Lure the Male Housekeeper

According to Monday’s New York Times, a dynamic behind the decision of toymaker Mattel, Inc. to introduce a Barbie construction set is an assumption that fathers are doing a considerable amount of purchasing for the family. Therefore, retailers should carry for both genders of children items which men would find attractive. The fathers are then more likely to stop to look at the items in your store, and after purchase, they’re more likely to be pleased because they’ll join their daughters in using the items.
     Mattel’s assumption about shopper gender trends is correct, at least in the U.S. and when it comes to toys. The chain of logic behind the changes is reflected in an analysis conducted at University of New Hampshire: During the U.S. economic downturn, husbands were more likely to lose their jobs than were wives, and then husbands encountered more difficulty than wives in finding employment.
     As a result, a higher percentage of wives than in the past found it necessary, in order to pay the bills, to enter the labor force or to expand their work hours. They’d prefer to be home more with family, but that’s not feasible.
     The consequences do go beyond the merchandising of toys. The NYT article reports that Procter & Gamble is providing to retailers planograms for men’s grooming aisles, realizing both that it’s now somewhat less likely women will be picking out the shaving cream and that men and women have different shopping styles.
     Women are more likely to find emotional comfort from shopping than are men. Put this together with the fact that the wives going to work yearn for time with family. When the wife does do the shopping, she might want to bring hubby along.
     A set of cross-national studies by researchers at University of Chicago and Belgium’s Catholic Universities of Louvain and Mons concluded that the relative dominance of husband and wife depends on the type of product or service being considered when the couple shop together:

• Husband-dominant: Lawn mowers, hardware 
• Wife-dominant: Children’s clothing, women’s clothing, groceries, toiletries 
• Shared dominance: Cars, refrigerators, televisions, living room furniture, financial planning services, vacations 

     Even with shared dominance, decision making styles differ. While making the decision, the man’s objectives are underpinned by a desire to ensure his individual specifications are met, while the woman’s objectives are underpinned by a desire to have the shared specifications of the couple met.

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Get Ready to Dispose of Your Store

Retailer Joe Lueken isn’t exactly giving the store away. Still, he’s giving three stores, forgoing a potentially greater financial gain. According to the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, ownership of Mr. Lueken’s two supermarkets in Bemidji, Minnesota and one in Wahpeton, North Dakota will pass on January 1 to the current store staff through an Employee Stock Ownership Program.
     Mr. Lueken is retiring. Proceeds from the transaction will pay off the Lueken family over three to five years. Each employee is being given, cost-free, shares based on length of service and salary. The ESOP will repurchase shares of any employee who leaves or retires.
     This method might not be your choice for riding off into the sunset. So what is your choice? In my experience, most owners of retail businesses think about disposing of the store only at a theoretical level. They don’t set the specifics and then work toward them.
     Your default option might be to assume family members will take over the operations. That’s worked repeatedly for F.B. Thomas Drug Store in Meyersdale, Pennsylvania, which is now in its fourth generation of ownership. But Mr. Lueken’s family wasn’t interested in assuming ownership. Only about one out of every ten privately-held businesses makes it through to the third generation.
     Start developing and implementing your alternatives for disposing of your store. Be ready. Think long-term and monitor your steps.
     Psychologists at University of Minnesota and Texas A&M University point out the difficulties we encounter when monitoring our results. One big difficulty is that monitoring requires focusing on the here-and-now, and the here-and-now includes all the incoming demands on our resources. Getting the shelves stocked now, paying the pressing bills before the mail pickup, resolving the argument before things get really ugly. This pulls our thinking away from the longer-term perspective.
     There’s also something else: The psychological research says that when a retailer carefully monitors results toward achieving long-term goals they’ve set, one consequence is that time seems to pass more slowly for the retailer. And that, in turn, makes the goal seem more distant. Ironically, then, monitoring our achievements so far can actually interfere with what gets measured ending up getting done.
     Avoid continuous monitoring of how far you need to go to achieve long-term, somewhat fuzzy goals. Instead, regularly monitor how far you’ve already progressed toward each clearly defined business objective. This includes having your exit plan in place.

