With shopping becoming as easy as a click of a button, or a tap on the phone screen, how do retailers survive the change in customer shopping? These days, traditional retail shops struggle as modern shoppers look for authentic in-store experience of it more than just the product they’re buying.
adobo magazine sat down with Cheil Worldwide’s Global Retail Group Director Leslie Hodgin after her fascinating talk on ‘The Changing Face of Retail’ that she presented in AdFest on March 20 to 23 in Pattaya, Thailand.
How has advertising changed retail in the past decade?
Twenty years ago, you would just put a TV spot in the retail store and that was retail, and now retails is really coming into its own where there’s different messaging. We know that shoppers are on a different path to purchase. They’re closer to the purchase space in retail so we need to talk to them in stores and bring the different experiences to get their hands on their product to really help push them over the line to make a decision to purchase.
Why do you think there is a need for brands or companies to be more interactive with their consumers especially with the new technology coming out?
I think it links to that as well. I think that modern shoppers want more than just a transaction in a store because they can do a transaction at home, on their laptop and just order with a click of a button. When they come into a store, they want to experience something a little bit different, learn something different, maybe trial products, or learn something about how it works. And I think that’s where stores are changing these days. The brands that are doing it right are building those experiences for customers.
With the new tech development for AI VR, how do you think all these creep into retail and what is the impact?
AI and VR do creep into retail. I think it’s new in retail where people can have different VR experiences with a product or AI learning experiences with a product. I think in the end, people want to actually touch a product before they buy it and VR can kind of give you a tease for it but actually touching and holding a product is still where it’s at.
You’ve been seeing a lot of these new retail experiences, what is a campaign that you think other brands should take notice of?
A retail experience campaign? Let’s talk about Nike because that’s more of a global brand to talk about. The fact that they are looking into customer data, getting from their mobile app and using that data to create store experiences is something that’s really new and a lot of brands are striving to do that kind of thing but they don’t know how to do it yet, so Nike’s really at the forefront of that. They’re taking customer data and they’re localizing store environments. They’re localizing products, assortment. They’re bringing in experiences in stores based on that data, and I think that’s something that a lot of brands are probably looking to and saying, ‘how do we do that as well?’ because it’s quite smart.
I’ve been to one of Samsung’s, they have a great consumer experience whenever they launch a new product.
Samsung does that really well with product launches. They always have pop-up shops around the world to get people to get in, to get their hands on the product and try it, but also the Olympic showcases that they do are really all about trial and emersion and the brand. It’s quite exciting and it shows people do want that phone or refrigerator or product because it works for them.
Do you think there’s a specific kind of retail experience that consumers lean towards? For example, Gentle Monster’s museum-like shops or Samsung’s Olympic showcases.
I think Gentle Monster feels like a museum but it’s an experience because you can touch things and and you can pick up the glasses that are sort of assorted throughout the sculptures and the museum experience but it still is an experience and I think when a brand can make you feel something in the store, you are going to be more likely to consider that product for purchase or for future brand loyalty.
What’s your best advice to brands or clients who are getting into retail in terms of advertising?
Stepping back and understanding your customer and what their shopping journey is like, where their pain points are. That’s on one side and on the other side as a brand, what are the sort of magic moments that you can amplify to bring that to the customer to really build a connection with them.
