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Retail experience design is the services cape present inside of an outlet, irrespective of its size. It may be small kiosk of selling ice-cream or a big brand/ boutique of a celebratory designer. The main motive while entering this service cape is that one should be able to see the brand values which need to be replicated in the complete service cape. Nevertheless, it should also embody what the brand stands for.
Let’s take Maruti Suzuki Driving School (MSDS), a sub brand of Maruti Suzuki which was revamped using Retail design by Higgs Boson and Co, a retail store design firm. Keeping this goal in mind, we have designed a learning journey using the brand values, that is Caring by providing guidance and being responsive; Reliable by being convenient, safe, and transparent; New Age Progressive Tech Enabled through novelty and customizations; and delivers Expertise.
The retail experience design is a very new concept in India and is an unexplored territory. In India, there’s a misconception related to this field, due to which people choose architect and interior designers to do this work not the specialist present in this field. Two reasons behind this happening are
So, an architect can for sure detail out but they can’t combine all the aspects required to create a retail design idea. There are certain requirements which need to be considered while designing one retail experience space. There are many upcoming retail store designers in India.
The steps which are involved while designing a design for retail space are:
Very detailed research regarding the brand is conducted, which helps us to understand various aspects of the brands. The results lead us to understand what the brand stands for, what are the values, vision and missions set out be achieved by the brand. It’s the tip of the ice berg as many other aspects related to brand is derived through the research.
After conducting brand research, market research is carried out with the purpose of knowing what the competitor brand is doing, what trends are currently famous in market. If the brand stands for the trends currently going on in the market, how is their marketing team incorporating it in their plan. If the brand is new and just launched, how can that space be used as a marketing gimmick for the upcoming brand.
It’s the level at which the brand sets for itself to reach/achieve. For an existing company, majority times the benchmark is set but sometimes the vision changes which leads to changes in expectation of the level set by a brand. It’s quite an important process as it gives us an idea what is required to achieve the level expected by the brand.
Once we are done with the above three mentioned steps, we get an idea regarding the brand values, where does it see itself and wishes to reach that level. What kind of marketing strategy would be required to be done by the brand. Combining all of the above things we come up with the design concept. While doing the above, we also take the future of the brand in consideration, because if the brand is required to be adapted in various outlets of the brand, then it needs to be modular in nature and the design should be standardized along with cost. The reason being the outlets can’t have different designs, it needs to be uniform. If possible, we try to add the sustainability aspect while designing the concept with the sole objective of helping the environment and reducing the carbon emission to the lowest level.
Each and every item ranging from the reception to the washroom will be detailed out. There are a number of factors which is looked upon while detailing the design concept. It starts from what kind of color pallet will be used at the reception, which materials will be chosen, how the person will stand and greet the potential customers. The person selected for this role will be chosen according to the required qualifications and a Standard Operating Principle (SOP) will be set for the operating person. These are some of the elements which are named. Furthermore, we look for the trend currently prevailing in the market and use that as a basis for detailing the concept.
Under this we decide how the lighting of the outlet will be. LUX level study is conducted to determine what kind of lights would fit in the outlet depending upon the design concept. Lux is a standardized unit of measurement of light level intensity, which is commonly referred to as "illuminance" or "illumination". This study helps us determine what is the requirement, how much is required and how to achieve that. In this step, we again look into the benchmark of the outlet and see what’s the standard market productiveness. Seeing that we design the LUX level.
The furniture should be designed in such a manner that it goes with the values of the brand, is currently the market trends and what suits the requirement best.
The interior of the outlet is designed on the basis of the design concept with the objective of replicating the values of the brand in the interior of the store. Its deciding what color will be needed for the wall and flooring, how the fall ceiling will be. This should be done with the purpose of providing experience to the visitor of the store and show what the brand means using this as a medium.
In this we select what kind of beverage will be served, the dish in which they will be served, how will it be served and what will the menu will be. Moving ahead as I have mentioned before SOP is decided, which include the design of the uniform, way of greeting, and how the products will be displayed to you.
What kind of music will be played at the outlet depends upon the target audience coming in. Based upon the target audience, the music will be redesigned. For example, age of the target audience group ranges from 25-28, the music choice will be chosen for that specific group and be not of age group above that. Moving ahead, we design what kind of fragrance will be used in the outlet. The design of the fragrance is made keeping in mind the materials used in the outlet, how welcoming and capturing the fragrance is. It should be neutral in nature and shouldn’t drive people out of the outlet.
There are various screens which are placed around the outlet, and what kind of content is supposed to be displayed on those screens is decided. The content needs to be standardized so that it remains same across all the outlets of the brand. Central management system is designed so that the content in all the outlets is being run together and are centrally controlled in sync.
These are the various steps which are required to achieve the retail experience design. Though the steps seem to make the process look easy and quickly achievable, in truth its quite an in-depth project and time various upon the size and demand of the specific project. So, if you wish to have your retail store to be designed with the purpose of providing experience, Higgs Boson is the perfect choice.