This document discusses strategies for visual merchandising and marketing to Generation Y consumers. It covers topics like communicating a brand's message through store design, using color and lighting effectively in displays, and how visual merchandising can influence consumer purchasing decisions. The document also discusses Generation Y's job market trends, preferences for using social media, and effective strategies for marketing to them online through platforms like Facebook and YouTube.

1. BCBGeneration Consumer Report
Casey Huth
Consumer Behavior Final Project
BCBGeneration Tactics Analysis

2. Table of Contents
1.0 Executive Summary
2.0 Store Summary
2.1 Communicating Brand Message & Image
2.2 Image & Personality
2.3 Levels of Perception
2.4 Tactics & Technologies
3.0 Products& Store Layout
3.1 Consumer Decision Making
3.2 Consumer Expectations
3.3 Brand & Consumer Values
4.0 Consumer Market Analysis Summary
4.1 Relating Brand Identity to the Consumer
4.2 Consumer Values & Motivation
4.3 Consumer Self
5.0 Strategies and Implementation Summary
5.1 Consumer Personality
5.2 Brand Persuasion to Consumer Attitudes
5.3 Social Networking with Groups
5.4 Brand Community & Reference Groups
6.0 Management Summary
6.1 Consumer Buying & Disposing

3. Visual Merchandising
Visual merchandising is everything the customer sees, both exterior and
interior, that creates a positive image of business and results in attention, interest,
desire and action on the part of the customer.
Visual merchandising is a perception of sellers guiding them to arrange his
merchandise look more attractive for a customer.
-The job on visual merchandising is make the store attractive for customers.
-Eighty percent of our impressions are created by sight that is why one
picture is worth thousand words.
-Each customer has a mental image of its store and merchandise.
-A store should have an inviting appearance that makes the customer feel
comfortable and eager to buy.
Objectives of Visual Merchandising:
Objective of visual merchandise is a desire to attract customers to a place of
business in order to sell the merchandise. It is offered to the customer through
exterior and interior presentations.
The evolution from the customer perspective should start from exterior and
work completely through the interior of the store.
-Apart from retail identity building visual merchandising is
regarded as a powerful tool in shaping consumers final decision to buy
in store.
-Visual merchandising focuses on various aspects of consumer,
which include sensory pleasure, affective pleasure and cognitive
pleasure.
Essential of Visual Merchandising
Interior Floor Design And Display
Space Design And Signage
Fixtures And Hardware

4. Window Display
Advertising Materials
Tools Use for Visual Merchandising
Audio-Visual Displays
Decoration And Props
Mannequins
Signage And Graphics
The presentation in visual merchandising falls into two categories mainly
1) Exterior Presentations
2) Interior Presentations

5. Exterior Presentations:
The quality of a store front is a major determinant for a customer,
particularly a new customer, and should not be underestimated. The exterior
appearance of one store, a block businesses or a cluster, silently announce what
customers can expect inside. Good exterior visual merchandising attracts attention,
creates interest and invites the customer into business. Exterior presentation can
offer lavish, conservative, progressive or discount image.
Strong Signage
A sign is a silent salesperson, and part of a shopper first impression
of a store.
In less than 10sec the sign must attract attention, tell what the
business is and what it intends to sell.

6. Simple, brief, well designed, well lettered and easy to read signs will
convey a feeling of welcome.
Design graphics appropriate for the nature of the business, and create
a message that is clear and simple.
Focus on one or two key words to describe the business. A clean,
clear message will have more impact.
A store sign is its “signature”. It is personal, original and
continuously recognizable to the public.
It should create an image that is consistently carried throughout the
existence of store.
Banners
A new and interesting appearance can be offered by changing the banners
frequently. Consumers will think exciting changes are taking place in store an will
be drawn in the stores.
Banners can be hung up from flagpoles, projected from the building or flat
against the exterior. To provide continuity the same banner design, reduced in size
and scale, can be hung from the marquee and displayed inside the store. However
do not over use banners. Then they might be overlooked by the consumers.
Window Display
Special emphasis should be placed on a stores window displays because
they are the information link to the potential customer. Window displays can be as
important, if not more important than advertising. As many as four sales could be
the result of a good window display.
Window display should attract attention, create interest and invite people
into the store to purchase goods.
There is less than 11 seconds to accomplish this, as that is an average
amount of the time an individual will spend looking at a window display.
Be careful not to crowd too much merchandise into a window, as customers
will find it difficult to understand the message and what items are being
promoted .It is important to change the displays frequently in small towns
where customers pass by several times a week.
New displays indicate new up-to-date merchandise is available.
Landscaping

