Prelims

Half Title Page

The Value of Design in Retail and Branding

Title Page

The Value of Design in Retail and Branding

Edited by

Katelijn Quartier

Hasselt University, Belgium

Ann Petermans

Hasselt University, Belgium

T. C. Melewar

Middlesex University London, UK

and

Charles Dennis

Middlesex University London, UK

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

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First edition 2021

Copyright © 2021 by Emerald Publishing Limited

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ISBN: 978-1-80071-580-6 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80071-579-0 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80071-581-3 (Epub)

List of Figures

List of Tables

About the Contributors

Carmen Adams, after six years as a marketing practitioner, started a PhD examining the added value of crossmodal correspondences for the field of retail marketing and design. After obtaining her PhD, she works as a post-doctoral researcher at Hasselt University with a strong interest for interdisciplinary customer experience research.

Charlotte Beckers is a Researcher and Consultant at the Retail Design Lab from Hasselt University. As an interior architect and trend watcher with a specialisation in retail design, Charlotte forms the link between theory and practice. She translates scientific publications into relevant tips and tricks for retailers and retail designers.

Erica Charles is the Programme Leader for MSc Fashion Business Creation at the British School of Fashion – Glasgow Caledonian University. Her research interests include fashion brand management and marketing communications, responsible business, social sustainability and modern slavery in global fashion supply chains.

Jonathan H. Deacon, PhD, is Professor of Marketing at South Wales Business School where he leads research with a focus on ‘Contextual Marketing’ especially the use of story in business. Jonathan is an acknowledged ‘thought leader’ at the interface between Marketing, Creative Thinking and Management.

Lieve Doucé holds a PhD in Applied Economics and currently works as Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Marketing Research Group of Hasselt University (Belgium). Her research focuses on sensory marketing and this is in relation to both the in-store and the online customer experience. Her work has been published in, among others, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Environment and Behavior and Journal of Consumer Behaviour.

Wouter Eggink is a Design Professional and Assistant Professor of Industrial Design Engineering at the University of Twente. He is coordinator of the master track ‘Human Technology Relations’ and designer and Research Fellow of the Design Lab. His research approach is based on the collaboration between design research and philosophy of technology, for which he coined the term ‘the practical turn’.

Kim Janssens is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Management, Science and Technology at the Open University of the Netherlands. Within the department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, she focuses on consumer-oriented marketing and marketing communication. Her research interests lie in customer experience, sensory marketing, and in-store marketing communication. She teaches Marketing Courses in the Bachelor's and Master's Program and currently works on the launch of a Certified Professional Program on Experiential Marketing. This program aims at translating scientific knowledge to the professional practice.

Zakkiya Khan is a PhD Candidate, Lecturer and Co-ordinator of the BSc Interior Architecture degree at the Department of Architecture, University of Pretoria, South Africa. She is a co-opted expert member of the board for the International Federation of Interior Architects/Designers (IFI) for the 2020–2021 term.

Suyash Khaneja holds a PhD from Business School, Middlesex University, United Kingdom. She believes that investing in the design can be a sustainable business advantage because it leads to five benefits, creative collaboration, innovation, differentiation, simplification and customer experience. Her understanding of consumer behaviour has been sharpened by many years of observation of both retail markets and their consumers. She is a leading expert on design research with particular focus on the emotional well-being of consumers. She has published on topics concerning Physical Environment Design, and Consumers' Emotional Well-Being. Her main interest is in Physical Environment Design and its components such as ambience, artefacts and spatial layout. Currently, she is serving a consulting firm in India that provides insights into research methods and data sciences.

Soyoung Kim is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Lubin School of Business, Pace University. Dr Kim's research focuses on the roles of brands and consumer-brand relationships in various social contexts. Her research uses experiments to better understand consumers' brand consumption and its underlying nature of consumer-brand relationships.

Roland ten Klooster is Structural Packaging Designer/Consultant at Plato product consultants and part-time Professor of Packaging Design and Management at University of Twente. In the market, many packaging can be found that he developed. He is also active in many organisations around packaging, publishing a Dutch Packaging Handbook, and he is co-author and editor of the book ‘Packaging Design Decisions’, which is a technical guide.

Mendel de Kok successfully finished her bachelor study in Industrial Design Engineering at the University of Twente in 2016 and graduated for her master degree at Industrial Design Engineering in Delft in 2019. She is currently the founder of a strategic photo-editing service called MENDL, where she is creating 2D graphic content on demand.

Alex Lee is an Experienced Marketer and a Brand Steward with over 10 years of corporate achievements and a Proficient Academic with 15 years of HEI management and leadership experience. His areas of interest are branding, consumer behaviour, disruptive innovation and value creation, and students' mobility and their decision-making behaviour.

