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Please note that an edited version of this article first appeared in December's issue of Retail Focus Magazine and has been reproduced in its original version with kind permission of the magazine. Please check out their website http://www.retail-focus.co.uk/
Do
men and the visual merchandising industry suffer mid-life crises? Well, it would seem so and from my own
cursory research and depending on who or what you believe of course, then I
certainly have apparently already been through it or it is rushing towards me like
a stranger experiencing a case of mistaken identity. When did that happen? The years seem to pass
me by quicker and quicker and what once appeared to be just a fleeting period
of youth now seems an even further distant memory fading quickly away. Although, surely something better will
replace it? Wont it? On the one hand I can’t help thinking, with
some sort of offensive satisfaction or a kind of two fingers up to the world
that, ‘well I’ve made it this far’ which appears to be some kind of achievement
at least? There is also that feeling
that there is some great contentment in the gaining of experience and knowledge
which is something I have learned to relish.
In the meantime, according to the various mid-life crisis descriptors apparently I will be taking up a new musical instrument (No. 13), dying my hair (No. 20) (too late for that one then) desiring to buy new clothes obsessively (No.19)
(looks like I’ve been having a mid-life crisis for the last 40 odd years in
that case) a desire to become a healer
(yeah right), the list goes on, in fact 35
of descriptors in total just to pigeon hole everything you were thinking anyway. If anything my biggest disappointment as I
looked forward into the future through once youthful eyes must be the broken
promise that technology and in particular computers would make my life easier
and all of those incredible holidays, all those new experiences that I had
planned over many years while I gladly let technology take over yet again seem
to be shelved as the realisation that the same technology which promised me so
much leisure time has in fact cheated on me and ensured that I work twice as
fast and for twice as long each day. Mid-life crisis descriptor (No. 28) desiring
a simple life. Damn you technology.
Another
year in the world of Visual Merchandising has come and gone. The
enormous celebrations of 2012 are notched up in the history books, the window
schemes came and went in their usual ephemeral way and off we go full speed
into 2013 complete with mid-life crisis apparently looming. The wonderful thing about these big events is
that they are a time where we are able to stop and reflect on where we are as a
country, where we are as an industry and input so much more energy into our
Visual Merchandising. This period of
reflection of course is only very useful if we are able to identify not just
what currently exists and what we did well but what we are actually going to do
to build on our achievements or change what we did badly previously. The 10 Commandments of 2013 will hopefully
build on what we did well through my own period of reflection (and potential
midlife crisis) and identify where we still need to build and make changes as
an industry. Mid-Life Crisis (No. 21) A desire to surround oneself with different
things. Oh there I go again.
1.
Thou
shalt encourage localised creativity
Prior
to the financial crisis of the early 1990’s we saw an enormous amount of
creativity on the high street through retail store windows. It was always a pleasure to go shopping in
different cities where new stores could be serendipitously discovered adding to
the excitement of the journey. With the
launch of the notion of branding as we now know it and the homogenisation of
the high street around the globe, gradually the visual blandness of the high
street became ever more apparent with much of the Retail industry afraid to be
anywhere near risqué for fear of alienating an ever minutely sliced demographic
. What we are seeing however is the
gradual, although albeit only just dipping its toe in the creative pool is the
return to localised creativity, mostly due to brands such as
Anthropologie. Why is this, I hear you
ask? Well, of course sadly so many
companies never really did understand the importance of Visual Merchandising
and so the teams that were in place were the first to be culled in any
crisis. With the gradual realisation of
the integral importance of these visual teams and the loss of techniques passed
down through generations, but so much was lost.
Nearly 20 years on we are still seeing the effects of this short
sightedness by so many brands. As we
build on our teams of Visual Merchandisers and support their development
through the ranks, hopefully we will claw our way back to beyond where we were
two decades ago, although much more informed and much more inclined to think
twice before letting our teams go. As we
all know, differentiation is one of the keys to the retail offer and enticing
the customer into the store, entertaining them, keeping them there and making
them spend more money is our job. (Mid-life Crisis Descriptor (No. 14); Sudden
interest in creativity
2.