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Feed Shoppers’ Hunger Consistently

Some marquee retailers are including in their stores a restaurant with food which fits the personality of the merchandise and the location. The flagship Tommy Bahama store in Manhattan will be serving Macadamia-nut encrusted snapper for a tropical flavor and pineapple cheesecake in a bow to New York style. Urban Outfitters, with a college-town personality, is featuring striped bass at its Westport, Connecticut home-and-garden store.
     IKEA’s been pushing meatballs in their stores for years, and Reno-Sparks Scheels is far from alone in having a casual café on the premises. What’s different is the aim for close consistency with a store theme. Inside Macy's State Street in Chicago, the Walnut Room, said to be the first restaurant opened inside an American department store, has represented elegant retailing consumption since 1907. However, that store now also has a sports bar, two food courts, and a Starbucks.
     Housing a restaurant probably won’t satisfy your needs if you’re a smaller non-food-oriented retailer. Still, consider how to experiment with strategies behind the tactic:

• Partner with a restaurant close by. Have them give coupons for a small discount from you, and you give coupons for an equivalent discount when dining at the restaurant and ordering an item you identify as consistent with your store’s theme. Is the reach for consistency too much of a stretch? Then be satisfied with another objective of the strategy—keep the customer close so they’re tempted to shop more after eating. 
• Serve theme-based foods and beverages at special events you hold at your store. When the event is for premium customers you invite, you could provide hors d'oeuvres. In other cases, you might choose to have a theme-based catering firm set a pop-up store outside the entrance to your place. Do have plenty of napkins available, realize your restrooms will be frequented more, and be sure your local regulations are met for serving food to the public. 
• If feeding food to your shoppers is too much to fit on your plate, go to the true impetus for the restaurant-in-the-store idea: What can store-based retailers do to provide an experience online shoppers won’t have? Internet sales are predicted to account for 16% of revenue this holiday season. Eating is a sensory experience best enjoyed when you and the food aren’t separated by an internet connection. If not food, give other sensory experiences characterizing your store. 

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Give Shoppers Reason to Believe

People anxious to complete a purchase welcome evidence you give them that they’re making a good decision, even if the evidence you provide is objectively irrelevant to the decision.
     Researchers at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand presented study participants with declarative statements like, “Giraffes are the only mammals that cannot jump” and “Turtles are deaf.” These statements were chosen because most people are unsure of their truth. The purchase decision in the study was not for merchandise, but instead for a belief.
     Those participants shown a photo of a giraffe along with the statement were more likely to say it was true than were the participants shown only the statement. Similarly, a photo of a turtle injected credibility into the “Turtles are deaf” statement.
     This phenomenon is not limited to people who know little about a topic. The researchers point to a past study finding that when neurological conclusions are presented to brain scientists, those scientists shown accompanying brain scan photos attributed more credibility, on average, to the neurological conclusions. Yet the photos were not at all objectively related to what was said to the brain scientists about the neurological conclusions.
     In my opinion, an important factor in these studies was the use of photos rather than artistic illustrations. Photos come across as more realistic. Drawings might imply subjectivity, which would make the claim less believable. Brief text did show the effect, though. In related studies exploring the believability of claims about lesser-known celebrities, a verbal description of the person resulted in greater agreement with claims made about the person.
     Based on their findings, the New Zealand researchers say that showing a photo of a smiling person holding a product you sell makes it more likely consumers viewing the photo would believe a claim, “This product is easy to use.” So would a paragraph of text describing how the product was manufactured. Neither the photo nor the paragraph need to relate directly to ease of use.
     The phenomenon is also seen in how consumers who are expert in a product category handle technical specifications when making purchase decisions in that category. Experts ask for the specifications, but mostly want to know the answers so they can justify to themselves and others that they’ve made the right choices. University of Pittsburgh and University of South Carolina researchers say experts are notoriously complacent about using the technical information before choosing what they’ll purchase.

