CREATIVE INSIGHTS INC.

From where you are to where you want to go.

Retail Tune Up Consulting

We help retailers evaluate their businesses and recharge their brands. We consult with retailers on planning, strategy, buying, merchandising, displays, marketing, branding, staff development, management training and coaching.

Our advice is always aimed squarely at helping retailers deliver a consistent and compelling customer experience and on-brand customer service. We look at all aspects of the business from the customers’ perspective and then provide a plan of action that will help improve the bottom line in both the short and long term.

Whether wanting to re-evaluate their entire concept or to just re-energize their management or sales team, retailers will benefit from our practical approach that is based on our understanding of all facets of the retail business.

The most successful stores today have found a well-defined niche and can therefore focus their attention on developing strategies to attract customers and keep them coming back.

But as conditions change over time, many retailers end up with an outdated marketing and operational strategy that no longer creates a competitive advantage or adds value to the brand. As a result, sales lag, customer counts dwindle, staff motivation fades and profitability declines.

We help you develop an actionable Marketing and Operational Strategy, and support you during the implementation

Our Retail Tune Up consulting service helps retailers analyse critically their overall purchasing, pricing, merchandising, advertising and customer service strategies. In our experience, re-defining or clarifying the brand promise, and bringing the reality of the business closer to that promise, can make a noticeable difference in profitability.

The goal of a Retail Tune Up is to improve average transaction, total sales, bottom-line profitability and customer feedback. We evaluate the entire “concept” and brand from the customer’s perspective – the perspective that affects the bottom line most profoundly. This includes evaluating the outside of the store, the overall environment inside, the merchandise, display units and props, music, and staff behaviour and attire.

Depending on the scope, we will also look at inside and outside influencers, inside and outside weaknesses and strengths, and potential threats and opportunities. Our analysis can encompass the entire company or brand, or a specific area of concern.

One client told us that her store more than doubled its average transaction in less than a year after a Retail Tune Up. “Some of the changes you suggested were easy and fast,” she said. “And some we are still working on a full year later.”

Retail Tune Up Consulting:

Old Salty Gift Shop, Salt Spring Island

One of the broadest assignments that Creative Insights has handled was the Retail Tune Up we did for Old Salty. A small gift store on Salt Spring Island – one of the Gulf Islands off the coast of British Columbia – Old Salty is one of three stores operated by Mouat’s Trading Co. Ltd. in the village of Ganges.

When Mouat’s GM Kevin Bell called us, he explained that Old Salty was no longer selling tobacco products, and needed to transition from a variety/card store to a gift store.

Working through store manager Mary Lou Bompas, we began with a sale on any products that had celebrated a birthday. We then held focus groups with both regular customers and “friends” of Old Salty to help find the new direction in which the store should head.

As it turned out, that answer came in the person of Finbar Leif Mouat (aka “Old Salty”), the fictitious store owner that we developed to guide us through the transition and beyond. “Finbar,” said our faux-historic plaque near the entrance, “has endless curiosity about rich culture, timeless craftsmanship and various art forms in foreign countries.”

That was all we needed in order to divide the 1,200 square-foot store into six “lands.” Each told a complete yet ever-changing product story, in this case Treasures.

We added art, jewelry and books to the store’s product mix and handmade barn-board fixtures such as treasure chests (above) and picnic tables (below) to the retail environment. We then watched the store’s total sales and average transaction soar.

When we start to “Tune” a retail business, we look at these 15 areas:

• The five ratios that measure the basic health of a business

• The positioning of the store against the trend to EST retailing

• The crucial first impression created by the total concept

• The customers’ expectations and how the business meets them

• The total shopping experience from the customers’ point of view

• The key communicators: media messages, physical setting

• The appeal to women vs. men and the potential for show

• The people side of the business, how people function as a team

• The balance between selling and the intangible spirit of service

• The balance between specialized selection and personal service

• The effective use of merchandising and prime selling locations

• The investment in inventory and if it is there at the right time

• The effective use of markdowns to help keep all items “current”

• The ability to grow by following one of four strategies

• The potential for creating or building on a “secret weapon”

In most cases, the process takes about three months from start to finish. If needed, we will engage partners from our network of experts to help with (for example) branding, design, PR or technology to provide in-depth analysis and recommendations.

The specific deliverables of our Retail Tune Up Consulting:

• A report that summarizes our findings and outlines our recommendations and the specific actions through which the business can increase its productivity and profitability,

• A one-day meeting with management and selected staff members to present the report and discuss the first steps of implementing the recommendations, and

• A follow-up visit six to eight weeks later to check on progress, identify successes and challenges, and if necessary, develop a list of short-term and mid-term adjustments to ensure that the new marketing and operational strategy is translated into real-life success.

The Best Way to Compete: Do Not Act Like A Vending Machine

Excerpt from Chapter 7 of

Start and Run a Retail Business

by James E. Dion and Ted Topping

From the perspective of a customer, shopping at one of the big-box retailers is very similar to shopping at a vending machine. Neither asks what you want because they expect you to know that when you arrive, and both reduce the shopping experience to its simplest terms. As a customer, you walk in, put your money in the slot, push a button and wait as a product slides down the chute.

Vending machines are both very efficient and very profitable for their owners, but they have one big drawback from a customer’s perspective – they will quite happily sell “landfill.” We use this term to describe any item a customer buys that does not meet his or her needs.

As you build your retail business, you should regularly ask yourself one question: “What is the difference between what I am doing and what a vending machine does?” If the answer is “nothing,” you are in deep trouble. Any vending-machine retailer can simply undercut your prices and put you out of business.

To prevent this, you need to add value to every transaction. And one of the best ways to do this is to provide extra-mile service and take the time to understand your customers’ needs.

If you can figure out what it would take to make your customers’ purchases complete and wonderful, and then find ways of doing that, you stand a good chance of lasting in the retail business. You could start by not selling landfill, perhaps making it a slogan:

Our store is not going to let you buy useless stuff. Instead, we will provide you with all kinds of complete and wonderful solutions to your needs.

Not every customer will respond to this. Perhaps 25 per cent of all customers always shop on price alone. They are quite happy to do their shopping at a vending machine. They do not care about nice-looking stores and they are not interested in what some retailers offer as “service.”

You would be making a big mistake if you tried to build your business on this group because you will never be able to build a relationship with customers who shop on price alone. Those people will always go down the street to save a nickel and around the corner to save a dime.

This does not imply that the remaining 75 per cent of shoppers do not care about price. To the contrary, these people care very much about what they pay – in relation to what they receive. In other words, they care about value. They will expect you to justify your price, to explain why an item is worth the amount you are asking for it.

Said another way, price will only be an issue in the absence of value.