I was recently working with a retail client and was discussing their merchandise strategy with their display manager. I asked
person about two products on same display and who would buy them. The display manager mentioned that one of products would, in their view, be purchased by 65 year-old woman, whilst product next to it would be purchased by a 25 year-old woman. Was display working? I’m afraid not. Why wasn't it working? Because person building display did not start with a picture of consumer in mind.
Generational marketing In recent months there have been number of articles in press about generational marketing. What does this mean? It means that as a retailer you need to consider who to target. Is it Generation Y (15-25 year-olds), Generation X (25-35 year-olds), Jones’ Generation (35-49 year-olds), Baby Boomers (50-65 year-olds), or Greying Tigers (over 65 years-old).
A flick through a glossy magazine will soon reveal that marketers are very defined on who their target is and present pictorial or promotion accordingly. But, it’s more than marketers getting message across, it’s display teams understanding message and merchandising accordingly.
The challenges This does present some challenges. Traditionally, merchandisers have presented products to consumers based on specific categories i.e. placing all of one series of products together. But is this answer in future?
Some retailers have an easy task. They have refined their retailing to already attract one specific age group and can merchandise accordingly. The real challenge occurs when you are a retailer who needs to attract customers from across a wide band of age groups.
If you fall into this latter category, then there is a real argument for splitting up product categories based on target age groups.
In scenario mentioned at beginning of this article, merchandiser had built display based on an overall product category. The result, in my opinion, was that all age groups were put off, because display did not appeal to any specific age group.
The display manager would have had more success if she had built a display based on a specific age group.
One of my clients, a German gift company, now segments its product range based on age. Each segmented display is supported by a promotional board that features a person enjoying product experience from selected age group. The result is displays in store target selected age groups to specific areas in store. This does mean that more space is required in store to “sell picture” but end result is increased sales per square metre.