Thou
shalt put the fun back into schemes
What
happened to fun? There we were squeezing
out every last penny from the customer, blandly offering anything they wished
for, as cheaply as we could and as quickly as they wanted it (and the quicker
the better) and along the way forgot that visual fun is not just the domain of
the department stores. I daily peruse
the stores of London’s West end and with the exception of a few of the multiple
brands teetering on the edge of creative schemes; it’s just plain old
dull. While of course Visual
Merchandising doesn’t have to be confrontational, offensive or indeed need to
be particularly thought provoking (and its best not to venture into taboo areas
unless one is willing and preferably able to defend it), it can however be
thoughtfully clever. Liberty and
Selfridges here in London are always so sharply brilliant for example together
with a few brands such as Desigual, Hackett and occasionally some Zara stores
too, although the Visual Merchandising industry has generally lost its sense of
fun, don’t you think?. It seems that the
days of installations such as those reported in New York in the 1960’s with
scenes produced of aeroplane crashes with stewardesses running up and down the gangway
screaming whatever was being promoted have long gone. What about the events that were once promoted
through newspaper articles with large banners screaming ‘Come and see the
Lions’ at a named store? These events
generated massive excitement and probably some disappointment when customers
realised that the ‘Lions’ were in fact a brand of fireplace at the time. Are we sanitising everything for the lowest
common denominator and afraid that disappointment is a terrible thing that we
need to cushion our customers from?
Isn’t this something that Luxury brands always do so well? Mid-Life Crisis Descriptor (No.6) It feels good to be hurt sometimes.
3.
Thou
shalt communicate to our audience
So
often I see Visual Merchandising that I simply don’t understand. I try and unravel the thinking behind such
schemes on a regular basis although so often it can be meaningless and
apparently unrelated to anything else.
Is that a bad thing? Well, part
of our roles as Visual Merchandisers is to communicate effectively to the
customer, isn’t it? As we also know,
don’t we, that Visual Merchandising can be seen absolutely everywhere, from
ancient sculpture to the daily newspaper or a magazine. The same principles can be applied and if
done well, it will communicate effectively; job done. Unfortunately these solutions appear to escape
the majority of retailers and, well, an image (in this instance in the form of
a graphic) says a thousand words, doesn’t it?
But which words? And why can’t we
think of saying it in a different way? Mid-Life crisis (No. 32) Fixated on finding
solutions to problems. Is there no
stopping me?
4.
Thou
shalt maintain retail standards
Oh
how many times do we need to view dusty floors, dusty merchandise, lighting not
working or if it is working its lighting nothing in particular? Strands of invisible threads hanging like the
ghost of an old scheme, security tags showing, labels everywhere, damaged
graphics and unprepared merchandise fill the high street. I always try and think of a retail space as
if it were my own home. Would I invite
someone around if it were unclean or untidy, of course not? It still amazes me that the basics of visual
merchandising are not always in place.
Why is this? Because retailers
are not investing in good quality, experienced, reliable teams who are paid a
decent salary to do so and then developing these teams’ skills in order to
maintain a higher level of presentation.
It’s all looking a little slack right now. Mid-life
crisis descriptor (No. 1); Looking into the mirror and realising its all
falling apart.
5.
Thou
shalt not use live animals in windows
I’m
must admit that I’m not an over enthusiastic animal lover and like furry
products from something that has been literally skinned alive in an Asian
province somewhere even less. While
working for a company in China mid 2012 I was quite amazed to come across the
circuses which not only had the obligatory one trick ponies and dogs in
garishly coloured tutu’s but incredibly little hippos being ridden by monkeys
wearing tiny pill box hats (the Monkeys not the hippos). Well, I had seen chained Leopards at Gorky
Park in Moscow and the dancing bears on my travels through India, all horribly
flea bitten, unkempt, gone mad and laid on for the tourist’s entertainment;
none of it was amusing or entertaining in the slightest. I could have happily coped with a few
jugglers, Chi Chi the Serpent Amphibian Man and a few bearded females; in some
parts of London it appears the norm anyway?
That said, I suppose the attraction of Chinese Circuses is the same as
my attraction to Visual Merchandising. I
just hope that something dangerous or even just a little Rock and Roll may
actually happen. But the Lions riding
pillion on motorbikes around the wall of death and the skipping Elephants in
(forgive the pun) jumbo stiletto heels really did push me over the edge a
little. The only Circuses that I like
are those of Piccadilly and Oxford here in London. Anyway, thankfully we rarely see live animals
in retail spaces (unless you happen to be in Vegas) but even so I do
occasionally come across them and in particular this fish in a tank at
Victorinox annoyed me this year. This is
just cruel and unnecessary don’t you think?
