How does fashion retail design contribute to a company’s brand and help sell the brand’s products?
Aesthetics and design are important in all areas of life; from food presentation to gardening to one’s personal look, time is taken to make things look good. This practice is no different when it comes to retail design as it is a significant factor in the selling of a product; so much so that companies spend millions of dollars to create a visually appealing space and concept to entice potential consumers into the store and to buy their clothes. This body of writing will explore how companies can make a physical space part of their brand as well as the relationship between consumers and the store design.
There are many reasons behind visual merchandising in fashion stores. A fundamental reason is to increase traffic into the shop, therefore, increasing the chances of a sale. Designing to attract customers takes a lot of research as the brand needs to cater to its target audience and dedicated consumer demographic, but also not limit itself by not appealing to anybody else in a different gender category, age group or ethnic origin for example. There are many ways a shop can attract customers but the most effective is how the exterior of the store looks. The exterior design includes things such as the overall architecture of the shop, window graphics, window displays and even the lighting that crosses from interior to exterior. With window graphics and displays one method used to grab attention is to keep the graphics simple and use a scale rather complexity to make an impact. This technique is a lot easier for companies that have an established brand with an instantly recognisable colour or colour combination or logo. One example of this technique is Nike’s use of it on one of their New York stores; the ‘Nike Swoosh’ logo was placed directly above the double doored entrance to the shop. It quickly and efficiently communicated that it was a Nike shop due to the widely recognisable branding. Another example where scale plays a huge part in exterior design is the Levi’s flagship store in San Francisco. The designers behind the client design were Checkland Kidleysides; they decided to go with a 100 x 35 display that showcases still-life and portraits during the day and digital work film work at night. Although this may not be directly representative of the brand and what people associate with the brand, it grabs the attention of passers-by, enticing them into the store. Alternatively, the opposite of this can also be very effective if done correctly. The streetwear brand ‘Supreme’ goes in the opposite direction when it comes to impact; rather than going big and bold, it uses its existing brand qualities of small, quiet and limited for something less striking.
Supreme’s massive success has partly come from the fact that their products are extremely limited and hard to get a hold of. Due to the brand’s insanely dedicated fanbase that has been known to queue outside of stores for up to forty-eight hours, Supreme doesn’t need to advertise itself to the masses, this is reflected in their store design. With only a handful of stores around the globe, each one is almost entirely bare on the exterior using only a small sign with the infamous ‘box logo’ design. This simple design works well with the brand that Supreme has created, its quiet, subtle and not over the top - keeping to a minimal design inside and out.
In the case of Supreme and many other companies, the store itself often becomes part of the brand; it is as important as the colour, the type or the logo. Brands are able to do this by making the shop a memorable experience for the customer, once the possible consumers have entered the store, the next challenge is to engage the customer enough to ‘convert interest into purchase’ [1] through the means of displays, floor and wall graphics, and signage. Like many other streetwear stores, Supreme’s interior is minimal and contemporary, keeping the clothing and products the primary focus of the store.
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