Are you paying attention? Stanford Venture Lab Assignment 2

1. Are You Paying Attention?
A Crash Course in Creativity
Craig Kensek
10/29/2012

2. www.ae.com
“Give us your life. Take what we make. Make it your own.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxdhbzs3hMg
A very crowded store, but with merchandise, not with customers. I walked around for a while
giving someone the opportunity to ask if I needed assistance. This never happened. As with
most of the stores, music was on the louder side. People were browsing. No one seemed to be
on a mission to purchase anything. Clothing wasn’t by designer. It was by function. Jackets
with jackets, etc. Shirts and winter jackets were the items positioned at the front of the story.
Two aisles take the customers from the front of the store to the back.
Note – None of the stores, with the exception of William Sonoma, had a uniform. At William
Sonoma, the “uniform” was an apron. Stores can’t require employees to wear their store’s
attire. However, one employee commented that she liked to wear the clothes attire because it
helped market the merchandise. Employees are told not wear clothing that conspicuously
displays any competitor’s brand names.
To go to AE's Facebook page
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3. www.gap.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/Gap
The Gap was very brightly lit, along the lines of a Target, for example. The Gap is the “middle”
store of the parent company, with Old Navy at the lower end and Banana Republic at the upper
end. People were being assisted. On the first swing through, there were only adults in the
store. On the second swing through, there were “Mom’s” with children in strollers, as well. The
music was louder than at American Eagle Outfitters. The store is designed to break apart the
rows. You can’t walk directly from the front to the back. A couple of people were being helped.
One of the cashiers actually seemed to be in the 50’s. I gave people ample opportunity to ask if
I needed help. No one did. Wearing a mono colored shirt, and khaki’s. I was dressed for the
environment. A few bright blue Gap signs hung from the ceiling near the front of the store.
Down jackets and women’s sweaters were the first items facing the customer upon entering the
store.
Gap Facebook page
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4. www.williams-sonoma.com
“Serving the serious cook since 1956.”
http://www.youtube.com/williamssonom
I was greeted as soon as I entered the store! Pans hanging from the ceiling faced the entrance.
Managers wore one colored apron. People lower in the employee food chain wore another
color. Helpers from manufacturers were a third. The store was fragrant due to free samples
being given out. I was asked three times during my visit whether I needed assistance. The
least expensive items were on the right hand side, primarily on the wall. Foodstuffs lined much
of the middle of the store. Demo/sample stations were near the island at the center of the store.
The demographics skewed older than at the other stores. Perhaps this was why the music
wasn’t as loud as it was at the others
Facebook page for Williams Sonoma
http://bananarepublic.gap.com/
No corporate you tube videos were readily apparent.
The Banana Republic is the top tier of the company’s three stores. They sell some jewelry,
fragrances, and sunglasses, as impulse items near the cash registers. This was the only store
having the registers on the side of the store. They weren’t wafting their store fragrance through
the store. No hard-core shoppers were around. People were being helped. Each time I
entered the store, I was greeted quickly and told that for the day, everything in the store was
40% off. This was essentially a script. In the middle of the store, I was asked if I needed help,
so perhaps people at the two entrances were the ones expected to push the discount. Banana
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5. Republic is more upscale than the Gap They definitely wanted you to know about the special as
40% off everything signs were sprinkled liberally throughout the store. Energy in the store was
higher than some of the stores.
Facebook page for Banana Republic
www.hollisterco.com
“SO CAL #SO CHILL”
No corporate You tube videos
Despite its positioning as a southern CA store (web cam of a beach), with signs at the door for
“Betty’s” to the left and “Dude’s to the right”, the atmosphere was dark and cold. I was never
asked if I needed assistance, despite several laps through the store. From the entrance, you
can’t even see anyone. You need to go to the left or right, and then in. Shirts were front and
center after going to the left or right, stacked on tables as opposed to being on racks. A very
dark walled interior with loud music and spot lighting. As with many stores, they sell a store
fragrance. You could only smell it near the registers. It didn’t seem to be piped through the
store, which Abercrombie and Fitch stores (owned by the same company) appear to do. Unlike
other stores, the design conveyed a sense of rooms as you went from the front to the back.
There seemed to be more women than men in the store. There were more female employees
than male employees.
Hollister has a Facebook page, but you have to sign up for Hollister Club Cali to gain access.
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6. www.luckybrand.com
“The lucky ones. A fit for every personality.”
https://www.youtube.com/user/luckybrand
It took a minute for me to be greeted but I was greeted. This visit, as with all the others, was
around noon on Saturday. There was ample time for the place to get crowded. The place was
empty. I may have skewed older for the demographics and therefore been ignored. Women’s
tops, jeans, and jewelry (just samples) faced customers entering the store. As with almost all of
the other stores, the music was on the loud side. Smaller items were closer to the cash
registers, but I wouldn’t call them impulse items. Demographics probably skew closer to
Banana Republic than to the Gap.
Facebook page for Lucky Brand
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7. Insights and Hidden Opportunities
 Make walking around the store more of an adventure - A few stores broke up the stores
lines with partitions/walls holding clothes, or interspersing tables in the aisles, so that
the customer couldn’t walk a straight line from the front to the back. Easy modification.
With the exception of William Sonoma, all stores had a men’s section and a women’s
section.
 Show me the demographics. Let me know I fit - No store did a great job of visually
letting the customer know that they were the target customer. More posters on the
walls, or perhaps flat screens of people wearing ensembles would send the message.
 Don’t’ cheapen the brand – Having all the products in the store on sale for 40% of lets
me know, “I should just wait for a sale.”
 Be creative in your sales - Not all items should be on sale. Have one percentage for
some items. Perhaps have an ensemble price if the customer buys a top and a bottom,
for example.
 Educate the customer - I didn’t see any of the sales people suggesting pairings of colors,
for example. Alternatively, perhaps, something could be on the wall that helps the
customer with this.
 Friend us, like us, let us tweet you - All the stores have some combination of Facebook,
“clubs”, and Twitter. There was nothing in the stores to let customers know, to send
them an invitation, to give them a “gift” for joining.
 Friend us, like us, let us tweet you now - Have tablets available to let customers sign up
for all of these while in the store.
 Friend us, like us, let us tweet you later - Some stores do this by asking for an email
address and the contacting the customer through that medium. Usually it’s done just for
sales, not for the whole social media experience.
 Let the customer no (se) that you market a fragrance - Fragrances were the ubiquitous
impulse item near the cash register. All seemed to have test bottles of some sort.
Slather (!) the fragrance on the sales people. Have test bottles slung on the
salesperson’s hips.
 Cross selling means more $ for the store and more $ for the salesperson – I didn’t hear
any salesperson suggest that the customer look at tops to match the pants they were
examining, or suggesting that the customer may want to layer their purchases.
Depending on how busy the store is, the salesperson could even bring something over
to the customer.
 Ensembles - A few flat screens could help display ensembles (type in your sex, age, and
build, and we’ll show you some!).
 The web has a greater selection - Have kiosks and tablest in the store that only access
the company’s web site. This lets the customer order more (and have it delivered).
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8. You want data? We got data!
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