The product could have been shown in a different way to communicate its
qualities. Mid-life crisis descriptor (No. 11) Desire to become physical.
6.
Thou
shalt keep informed about current trends in Visual Merchandising
Why
do we so often see the same schemes cropping up time and time again? Repetition of props such as umbrellas has
been overdone now, right? I’m not
entirely sure who produces some of the schemes, who designs them or who
commissions some of them but surely just to go out onto the high streets and
take a look requires such little effort?
There are plenty of publications ‘out there’ from which to refer
although how this information is interpreted and used is clearly a problem. As ever, the only limitation is our own
imaginations and surely brands need to employ people who are creative, in tune
with what is happening on the street, experienced and aware of how their work
is being interpreted? It often feels as
though we as customers are on the receiving end of a random vision from some
retailers and one of my conclusions is that there is so much interference from
other departments into the world of Visual Merchandising, which incidentally it
appears that everyone else has worked in and everyone else wants to have a say
but no-one else really seems to have a grasp of. So get out there and have a look to see what
everyone else is doing. Simple. Mid-life
crisis descriptor (No. 24) Desire to change the world for the better.
7.
Thou
shalt continue to develop the use of digital technology
I
have been rather amazed at the amount of technology on the high street which
has been launched in 2012. Hopefully the
days of big old clunky machines that never really worked anyway are long gone. I’ve had hours of fun at the new McQ store in
Dover Street and of course the brand spanking new Burberry store along Regent Street
here in London. OK, well the majority of
the technology is the implementation of giant video screens, so no news there
then, although we are seeing more and more interactivity happening with the use
of ipads at All Saints and the launch of the Matches Curation at Matches during
London Fashion week and ‘machines’ which can photograph us, e-mail our images
to everyone we know and let the world decide what we purchase. The days of London’s West End becoming an
Elizabethan theme park of the way we used to shop are still, it seems a long
way off yet although I am excited about the potential of virtual shopping at
its most convincing. It would seem
however, that even the levels of technology that we do current have access to
is already alienating a proportion of society.
As humans are sensitive creatures, it would appear that we are becoming
ever lonelier. And there we were sat on
our facebook, googling our twitters and all we wanted was to share the physical
love between each other. Apparently
digital social networking hasn’t quite lived up to our expectations after all
and we’ve all realised that we want and desire real human interaction. Looks like customer service rather than
technology is the biggy moving forward. Mid-life crisis descriptor (No. 32) Becoming
fixated on new ‘wonder’ solutions to problems.
8.
Though
shalt not use motifs
Why do
retailers always use the same old motifs year after year? This one has to be in our 10 commandments
this year again as this never seems to move on.
What is it with the use of Heart motifs in particular that retailers
seem to feel the need to return to every year?
There are of course variations on the theme but why do we have to keep
producing the same stuff time and again?
Motifs have no design left in them, and while they are of course
universally recognisable can we now move onto something different? Is it the need for comfort, nostalgia or
times where we felt secure? I don’t know
the answer, but surely someone somewhere will do something to generate a
different mood? Mid-life crisis descriptor (No. 29) Excessively looking back to one’s
childhood
9.
Thou
shalt continue to support Visual Merchandisers
Supporting
the Visual Merchandising teams within any retailer is critical. These teams are expected to work though the
night, produce and produce to the highest levels and commit nearly all of their
time. Of course, we love what we do and
we wouldn’t want to do anything else, however, these guys need all the support
they can receive in generating the best work on the high street. Of course most retailers will take these guys
for granted and leach every ounce of creativity out of them with little
opportunity for them to replenish their creative energy through visiting shows
and exhibitions within a working day.
Why? Because this is not viewed
as work and God forbid anyone enjoy what they do for work, right? Staff development and investing in your teams
is absolutely necessary and should be a priority in 2013 if you want to hang on
to them. Mid-life crisis descriptor (No. 4) Change and invest in new things
10.
Thou
shalt have a fantastic 2013
I am
certainly looking forward to 2013, mid-life crisis or not. In the meantime, I shall continue to have shifting sleep patterns (No 15), Doing
things that get me into trouble (No.
34) Wonder where am I going with my life? (No. 31), maybe I will restart things I dropped 20 years ago
(No. 23), play again just to play (No
30)
Oh
what the hell, do your worst Mid-life crisis and bring it all on. Happy 2013..!