Advertising seeks to open wallets on shop floor

Duffy and Finn's liquor stores have been designed so they are easy for shoppers to navigate

Retail advertising used to be largely limited to producing flyers or TV ads touting cheap prices.

But as competition rises - and the effectiveness of traditional advertising channels is challenged by new media and fragmenting audiences - ad agencies are increasingly extending their work to the shop floor, advising owners on layout and decor to win customers' hearts and open their wallets.

Two ad agencies, retail specialist Ogilvy NZ and New Zealand's biggest, Saatchi & Saatchi, are launching divisions catering to the in-store shopping experience.

The teams aim to create shops that capture a brand. They want to attract shoppers from their clients' target markets and keep them happy so they stay longer, spend more and come back.

Jonathan Russell, head of the Saatchi & Saatchi X shopper marketing arm, says it is a departure from the usual type of service on offer from ad agencies for retailers and signals a new area of growth.

"Traditionally, agencies, if they say 'we're a retail agency' it means 'we do circulars really cheap'," says Russell, whose team helped develop the look of grocery co-operative Foodstuffs' new Duffy & Finn's liquor chain.

"That's not what we are about at all. A lot of our work is strongly research driven."

Michael Major, who will be the strategic director of Ogilvy Branded Environments when it launches next month, says stepping up in-store branding can give retailers an edge in an increasingly competitive environment.

"This market is saturated with a lot of retailers - and how do they stand out from the crowd?

"The type of lighting that is used, the type of display systems that are used, the choices of materials that are used - all convey a certain message, whether subliminally or overtly."

He says shoppers can be grouped by factors such as age, gender and income - and they all have similar wants and needs from a shop.

"At a fundamental level, humans, like every animal, want to feel safe and they'll feel safe in the environment they are used to; their natural habitat."

Major says happy shoppers will spend more and cites the makeover of the Woolworths supermarket in Newmarket's 277, since rebranded to Foodtown as proof.

"We increased the aisle width as part of the rebranding issue and their figures went up 17 per cent a week," he says.

"In the [design] world of intangibles, I enjoy getting tangible results for my clients."

Major also pointed to a department by department makeover of H&J Smith in Invercargill - "each time we put in a new department their sales shoot up".

Ogilvy managing director Greg Partington says traditional methods, such as flyers and TV ads, remain at the core of retail advertising but shop owners want more from their ad agency.

Although independent retail architects already offer this type of service, he believes clients will want to access it through an agency to integrate it with their communications plan.

Ogilvy, whose retail arm lists Rebel Sport, Briscoes and Life Pharmacy among its clients, has a "360-degree" offering, says Partington, meaning clients can get everything from public relations to online, direct mail and, soon, in-store design from the one company.

Russell said Saatchi & Saatchi launched shopper marketing arm Saatchi & Saatchi X to its local clients two months ago, two years after its parent company set up the service in the United States, where it works on everything from product design to promotions.

"I think there's a huge gap in the understanding of shopping habits. It's a field that only has now, in the last few years, been understood," he says.

"The core premise is that something happens to us all when we enter a shopping experience - that is, we cease thinking like consumers and actually think like shoppers."

He says thinking like a shopper means going through a 14-stage process, including planning, in-store and an "audit" afterwards.

Occasion - or what shoppers want to buy - and environment - or where they go to buy it - have an effect.. Research shows women often feel uncomfortable shopping for makeup in a traditional supermarket aisle.

"In the US, they are realising this," Russell says. "Some new supermarkets are being built as if they are 10-15 different stores in one big building. The health and beauty area will be in a corner, allowing shoppers to park their trolleys and browse."

He says Saatchi & Saatchi's shopper marketing team worked with Foodstuffs to develop its Duffy & Finn's liquor chain, which opened its first store in Porirua last month.

Foodstuffs general manager of Wellington retail operations George Sutherland says the stores need to appeal to women without alienating men and have a strong brand to set them apart from competitors.

"Some of those [competing liquor store] brands roll into one another, they are not distinctive," he says. "They [the ad agency] brought that positioning we had to life."

Russell says a feature of the Duffy & Finn's store is making it easy to get around.

"A key issue as stores get bigger is in-store navigation," he says. "When you get lost, you get annoyed and leave."

The liquor store has signs guiding shoppers through the store and telling them about the products.

"Whenever you go into a new store for the first time, you'll do what we all do, which is just stop and, in the case of milliseconds, look for navigation clues," says Russell.

"It's actually incredibly helpful to give people navigational clues.

"You are showing people, this is the way we recommend you shop the store."

Russell says Saatchi & Saatchi X has several clients, including looking at the effect of introducing Kiwibank to NZ Post's PostShops, and more on the way.

"There are opportunities out there that we've said can we come back to you in a couple of months because there's that much work we could be doing."

That's your colour
Michael Major, of Ogilvy Branded Environments, says:

* Red and yellow are popular for fast-food outlets - think McDonald's.

* Green and blue convey pureness - think natural health chain Hardy's Healthy Living.

* Electric blues, greens and reds appeal to younger shoppers - think clothing chain Supre - and are "vibrant, innovative, happening".

* Dark green looks bookish, suitable for classical music stores .