7. Landscaping should lead the customer’s eye to the focal point using color
and texture to provide contrast and harmony. The focal point is the business sign
and/or the building itself. Landscaping can also screen undesirable sights such as
garbage receptacles, power transformers and refrigeration equipment.
The essence of good landscaping is simplicity, simple landscape designs
that are easy to maintain.
Interior Presentations
Selling space is the most important part of a store and therefore efforts to
utilize each square foot will help to maximize sales. The purpose of the interior
display is to develop desire for the merchandise, show what is available, and
encourage both impulse and planned buying.
Three goals of store are:
Motivate the customer to spend money
Protect the image of the store
Keep expenses to minimum
As an illustration, researchers found that 64.8% of all the purchase
decision were made inside a supermarket. Most people indicated they
purchased the item because they saw it displayed. 67% of liquor purchased
from the liquor shop are impulse items. Combining advertising and display
into an integrated promotional campaign will usually be more effective.
Color and Lighting
Color contributes significantly to people’s impression of a display as well
as stores overall appearance. Color in a display can catch eye and make people
pause and look.
The color combination of ceiling, walls, floor covering and the
overall décor can affect the atmosphere of a store.
Changing the color scheme can change people’s attitudes and
perceptions of a store and can increase or decrease the business.
Color can change the shape and interest to dull room, and can direct
attention toward a specific object or away from problem areas.
Warm colors (red, yellow, orange etc.) are stimulating and cheery.

8. They make room feel warm and intimate. They make room look
smaller and object inside larger.
Lighting
Lighting is essential in calling attention to merchandise in a display. A
shopper’s eye is drawn automatically to the brightest item or area. Lighting
treatment may be used to draw attention to the part of display area or to coordinate
the parts of total display area. Lighting can also be used to direct the path of the
customers and to make them see various displays along the way.
Primary lighting
Store illumination
Atmosphere lighting
Primary Lighting:
Atmosphere Lighting
Atmosphere lighting is used to play light against shadow to create a
distinctive effect on specific displays. Generally this category includes the
use of color filters, pinpoint spotlights and black lighting to create dramatic
effects.
Fluorescent lights are used for primary lighting, as they cannot be focused
directly on an object. Incandescent lamps have sharply defined beams that
are easily directed to highlight the merchandise on display.
Spotlights are great for merchandise displays. The angle at which spotlight
is directed is very important. Any angle sharper than 45 degree is likely to
momentarily blind a shopper.
Color filters that change the color of the spotlight are available for
spotlights.

9. Props and Fixtures
A prop is something used with a product in a display that clarifies the
function of the merchandise being sold or the story being told. Props are integral
part of a display.
They are used in virtual merchandising to tell a story about the product A
display prop may be something that is not for sale, such as floor coverings, wall
treatments, backgrounds, mannequins, shelves and steps. When using saleable
merchandise as prop, be sure it is appropriate for the theme of the display and is
sufficient quantity to meet an increase in demand arising from the display.
Merchandise and Fixture Display Recommendations
Goods can be effectively displayed on a variety of fixtures such as
gondolas, tables, cubes, and mannequins, waterfalls and other racks, display cases.
A fixture should not only complement the merchandise but also create an
atmosphere in the store. It should act as silent sales person.
One of the most common fixtures in store are gondolas; movable shelving
approachable from all sides used in self-service retail stores to display
merchandise. They can be lined up in stores as grocery or hardware stores.
Errors Commonly Occurring in Display:
Too much merchandise
Too little merchandise
Lack of underlying theme
Too many props
Poorly selected props
Display changed to seldom
Limited or no display budget
Lack of attention to detail
So by the combination of mannequin, lighting and props in a window display
and a store highlight can further intensify the decision process where the former
affects the affective pleasure of consumers and help them determine the suitability
of a store’s retail identity to personal preference, the latter intensifies the
sensational feeling of consumers and encourage the tendency to try on or purchase
which directly relates to the pre-purchase stage. Thus it can be concluded that
visual merchandising play one of the important role in customers’ decision making
process.

