Step Two: Journey of Inspiration

Step One - Journey of Discovery

Step Two - Journey of Inspiration

Step Three - Journey of Excitement

Step Four - Journey of Trust

In last article in this series we looked at Journey of Discovery. Consumers need to discover you exist. If you are innovative in your marketing and external promotions they may just get in their car and journey to your business. Your next challenge is that you have thirty seconds to inspire them, yes, that’s right, thirty seconds!

Researchers tell us that majority of potential customers will judge your business based on three, thirty second zones. Seventy percent of that decision will be based on what they see; therefore you need to create a visually inspiring view of your business.

Within such a limited time frame you need to create a focal point that is simple and different. Easy to put into words, but difficult to put into practice, so let’s look at three zones and at some easy methods of being visually inspirational:

1.Start in parking lot – first 10 seconds The image zone starts outside your business. Your adverts, external landscaping, paint work and shop window displays are all going to play an integral part in creating a mental picture of what customer is going to expect from whole experience he will have within your business.

For example, I recently worked with a public library. All team members came to work via ‘back’ door. As a consultant, I entered via front door. My visit was ten days after a national holiday on which all businesses were closed. As I entered, there was a large sign across front door informing everyone that library would be closed next Thursday for holiday. When I pointed out that holiday was previous week, it became clear that nobody in library was walking building as a customer. They were all entering by wrong door! Image can change by moment. Litter on floor or dirty fingerprints on windows can change your image in just seconds. It’s essential that all your team members are aware of how important ‘image zone’ is and that they are empowered to take appropriate action to correct any flaw in image immediately.

Commodity sellers place tangible items on shelves and sell units of product. The challenge is always to increase average sale per customer, one way of achieving this is to introduce service and services ie activities you execute. Many retailers have achieved this by providing delivery services, demonstrations, tasting stations and technical knowledge.

Now is time for retailers to move on and provide an experience. This means we should create and experience for customer where they are fully engaged with what we are doing. If Pike Place Fish market in Seattle and Pete’s Frootique in Halifax can achieve this, I’m sure it can be achieved in local store.

Think of developing an experience based on these four elements: •Education •Escapism •Entertainment •Aesthetics