Sara Leroi-Werelds is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Marketing and Strategy at Hasselt University. Her research focuses on customer centricity, customer value, customer participation, patient centricity and service technology. Her work is published in Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science and Journal of Service Management, among others.

Elizabeth Lloyd-Parkes is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at South Wales Business School and has extensive experience in lecturing at under- and post-graduate levels within the field of marketing. Her current research interests focus on autoethnography and the contribution that personal storytelling can make to business and management and other disciplines.

Signe Mørk Madsen holds a PhD in Retail Design and is Senior Lecturer at VIA University College in Denmark, where she is a member of the Research and Development Centre for Creative Business and Professions. Her research interest is within the blending of design and business focusing on retail design.

Ruth Marciniak is an Academic in the British School of Fashion at Glasgow Caledonian University, with research interests in fashion, branding, digital marketing and retailing. Based at GCU London, she is the Programme Leader for MSc Fashion and Lifestyle Marketing. Recent research interest is in social responsibility and marketing in fashion.

Alan Marvell is a Senior Lecturer in Events Management at the University of Gloucestershire. He has a research interest in the construction, representation and experiences of place. Alan has recently been involved in a project understanding consumer experiences in the digital retail environment.

Sarah Moore is Associate Professor of Marketing and the Eric Geddes Professor of Business at the Alberta School of Business. Her research focuses on communication and language, both among consumers and between firms and consumers, in contexts such as word of mouth, advertising and customer service interactions.

Maaike Mulder-Nijkamp has been working for the University of Twente as a lecturer and researcher for several years. She is involved in various courses in Industrial Design Engineering focusing on sketching, branding and product aesthetics. In 2016, she published a book ‘Muses in design’ about inspiration techniques that can be used in the creative process of designing new products. In 2020, she won a Comenius Senior Fellowship grant to stimulate collaboration to create more sustainable packaging.

Kyle B. Murray is a Professor of Marketing and the Vice Dean at the Alberta School of Business. Dr Murray studies human judgement and decision-making. His work uses the tools of experimental psychology and behavioural economics to better understand the choices that consumers make.

Don Parker is a multi-disciplinary creative focused on design in film, music and television – from his early career working in record companies and advertising agencies in film promotion (Universal Pictures, Paramount, 20th Century, Fox etc.) to studying consumer behaviour and the subtexts of information exchange. He is currently exploring the themes of transmedia storytelling to produce non-linear experiences.

Ann Petermans holds a PhD in Architecture and is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Arts of Hasselt University in Belgium, where she is a member of the research group ArcK. Her research interests pertain in particular to designing for experience in designed environments, for diverse user groups and subjective well-being.

Ilse Prinsloo is a Lecturer and Research Supervisor at the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture of the University of Johannesburg. Her research interests are retail design, retail branding and interior design. She worked as a retailer designer for both corporate and independent retailers and shopfitting firms on retail design projects in South Africa and the African continent.

Katelijn Quartier is Assistant Professor in retail design at the Faculty of Architecture and Arts at Hasselt University, where she is also the academic director of the Retail Design Lab knowledge centre. She and the Lab are researching what tomorrow's store should look like.

Louise F. Reid is a Lecturer in Digital Marketing. Her fashion sector career encompassed both retailing and buying roles that informed her PhD research exploring consumer garment evaluation in multiple channel retailing environments. Louise has published in journals and edited texts. She presents at international conferences and is the abstract coordinator for CIRCLE International.

Elisa Servais, building on 10 years of working experience as a retail designer, is now conducting a PhD research project at Hasselt University on ‘the (added) value of Experiential Retail Environments’ with a view of finding practical support for retail professionals and especially designers.

Jan Vanrie is Associate Professor of Human Sciences and Research Methodology and coordinates research group ArcK at the Faculty of Architecture and Arts at Hasselt University. His research is at the intersection of environmental psychology, (interior) architecture, design and education.

Philippa Ward is Reader in Services Marketing, with over 25 years of retail and academic experience; she has a range of journal and book publications and over 20 doctoral completions. Philippa's research centres on the effects of the in-store environment on customers, de-shopping, and retail theatre – customer experiences are central to her work.

Maryke de Wet is a Senior Designer at Design Partnership with a special interest in Retail Design. She had received her BA Honours at Greenside Design Centre, Johannesburg, and is currently completing her Masters degree in Interior Design at the University of Johannesburg. Maryke is a researcher that thrives to implement research findings into the physical space.