10. It means getting range segmentation, store layouts and use of space,
merchandising principles and techniques, window and instore displays right.
And, it includes developing effective POS & POP solutions, seasonal events
and promotions to stimulate shopping behavior.
Creates a targeted way for the brand and its consumers - allowing
expensive staff resources to be deployed on other complimenting strategies, such
as providing better consumer engagement through customer services.
Makes Consumers Buy More
Successful brand delivery is all about understanding and satisfying
customer needs. So the more that a company understands its consumers, brand and
competitors, the better it can deliver better solutions in store to improve the
customer experience.
1. Requires real expertise in store design, space planning and presentation
expertise and a real commitment to adopting a consumer led approach.
2. Whether this is achieved by increasing the size of spend, type and number
of items that people buy, the frequency of purchases, the brands and lines
that shoppers select and even down to the stores they choose to shop in.
3. Grouping different, yet related product items together to create higher value
is also a commonly used technique, as are all-inclusive solutions such as
outfit combinations in fashion stores, meal suggestions in supermarkets and
project areas in DIY stores to inform, influence and inspire customer
purchases.

11. How does it affect retail teams?
It allows the whole company to move forward with the same selling
strategies, components and practice to maximise opportunities – delivering
a consistent application of company policy instore, which improves the
customer experience and maximises sales opportunities.
Retail Teams benefit from greater clarity of direction, and from better
information and training to help them perform role related tasks with an
effective integrated approach.
This multiplies success throughout the business and is good for motivation
and personal development aspects too.

13. Marketing & Selling to Gen Y
The majority of Gen Y workers, 63% have a Bachelor's degree, but the
most common jobs they hold are in the retail industry and don't require one.

14. They're more than five times likely than workers overall to be merchandise
displayers (median pay of $23,400), 4.6 times more likely to be clothing sales
representative ($28,400), and four times likelier to be cell phone reps ($27,800),
the report found.
- Most Gen Y workers are forgoing the biggest companies in favor of smaller
companies. The highest concentration of Gen Y workers (47%) are at small
companies with fewer than 100 employees, followed by midsize companies that have
no more than 1,500 employees (30%). Just 23% of Gen Y-ers work at large firms
with more than 1,500 employees.
- Out of the 20 largest metro areas in the U.S., Seattle is the best city for Gen Y,
primarily because of its concentration of tech companies and strong wage growth.
- With Mark Zuckerberg as their role model, it's no wonder their most touted talents
revolve around social media and technology. According to the report, Gen Y's most
common job skills are Tableau software (data analysis software), blogging, social media
optimization and writing press releases.
- The best companies for Gen Y are in the technology industry. The top five — ranked
by pay, job stress and satisfaction for Gen Y workers — include Qualcomm, Google,
Medtronic, Intel and Microsoft.
Reaching Generation Y’s Through Social Media Marketing
o To be effective in our advertising and our branding, we’re going to have to
look deeper and learn more about the various generations that are
appearing on the human landscape if we are ever going to become
effective communicators.
62% of Gen Y’s have visited a brand or fan page on a social network, but only
48% have joined.
84% noticed ads on social networks, 74 percent say they click infrequently/never
(36% saying they don’t click on ads at all).
Only 19% say they find ads on social networks relevant.
51% say they’d prefer a separate social network to manage their brand
interactions.
Getting news or product updates (67%)
Having access to promotions (64%)
Viewing or downloading music or videos (41%)
Submitting opinions (36%)

15. Connecting with other consumers (33%)
1. Provide exclusive information about your products and services that can only be
made available on these networks.
2. Set up a fan base, or your own social group where people can hang out online; a
place where they can learn more and receive great offers.
3. Make it relevant, make it valuable and go with the flow of social media
interaction.
4. Don’t be invasive – be subtly persuasive as you engage your potential customers.