THE ART OF VISUAL STORYTELLING
Visual storytelling is the cornerstone of marketing, but the same is true for visual merchandising - see how.
Clever, consistent, and engaging customer experiences are what’s needed to adapt to the new “customer experience economy”. This is the new reality in which we are living and shopping. The very idea of what a store is has changed. It’s morphed from a place where people come to buy to a place where people come to discover.
Retailers on the forefront get this. They understand the power of customer experience and visual storytelling. While some retailers are consumed with price, delivery, or customer rewards – a better business model would be to create strong emotional bonds to customers. Feeling connected to a particular retailer creates a sense of loyalty, making it difficult to be swayed by more than just products on a shelf or a single offer.
Photos Courtesy of Men’s Warehouse
This is where visual storytelling comes to play. In this digital age:
65% of the world’s population are visual learners.
Stores have 8 seconds to capture a shopper’s attention as attention spans are incredibly shrinking.
People get the sense of a visual scene less than 1/10 of a second.
Visuals increase message retention by 42%.
Visual storytelling is the cornerstone of marketing, but the same is true for visual merchandising. Your consumer doesn’t want to simply make a purchase – they’re looking for a rewarding shopping experience. In the past couple of years, Men’s Warehouse rolled out a next generation of stores designed to support a seamless omnichannel customer experience, incorporating innovative technology solutions to strengthen the Company’ss incomparable combination of service, selection convenience, and value.
Storytelling is a great way of conveying what your brand is about. It helps create a value proposition, a point of difference, and connecting products to a brand’s mission. Additionally, good stories are worth remembering and sharing – a must in our current social landscape.
You could probably name at least four or five brands off the top of your head whose logos, slogans, and storytelling you instantly recognize. Memorable storytelling, when combined with visual merchandising solutions, creates this same memorability.
But how do we use storytelling in visual merchandising? The first step of storytelling is identifying what your brand’s story is. Next, you must present the merchandise in visually and imaginative ways that it engages the customer and compels them to buy. Great merchandising should produce seamlessly clear storytelling – through aesthetic sensibility and creativity.
Today, visual merchandising is less of an option and more of a necessity.