Lately, I’ve been thinking and writing about brands and the
parallels found in analyzing and working on brand personalities compared to
people personalities.
A short time ago Fast Company (a magazine I LOVE!) covered a new
book release about a book titled Where They Create – written by Alexandra
Onderwater with photos by Paul Barbera.
According to the article the book documents the workspaces of creatives.
Exploring the visual connection to how that creative person works and what it
says about the kind of work they do.
Reading this article got me to thinking … what does my workspace
say about me? How does my workspace non-verbally
communicate the brand that surrounds our company? Does it actually communicate to a guest what
we are all about? Is this a classic case
of do what I say not what I do??? I hope not.
As we are a recently formed group our workspace is not what we know it
can be, currently it serves a purpose; we needed a place to work and it is a
place to work.
The more I think about it I know for certain that our creative workspace does not communicate our brand promise. We need to change that, quickly! Often this is the very thing we discuss first in talking with a new client. What is your retail environment currently communicating to your customers and is it aligned with your brand promise? Most of the time, they do not align. Verbal communication has run wild – we are all inundated with so much information – everyone wanting to tell us their story, and yet there are brands out there that communicate their brand promise without having to constantly “talk” to you, or more accurately – talk at you. They use visual cues such as lighting, color, texture…just to name a few. There is a quick exercise we can all do with a simple walk through of your retail space. Think about your brand’s – brand promise, say it out loud, while standing in your space. Then take a look around and look for the things that don’t fit. They are there and most likely very obvious when you take a look at your space as if you were a customer. An example might be your brand promise is such that your brand is friendly, warm and inviting. Is your lighting bright enough to perform surgery? If so, can you simply dim the lighting? Creating low lights and high lights with emphasis and focus on the product. By taking this simple step you can create a softer atmosphere that is more friendly and inviting. Is there verbal clutter everywhere that might be overwhelming or confusing to your customers? Do you have more signs talking to customers than people talking to your customers? If you see too much visual (or in this case “verbal”) clutter, reconsider all those signs and rethink your staff training – too expensive? Think about the gain in customer captivity and employee retention over the cost of better training. The exercise maybe simple and may find some solutions might be simple also … but unless you are one of the top brands in the retail world today most likely, you have some work to do.
That’s OK… just like people – unless you are perfect –
mostly likely you have some work to do.
Julie Dugas
Principal | Partner
Studio H2G