Are you taking care of Retail Atmospherics? A must-read for retailers

I have always considered myself a retail student & have always strived to learn about new retail trends and share my learning with my followers and readers.

We all learned about Ambient marketing and marketing catering to 5 senses of shoppers during our management studies days.

Now, Being a father of a teenage daughter who is a big fan of “swift-nomics”, I am witnessing the trend of “Taylor Swift” and how the celebrity singer is challenging the marketing norms in the music industry.

The creative industry is just finding a new way to solve an existing problem. Taylor Swift is using the gaps in the industry to her advantage.

When things aren’t working, she pivots and finds a different way.

When Scooter Braun (music production) wouldn’t sell her back her record masters, she just re-recorded them all, not only regaining control of her music but generating huge commercial success.?

The underlying behavior of challenging the status quo of how things are done is the crux behavior of Gen Z for whom Taylor Swift is just not another celebrity singer but a trendsetter.

How retailers could learn from this trend?

The answer lies in Retail Atmospherics, the terms coined by Professor Philip Kotler.

?Research has validated that Our environment can change how humans (i.e., consumers) behave in it.

Instore music:

Studies over the last 40 years have shown that music makes?people stay longer, eat more, and?drink more wine?at bars and restaurants.

It?enhances?people’s desire to participate and customers’ desire to build connections with staff.

A cohesive theme in a store?will sell more merchandise?than a store that doesn’t tell a story.

To learn how Nike handled digital transformation, read here.

Scentory marketing:

Having a signature scent in the air conditioning of the store elevates the shopper's mood completely.

Research on sensory marketing reveals

· Consumers experienced a 40% uptick in mood when a store used scent to create an atmosphere.

· Scent has led shoppers to underestimate actual shopping time by 26% when exposed to fragrances

· Shoppers paid 5% more attention to content when it was animated vs. static hence use of TV/LED screens displaying vibrant content can help retailers sell more.

Creating engagement to build loyalty- swift effect

?One of my learnings following the celebrity Taylor Swift's impact is, that she creates engagement through her songwriting and singing skills and uses the behavioral impact to create loyalty.

For example, if you preorder her song on Spotify and buy it, Swift will ensure that you also get the priority pass to preorder for her upcoming concert or an exclusive offer to pre-book a table at one of her charity events.

Engagement leads to building loyalty.

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