Kim Willems is Professor of Marketing at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium), in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Solvay Business School, in the Business Department. She studies digitalisation of retailing and services, from a consumer- and a company-perspective. Interdisciplinary understanding and optimisation of the on- and offline shopping environment are hereby focal. Her work has been published in, among others, Journal of Business Research, Psychology and Marketing, Journal of Services Marketing, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Computers in Human Behavior and Technological Forecasting and Social Change.

Min-Yee Angeline Yam is a Senior Lecturer with the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her background is in Visual Communication, and she teaches at the School of Art, Design and Media. She is a practising designer and also a design educator and researcher. Her areas of interest are branding, typography and design pedagogy.

List of Contributors

Preface

Foreword

Creativity, knowledge and zest for life.

‘Design shapes the thought’, that's our adage, so the question of whether it's a good idea to write a book about design in relation to brands and retail is answered; that's a very good idea. Partly because design is in relation to good thinking and very good thinking, you can easily leave it to the authors of this book; all good thinkers.

Retail is the mirror of society, when society changes, retail changes and sometimes retail changes society. Usually, the changes from society are caused by social, technical or economic developments, but sometimes retail is in the lead. For example, IKEA made us think differently about our house and made it possible for almost everyone to develop their own taste. Or like Apple who, apart from their products, has provided retail in electronics, the service concept and the shopping experience with a new dimension. Concepts that have excited consumers are very, very successful and have enriched life for many. There you can see the close relationship between brand and market, between things and real life, between new ideas and latent needs, between ambition and appreciation.

Over the last 20 years, the Internet has brought the greatest change, and Covid-19 has added to this by speeding up the use of online shopping by 5–10 years. This, in turn, has consequences for the shopping street and the physical shops. It had been going on for some time, first the ‘development’ of villages and small shopping areas, then the less vital shopping areas in smaller towns and now it has also reached the main shopping street for some time. Covid-19, however, has made it even more visible and speeded it up by making it compulsory to sit at home.

Physical shopping is the core of this book and also the great strength of the University of Hasselt in which it is founded. However, due to the possibilities of online developments and the growth of virtual shopping, the physical shop is faced with completely new issues, both in terms of the role of actual physical shopping and the encounter with the brand that personifies the shop.

And, of course, the role of the shop in the shopping street or the shopping centre, in which, due to the decreasing number of shops, shops in some cases have to become, or have already become, the destination in themselves. Then, it really comes down to the strength of the brand, the experience that takes shape physically and connects the consumer with the brand and also the customers with each other. Where the combination of the product range, the services offered, the staff and the shopping process is experienced and consumed. A brand is then a meeting place between like-minded people, brand personality, staff and customers.

Although we are talking about the physical shop, we cannot, of course, ignore the virtual version of brand and shop. This is a ‘body and mind commitment’ where the strategists, the various design competencies, compilers of the assortment, etcetera, must create a single holistic concept that consumers can intuitively understand and find attractive.

The whole thing can be unravelled, but it cannot be developed step by step. There is no sequencing in, for example, ‘let's make a nice shop first’ and then select the assortment, or instruct the staff. After all, the customer literally enters the shop and sees all the aspects at a glance or certainly in one shopping experience. The shop is beautiful, the items are nice, but, for example, too expensive, or the shop is beautiful, the items are nice, but unfortunately the staff doesn't understand a thing; then you don't have a good shop. It is a holistic experience, which also needs to be developed as a whole; all aspects of the shop are positioned in a circle around the core of the brand, which consists of the identity, the position in the market and the driving ambition that indicates the direction and the goal. All this will have to result in a total concept that unites all formula aspects. That fits together so nicely that it can be further developed in a natural way that it can grow.

That's what I like when I look at the table of contents of this book, a reference work in prospect, in which so many facets of (retail) design come together and from which it will be possible to draw for a long time to come.

Here, one can also see and understand that retail design, the conception of a new retail formula or giving the next life to an existing chain is not a solo art expression of a creative spirit, but an orchestration of elements that need to be brought together. The retail designer is pre-eminently both the composer and the one who can fulfil the role of conductor in such a process. And, in retail design, it soon becomes clear whether the concept is a success and, thus, determines the market and turnover.

Jos van der Zwaal, one of the founders of the Dutch graphic design agency Milford, once described in an introduction to a lecture I had to give, what retail design is and should do:

In modern Western society, design has become as ubiquitous as air and water. We hardly notice it anymore, confrontations with highly innovative or mind bending examples excepted. A retail environment is the surrounding ‘par excellence’ where all functionalities of design are confronted with the public appreciation. Here design is challenged, tested and judged on its effectiveness without a jury, without a casebook and without mercy. The retail environment does not worry about academic divisions between graphic, interactive, product or environmental design. Here design just has to do its job. It has to be functional, physically as well as mentally. It has to communicate the targeted position and the quality level of the retailer. And it has to contribute to the reputation of the retail brand and the company behind it.

