Just because flat screens are now affordable and widely available, does not mean that their presence inside stores and restaurants is always welcome and appropriate.
There can be few things more distracting and annoying than a screen (or screens) on the walls of an intimate restaurant or a café showing commercial TV programs or straight TV advertising.
In Asia, where this technology is even more affordable, screen pollution has reached plague proportions. It seems that this is another manifestation of the ‘mine is bigger than yours’ syndrome – to see who can feature the largest size screen and/or the highest number of screens inside their premises. Australia however is not far behind in this mindless pursuit.
It doesn’t matter what kind of business you operate, the last thing your customers want is to be subjected to a heavy barrage of TV commercials. They are already surrounded by incessant 24/7 advertising on TV screens at home, in the press, on the internet and on billboards – to name just a few channels. Your customers’ reaction to your in-store commercials will be at best to simply turn off; at worst, they may be so annoyed that they will not return to your store.
For this reason, straight commercial advertising content, broadcast in store, is ineffective and in many cases damaging. Yet straight commercial advertising is what 90 percent of flat screens in retail premises are devoted to at present.
This does not mean that flat screens should not be used in stores. They can be utilised to a great effect. Their application, however, must be carefully considered – how appropriate are they for your retail format and the atmosphere you wish to create, and most importantly,what is your customer’s state of mind and expectations when they are in your store or café?
In other words, screens will work really well if they are part of the overall retail and branding concept.
Here are some examples:
Enhancing brand environment/creating ambience – example sweet shop
In store screens can be used to show moving brand images and film clips, specially designed to complement other elements of the retail environment – in addition to colours, materials, lighting and static signage. Image content, rhythm, sounds and music, as well as the placement of the screens are all important considerations.
The advantages of moving brand images are many – creating a special and memorable ambience, introducing movement, reinforcing the brand experience, as well as the flexibility to change the content and to introduce new content in the future.
One of our projects where the moving images are key to the overall brand experience is Sugar Fix – a chain of stores selling sweets. Each store has several large screens showing specially designed film clips which feature some of their most popular sweets. It is important to note that these are not advertising clips, but rather short films and images designed to create a special mood and to add to the brand environment.
Delivering information – example liquor store
Flat screens are very effective when delivering information about your product, service or (interesting and relevant) stories about your business. The information presented should be simple and the content highly visual (rather than lots of text). The optimal placement of screens also needs to be planned as customers require a degree of privacy in order to be able to focus on the information presented.
Screens will work really well in stores where information content changes frequently. This is a great alternative to the printed signage that is more expensive to produce and even more difficult to keep up to date. We used this in the CBD Cellars wine store project to provide information about new vintages and wine releases.
New formats using screens – example DVD rental
We have just completed a project where technology and screens form the foundation of the entire retail concept. The store is called DVD Lounge, and it is the first in a chain of many planned by the client. There is nothing new about what the business does – it rents DVDs like thousands of its competitors.
The difference is how it is done. DVD Lounge is an excellent example of truly understanding customers’ frame of mind, frustrations and expectations.
The usual scene in a DVD or video rental shop is shelf after shelf of similarly looking movie boxes with confused and frustrated customers searching aimlessly for something they might like to watch tonight. There are actually no movies on display at all at DVD Lounge, but there are many screens.
Each screen is suspended inside of a futuristic lounge pod designed to comfortably sit two people. Customers are able to choose from a screen menu and watch previews of any films before they decide to borrow them. The borrowing and payment processes are electronic, and movies are given out by a robotic dispenser. Due to the innovative use of technology, this is a very low labour cost business.
Our design uses this technology to deliver the operational benefits to the client. At the same time, the technology became an inspiration and foundation for the total brand experience we have created – the brand itself, as well as colours, finishes, lighting, signage and in-store communications.
As you can see from these three examples, there is much more to using technology in store than mindlessly pumping out TV commercials. Technology can become a major contributor to creating a retail concept and a brand experience. The use of technology in itself can become the concept, as our last example demonstrates.