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Reveal the Whole Kit, If Not the Caboodle

The NPD Group has spotted a substantial climb in sales of fragrance, skincare, and makeup gift kits. For the January to October period, 2012 sales of men’s fragrance gift sets increased 14% over 2011, while for women’s fragrance sets, the increase was 7%. Growth in other types of kits was even greater. For skincare sets, it was 23%, and for makeup sets, 26%.
     Package deals are used throughout retailing. Say you’ve booked a cruise. You’ll be getting your lodging and dining at a lower price than what you’d pay if you arranged for each individually. Are you considering the cable TV/telephone/internet package? You’d be saving big if you decide to get all three together from us.
     In these package deals, the appeal is to cost savings. But another approach is for you to improve your profitability by setting a premium price when you package products, product categories, or product benefits. Customers might ask why they’re paying more. Your answer will have to do with your expertise in arranging the combination and with the convenience you’re providing to the shopper.
     View kits as families of products. Now use this concept to build sales in another way: The customer buys one item and you suggest other items which fit together with that one like members of a family fit together. If a woman comes in with her daughter and buys a casual dress for herself, the salesperson asks the woman if she’d like to move on to shop for a casual dress for the daughter.
     It’s not only with clothing. Ask the man shopping for fishing gear for himself if he’d like to look at fishing equipment for his wife and children who are there with him. And it goes beyond items to be used by different family members. Research done at the University of Toronto and University of Chicago says that a shopper who comes into the store to purchase a large first aid kit is more likely to buy a second kit if the two kits are described as fitting together like a family. “Keep the big kit in your auto and carry the littler one on hikes.”
     However, don’t overwhelm the customer. “The whole kit and caboodle” is a phrasing going back to at least year 1884, referring to absolutely everything one might need. With your shoppers, reveal the kit while not aiming to show the whole caboodle.

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Sell ’Er Through the Cellar Door

“Cellar door sales” is a term associated with wineries, but the idea can be applied to selling a broad range of merchandise. Characteristics of cellar door sales include:

• A retail sale is made directly from the producer to the consumer, with no intermediary. 
• The sale is made at the place where the item is produced, with the opportunity for the shopper to view the production process and talk with those who participated in the production. 
• The shopper is encouraged to sample consumption or use of the product before deciding about purchasing. 

     Using interviews of retailers, researchers at Australia’s University of Western Sydney and Edith Cowan University studied cellar door sales of muscadine wines in the Southern USA. The researchers’ interest in muscadines had been piqued when they were told by winery operators that consumer snobbery is a major impediment to these wines’ popularity.
     Here are cellar door selling success factors consumer behavior studies identify:

• Communicate strong branding. Ensure all public areas are clean. Have distinctive logos and bold signage consistent with your intended personality of the product. This includes on the signage directing drivers to your cellar. 
• Facilitate the shopping experience. Have sufficient parking space and employ enough staff to greet visitors promptly. Don’t pounce on shoppers, but be easily available to initiative entertaining conversation. Keep explanations palatable. Some muscadine wine vendors had reacted to the snobbery stigma by spouting wine jargon to visitors. The result was more often irritation than positive impressions. 
• Educate the shopper. Jargon’s okay. The problem’s with the spouting. One-fourth of the muscadine wine vendors said their main selling challenge was the shoppers’ lack of knowledge about the wines. Give shoppers what consumer researchers call a “consumption vocabulary.” 
• Be a destination or a scripted part of a journey. Join with other cellar door sellers to develop a shopping area. Or as the Apple Hill vendors in Northern California do, distribute maps with your cellar along with other cellars plotted out. Work with tour bus operators to include you as a destination or on a scripted journey. 

     “Cellar door” has been considered by some to be among the most beautiful sounding phrases in any language. Add the word “sales” to it and it will be even more pleasing to the ears of retailers. How might you use the success factors of cellar door sales in your business?

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

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