In the past, retail design was simply the design of the place where everything took place. Now, retail design has become the very place where all the signals of the brand are captured and translated into the medium where it comes into contact with the consumer. This can consist of a shop, a sound, an event, a shop in shop, etc.

In any case, we know that everything is changing rapidly and that design will have to be able to continuously give shape to that changed situation or need. The designer cannot be a hobbyhorse; he or she has to be open to all signals from the market, adapt to the budgets of the client and be flexible. On the other hand, he or she must also be able to be the conscience of the brand, resist opportunism (a human and sometimes understandable motive) and keep an eye on the details. Raymond Loewy, one of the first major designers in the world, wrote the book ‘Never leave well enough alone’ because clients are not always the best assessors and are sometimes complacent. And Charles Eames said, ‘details are not details, they make the product’, about the importance of always ‘taking that extra step’.

The development of retail is fast and slow, that is to say, the need for change, more convenience, more contact, more added value is great and some companies are entering the market with that attention, but it is also slow. In particular, companies that have been around for a long time, large and small, often find it difficult to go through the transition. Their apparatus is not equipped for it, and it is difficult to set all the wheels in motion and initiate the necessary adjustment and renewal.

For both situations, the retail designer must be able to offer a helping hand, think further, see what is desirable, achievable, affordable and successful. In all cases, the core of the solution will be at the heart of the brand. This is about authenticity, about interest in each other, in what people are looking for and what the brand can give: the relationship, the experience, the community. Maybe this is not true for all product categories, but today's customer is looking for memories and friendship rather than products and services.

Customer experience is at the heart of the value proposition!

Maybe it is easier if you start fresh or exist for a short time, then you are better able to immerse yourself in today's time. Young designers who are part of it or creative entrepreneurs who start from scratch have it relatively easy; it's a matter of being part of the zeitgeist. However, one day they too will run into problems, as older companies are now experiencing; the problems that have to do with keeping or finding connections with the changing and changed society. Also called ‘the wheel of retailing’; this is about product and price (what one offers) on the one hand and authenticity, attractiveness and relevance (who offers it) on the other hand. It is about the fact that a formula that is successful will be attacked and copied, and, thus, will have to renew itself.

The secret to this successful innovation is in all cases the search that leads to finding the ‘purpose’ of the company on the one hand; what is our company about, what do we offer that makes our own heart beat faster and what is the bigger plan behind our business? Just like with people; ‘if you don't love yourself first, how can anyone else love you’. And, on the other hand, to be able to start the conversation with the customer, everything you do has to be customer-oriented, but it has to come from your heart and not just from the need for turnover and profit.

If you understand that, retail design is much more than the design of a physical space that represents the brand, but it is the actual shape that is given to the brand and the relationship with the customer. All the touchpoints that a customer shares with the brand during the customer journey play an important role in this, and the ultimate encounter in a physical environment is seen as the apotheosis of the customer journey because a virtual relationship is ultimately not very attractive. This is where everything comes together in the spatial experience: the products, the services, the staff, in short, the customer experience in all aspects. The story the customer experiences and eventually takes home with him/her; to friends, to colleagues. A story that is told and makes other people curious. After all, we are group animals and want to belong to something; brands play a major role in this.

Designers actually have two clients: the company and the consumer. The later being a higher power, which ultimately has to be ‘inspired’ and which sets certain requirements that perhaps would not have come directly to the retailer's mind. Although a company is basically a commercial organisation that sells products and/or services for profit, it operates in a society in which consumers have certain outspoken or intrinsic beliefs that they would like to see reflected in the relationship with the companies they buy from. These can be, for example, political, sustainability, culture or combinations of these. Belonging to a brand has become an overall picture in which opinions, beliefs and actions are an important part.

In the future, retail brands can be compared with media companies; Magazines, commercial TV channels and YouTube channels, which have a certain brand image and conviction, which appeal to certain groups in society, which recognise their needs and group feeling in the content, the form, the shared passion, the products, the events, etcetera. These are challenging concepts that combine vision and commercial strength and that have intrinsic resilience as long as they are able to keep in touch with their target group.

Retail designers can put their teeth into these concepts, enjoy them and above all put their knowledge and creativity to good use. Knowledge, training, education, cooperation – these are the keys to the future, for the individual and for society. It's great that the University is there and is committed to this and will continue to send many well-trained retail designers out into the world, as well as this wonderful book that will certainly do its bit.

Michel van Tongeren

SVT Branding + Design Group