the crowd. Buyers are inundated with new products every week. Of those products, 90% will go straight in the bin. You see the likes on Dragon’s Den; passionate people with products they believe will fly off the shelves but haven’t got a hope in hell of making it big. The Dragons soon shatter those dreams.

The remaining 10% will be looked at. Only about 1% will make it. That’s around 1 in every 1,000.

The Emotional Goldmine

Buyers are always looking for new because new is exciting and refreshes existing season’s merchandise. But they only have limited space for new. The space made available by products that are on the way out.

The number one priority is your differentiator or USP. There’s no point being an also ran because you’re too late. Somebody else already has that shelf space. But, differentiating through price point, ingredients or functionality is not enough. The real U.S.P.is in the story you tell and the emotional connection you make with the buyer.

For instance, nobody buys a shampoo because it cleans hair. All shampoos do that. However, put a celebrity name on the bottle and you’ve got yourself a story. If it’s Toni & Guy, the immediate thought is that they’ve formulated it themselves and because T & G are celebrated hair dressers who use their products in salons, they must know what is best for my hair. The conclusion; this is a special shampoo.

Most of us don’t have the luxury of being a celebrity so you must find other ways to tell your story. Let’s stick with Shampoos for a moment and look at Aussie Shampoo. Entering the market about 5 years ago, the name and the kangaroo logo tell a good story.

Do Australians have better hair than the rest of us? Who knows. However, we associate Australia with healthy, young, vibrant people. All the words and feelings that you want to associate with your hair care. I wouldn’t know if the formula is different from L’Oreal’s but the Aussie story paints a picture that feels right.

A good name and logo can be just the start. To really stand out you need to make a greater visual impact than your competition. Both M.A.C and Benefit are good examples of products that dared to be different. They differentiated themselves through package design, strong marketing and P.R. that got your attention. They entered a market that was already flooded with cosmetics and got their timing just right. They turned the white and gold cosmetics halls into museums that overflowed with outdated product.

Suddenly you had premium products with serious attitude (M.A.C.) or packaging that was girly, sassy and fun (Benefit). It said that make up didn’t have to be serious; it could be young and flirtatious. Soon after launch I talked to some girls at another cosmetics company who told me in confidence that they loved Benefit because it looked great on their dressing table, and M.A.C was just plain sexy!

There are clearly other important factors; the product has got to do what it says on the tin; it has to be priced right; and it must land on the buyer’s desk at the right time of year. If your idea is truly brilliant, buyers will be brave, and move whole departments to place your new baby on the shelf. But without a strong brand story that connects with the buyer at an emotional level, you won’t get through the door.

Take chains like Next, Boots and Starbucks; their shops are almost clinical in their execution. Anything potentially off-putting has been stripped out and with it the individual personality and pull of the brand.

Personally, I would like to see a change in emphasis to the way brands approach their retail design. Instead of looking at the space from the outside and judging how much money can be generated per square ft, why not start from the inside with a product-centric design that produces an environment shoppers can connect with on a personal level.

Product-centric design is about understanding the ethos of the product and building an environment that carries it through every touch-point. It’s about offering an immersive experience that draws the customer in through the creation of a deep emotional connection.

Although we like to think of ourselves as individuals, we don’t like to live in isolation. We like to hang out with like-minded people. It’s why, from a very early age, we like to join clubs. The way that people choose their brands is not dissimilar to the way they choose their associations. They don’t just connect with the product’s look and feel, but most crucially its ethos. The product clearly needs to be good to sell well but it’s the ethos of the brand that builds its following.

Monsoon has a beautiful ethic: it’s for stylish people who have a hippy side. It’s a bit ethnic but with a modern twist that you might see on the cat walk. They have taken something that on paper would look like a very small club and made it appeal to a wider audience by giving it a fashionable kick. These boundaries are not fixed; the walls of retail crumble every day; but they are important.

If the product identifies the club, then the shop should be the clubhouse. People gravitate to an ambience in which they feel comfortable. If your shop doesn’t offer the right ambience, people will disconnect and leave. Why is it that we can be drawn in by a shop window only to turn around as soon as we enter the shop? Somewhere the connection that was created outside has been lost inside.

Jack Wills is an excellent example of a brand that understands the ethos of its brand and has built a clubhouse to match it. They have designed the interior to act as a perfect environment for people who feel an affinity to the Oxbridge club.

The shop fits are reminiscent of a boathouse. They are not beautifully furnished but have a worn feel as if generations of students who have gone on to become heads of industry and Prime Ministers have trodden their boards. Everything from the props on the wall to the shop assistants helps to tell the product story and immerse the shopper in the experience.

Size is also important. I believe that up and coming brands like Jack Wills are successful because they are still small. The minute they get greedy and set their sights on every high street they’ll be in trouble. To remain hot, you have to know your limits and stay there. As soon as something is overexposed it loses its impact. Chanel knows this and today remains a much sort after brand.

Newer brands are helping to reinvigorate the high street and enjoying substantial success as a result. They appear to understand that people need to belong and want to be stimulated. How much of Jack Wills’ success is down to the connection it creates with its fan club? That’s a toughie. Certainly it’s harder to measure the financial impact of an emotional response than track the movement of product across a shop floor. However, what good is an equation when shoppers forgo the shop altogether?

