k saxon stanford creativity homework 11 1-12
TRANSCRIPT
The No-Shopper Goes Shopping… and discovers a whole new world!
Ken Saxon November 1, 2012 Stanford Creativity Class
Subject •50 years old •Generally unobservant about places, objects and environment •Uninterested in shopping and material things •Avoids the malls
Some Things I Saw
Ways to attract people in
Williams Sonoma – appeal to their sense of self Richie’s Barber Shop – candy attracts in children and families
Here’s the Scoop – has to get people there, since they are hidden away, so uses lots of different kinds of signs to draw attention
As Seen on TV – a sign showing What’s new?
In the store, how do they make you want to stay and shop? Papyrus – a celebration, a feast for the eyes, color, music, fun, well-‐lit
Williams Sonoma – cool hands-‐on displays, like this one for salt and pepper
GNC – pictures of beautiful healthy people to look at (covering storage bins)
Richie’s men’s lounge & two TV’s
How stores train and upsell well One extreme – Williams Sonoma – very formal training process, mystery shopped once a month in secret to check – staff trained in GUEST program (Greet, Understand the need, Educate the customer, make Suggestions, and Thank). Staff not allowed to ask a question which has a yes or no answer, and must offer you at least 3 additional items. Other extreme – Richie’s Barber Shop – Richie is always there, they know everyone by name, they have cute young women offer other services (hot towel, shave), they invite you to hang out, they serve the whole family (at least the fathers and sons), they offer dog treats for the dogs who come by, known by all the neighborhood Both successful – one a national “system”, the other a local “neighbor” approach
A few more insights & opportunities
• All the staff members I spoke to were willing to talk with me. That surprised me, and it made me realize how much I could learn if I just am willing to engage people with friendliness and good intentions
• You can learn a lot about your area just by learning what sells there. For instance, the Williams Sonoma guy told me that canning products are usually be catalog only, but they have a whole canning section in the Santa Barbara store. That’s because we have so many people with their own fruit trees here. Now that I know this, I, as an entrepreneur, can think of other ways to serve this population.
• You can do relationship selling as a national retailer. At GNC, they have Gold Card week the first week of every month, where their regulars get 20% off. So the first week of each month, they can staff to serve the regulars, who they get to know. And the rest of the month they can staff for everyone else.
• I was intrigued by the “mystery shopper” concept, and can think of many other ways that could be used, even in my own business. It really increased accountability and showed the store means business. For the stores that let staff do their own thing, some did well but some were poor representatives of the retailer (like at As Seen on TV)