Are You Making Your Point?

Let me begin this post by saying I am absolutely addicted to Pinterest and I am especially addicted to posting retail pictures on Pinterest!  I'm so addicted, in fact, that when I went to create those links above, I found myself pinning...



My love for Pinterest and many of the window display pictures floating around is what inspired last week's Tip of the Week and this week's blog post.

FYI - Last week's tip: "When planning store windows, keep the end in mind. What is it that you’re trying to sell or accomplish and are you getting your point across?" 

So many times, very talented visual merchandisers or display people work really hard to create a beautiful window display... that actually doesn't sell anything.

When creating your window display ask yourself a few questions:

1. What is the purpose of this window? OR What am I trying to accomplish?
2. What am I trying to sell to the consumer?
3. How much time to I have to communicate that to them?  (It's really only a handful of seconds.)
4. To Whom am I trying to communicate my message or sell my product?
5. Does this represent my brand?
6. How can I accomplish this in a budget friendly and efficient way?

Seriously, keep those questions handy for window display changes.

Why should a window display have a purpose or be selling something, you ask?  (Or maybe you didn't, in fact you probably didn't.)  Because the primary job of a window display is to bring customers into the store, especially customers who weren't already headed there in the first place.  The second role of a window display is to potentially sell something, that they wouldn't have thought of otherwise, to someone (remember, around half of most buying decisions are made impulsively.)  And... last, but not least, the role of the window display is to communicate your brand, which can be through messaging, images, overall feel, etc.

Often, (especially on Pinterest) we see windows that are decorated with lovely paper sculptures or that have complicated projects in them that the retailer or their team worked tirelessly on.  Remember; these things should have a purpose and generally be in a supporting role to the product you're trying to sell or the message you're trying to communicate.

In a window display, we have very little time to communicate something to passersby or to even catch their attention.  Chances are, they're walking down the street, phone in hand (they could be talking or texting, or any number of things...), they've got cars whizzing by, there are signs everywhere, people passing...  Any number of distractions really!  It's important that your display and message are simple and easy to understand. 

Now, since it's difficult to find original sources for photo credit when using Pinterest, and my post could be construed as criticism (thought most of these windows were beautiful!), I haven't posted any photos of the windows that were amazing, yet not necessarily selling anything.  Sorry for the text heavy blog post!  (Wait...  I can be long winded...  Maybe they're all text heavy?)

Here's a gratuitous window display shot from Cloud Nine Pajamas last spring!  (Yeah, it's an inside view, I live in Edmonton, so in spring there was still lots of snow on the ground causing horrible glare.)  I still <3 it.

Now, know that I'm not telling you you can't do anything.  I'm just asking you to keep the above questions in mind.  If you would like to spend hours creating amazing artwork for your windows, be my guest... and remember to pin pictures after!  Just remember that, ideally, you should be changing your window displays every 4 to 6 weeks.

Happy Selling!

If you have any questions about setting your windows up to sell, to drive traffic, or to combat glare, get in touch with Flourish Design & Merchandising any time!  Feel free to follow us on twitter and facebook, too!

Feel free to comment below!