Perhaps the high street backlash is a little unjust but dissatisfaction of any kind can fester if left untreated. Any brands that do not acknowledge the way people feel and respond accordingly are putting their bottom lines at risk.

Perhaps a trip to the shops might actually become a pleasurable day out it should always have been!

Had a great time looking closely at retail in Japan – much more vibrant and exciting than the UK.

Retail Focus were kind enough to publish a few words I wrote about the trip – check it out on the link pages 30-31.

http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/launch.aspx?referral=other&pnum=&refresh=Lj81t90K0Y6w&EID=f311f9b8-7db6-428b-8f5b-f9fbb96d720d&skip=

http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html

I was lucky enough to actually visit the Sistine Chapel some years ago. The only downside of this fabulous piece of history was the crowds. The place was literally packed to the gunnels and any opportunity to admire Michelangelo’s frescos was marred by the noisy and packed audience of tourists.

So imagine my delight when I came across the Vatican website using technology in a way that truly enhances the visitors experience.

Frankly had I known this earlier I probably would have found a nice bar, ordered a cool lager and visited the website instead, but then I guess that would not be quite the same.

Check out other aspects of the site. The combination of modern technology meets religion makes it interesting.

Over the years we have had a few situations where a store, shopping centre or (on rare occasions) a client, has nominated a contractor or sub-contractor for us to use.

Now, generally, this is fine so long as the contractor responds efficiently and presents prices that are reasonable. However, my biggest frustration is when a nominated contractor seems, firstly, not to be that bothered about responding to your request and secondly, when they do respond, the cost presented is astronomical and seems to bear no relationship to the job requested.

This is a problem mostly encountered when being asked by store groups to use their own contractor. The reasons for high prices are generally either that the contractor is not bothered by this ‘small’ request and so does not either understand or care about the job as it is not their ‘core’ business, or that any relationship with you is not seen as beneficial in the long term. There is also the possibility that they simply do not want to be bothered working with a new client!

So, as our duty is to providing our clients with good service, good value and good quality it is surely our duty to find alternatives.

To cite a recent example (without mentioning any names) we were planning a shop-fit in a prestigious department store and some electrics and data needed moving. The floor of this store was tiled with marble – so we had to remove three or four tiles, lay some data cabling and lay power. This involved three nominated contractors with a price coming in at nearly £12,000.00!!!!

Whilst I can understand this is not as easy as it may appear – just think of how many man-hours (even working at weekend rates) this can buy! Needless to say we had no choice as the store were not prepared to consider non-approved contractors. I could have guaranteed our client a considerably lower price than those we were forced to go with.

My frustration is not simply with the submitted cost of the work but also with the client and architects who allowed/agreed to have marble flooring laid in such an inflexible manner especially when the entire purpose of department stores and their ever shifting shop floors require inherent flexibility. I could extend my frustration and explain that some of our clients are small or start-up brands with tight budgets and these kinds of costs scupper their chances of being healthily profitable.

Is it too simple for stores to try and work with brands and help them to achieve success after all a lot of the time their businesses are ‘joint ventures’ to all extents and purposes!

I found this site by first visiting and admiring a site geared towards designers and illustrators who create either imaginary futuristic creations or simply love traditional marker style industrial design concept drawing.

Urban sketching though appeals to me because of my love of the sketch that captures the moment. In particular I like the work of children’s illustrator, Lynne Chapman who has the knack of capturing people on the British rail Network (amongst other things).

I’m not sure if you would describe Theo Jansen as either an engineer, an artist/sculptor or an inventor but his kinetic sculptures are breathtaking, fascinating and a touch eerie.

Check them out on -

http://www.strandbeest.com/

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Sometimes somebody comes up with a gem of an idea – not world beating but neat and fun. One of our contractors, Carl Withers, from Innovations came up with a simple way for our team to check finishes on site without carrying a briefcase full of heavy and unwieldy chunks of timber.

We call his ‘innovation’ the Battenburg cube. Benefit, one of our larger clients, has 6 lacquered finishes to their in-store unitary. Each face of this small cube has one of the finishes applied. So now our team carry a simple, light and small Battenburg cube onto site with them to check finishes to ensure consistency for the brand.

Thanks Carl – a great idea!

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Now I do not profess to know a lot about Paul Arden other than picking up a book called ‘It’s not how good you are – it’s how good you want to be’ at Kettles Yard a small art gallery in Cambridge. Initially I was attracted by the smart cover and, when opened, the simple graphics and imagery. An added advantage was I reckoned I could read this book in about 20 minutes!

However, the simple messages within are powerful and potentially life changing especially for somebody in the creative industry.

Like all corporate employees I have been bundled off to various training and improvement sessions with an assortment of (expensive) consultants over the years. Sometimes you learn useful stuff, a lot of the time you know the stuff already.

So here’s my tip……

Go buy it – Play.com sells the book for £5.49.

Even if you don’t enjoy the book it’s not exactly as risky as forking out on life training classes and you certainly will not waste as much time.

His other books are also great fun and by the time you get to ‘God Explained in a Taxi Ride’ hopefully you’ll be a convert and want to know more about him.

http://www.paularden.com