NRF’s annual convention blog covered sessions including presentations by retail CEOs and experts in their field. Some discussed loss prevention, while others covered trends and many sessions discussed the economy. Also, the blog covered an inside look at the convention.

Now that NRF’s BIG Show is over–check out NRF’s other blogs to keep up with what’s going on in retail.

• Shop.org blog
  
• NRF Foundation blog

For upcoming NRF events see our full listing.

What makes a great brand?  Why is a brand still important in this current economic environment?

Great brands must do two things: they must meet the moment, and last through time.  And the ones that do last increase in value with each new generation. Great brands continuously evolve, not just for the sake of change, but to maintain relevance.

Our branding/ retail design firm is different because of one main thing: we behave like partners working side-by-side with brands to uncover the best path of success in the market. Our strategy and creative work is always driven by an entrepreneurial spirit, and all of the touchpoints that we deliver – from the brand positioning, to the retail and online experiences, marketing, packaging, etc. all answer to that one question - “How do we win?”

Our process is unique as well. We call it “StageSetting” and it involves prototyping multiple consumer touchpoints simultaneously to paint a picture of the future today.  By bringing visions to life, all stakeholders can experience a living strategy before investing in a rollout.

Given the current economic environment and decrease in consumer spending, what steps are retailers taking to differentiate themselves in the marketplace and drive traffic both in-store and online?

We think in terms of market opportunity. And the biggest opportunity right now is that the playing field has been leveled, no retailer can count on consumer loyalty from the past. We believe the key opportunity is for retailers to focus on making a difference in consumer’s lives today. Starbucks is closing down stores, but just yesterday I had the best cup of coffee in my life at a little place called “Grumpy’s” – they’re now expanding and opening new locations.

The online space has the same intimacy that Main Street used to have, but in a new way. The advances in technology now empower retailers to have a superior level of familiarity and provide customized service and products that are even better than the great stores of yesteryear.

One key area of focus in the future should be to make the consumer experience seamless between the in-store and on-line platforms.

As consumers become more knowledgeable and the proliferation of online communities continues, how must retailers change to address this new dynamic?  How do you create a brand online?

Retailers will increasingly need to partner with consumers. In “Miracle on 34th Street”, the Macy’s Santa tells a woman that the doll she wants is available at Gimble’s. In that example, Macy’s wins because they are being a trusted friend. Great experiences that make the trip worthwhile are key, but great customer service is still the most preached and least practiced consumer touchpoint.

Retailers need to contextualize products. They need to tell a story about how a particular product fits into one’s life and demonstrates the features and benefits.

When it comes to creating Brands online, we like to look at it as ‘simply creating Brands.’ The only difference is that there are a different set of rules and additional touchpoints to work with. In many ways, the online space allows deeper and more authentic brand expression because one’s message can be delivered simultaneously in different ways showing different facets of a brand’s personality.  Everything is happening at once on all fronts.

G+G has been hired to help reinvent many iconic brands – including Waterford Wedgwood, Rafaella, Levi’s, Bombay – what are the challenges/advantages to working with an established brand?
The challenge is that it’s an artful blending of perception and reality. The market’s perception of what the brand is, and the reality of what the brand needs to be in order to succeed in the market.

If handled properly, there is an advantage to the built-in brand recognition of an iconic brand. It gives us something to sculpt and sometimes a wonderful heritage to celebrate.

As creatives, however, we love building brands from scratch. A great example is the Peter England PEOPLE Store Chain that Eric Gustavsen presented in The Power of Retail Design Forum at this NRF show. The opportunity with building a new brand is that there is no baggage and nothing is sacred.

You can simply focus on voids in the marketplace and take advantage of the consumer’s desire to discover and experience a novel approach and product assortment.

The last session I attended on Tuesday of the convention was in the DESiGN STUDiO. It was called Good Economy or Bad: It’s all about listening to your customers. The presenter, Beth Viner of IDEO offered an interesting perspective on what people expect, how people act, and how the focus on the consumer perspective becomes even more important in an unstable economy.
Among the many examples given throughout her talk, Beth noted that when people enter a Marriott, they expect the same service they would receive in Starbucks–and are disappointed otherwise. Although the services at both businesses aren’t the same, the expectations on how to be treated carry across all industries.

In every session I went to, attendees had their cameras and camera phones poised to capture every slide that the speakers went through. I guess it’s the latest trend in taking notes. Here’s a picture from one of the Super Sessions.

How many glowing cameras can you count in the dark?

An incredibly lifelike dinosaur showed up at a special press reception we held on Sunday night. The dinosaurs are used in the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History in an exhibit for children to help them understand how dinosaurs used to look and behave. While the dinosaur may have first seemed a little irrelevant to everything that was happening in the STUDiO, it was an interesting example of how something sophisticated, yet simple, could catch the attention of customers and keep them hooked.

The dinosaur itself was incredibly lifelike and definitely caught everyone’s attention. (I knew it wasn’t real, obviously, but I still didn’t want to be anywhere near it!) Since the dino was so cool, we went back later this week to try and take a video, but it was already gone.

Fortunately, someone was on hand in the STUDiO who offered to send us a video. A special thanks to Enrique Williams/MEDIAMAXplus for letting us share this 30-second clip!

The dinosaur was presented courtesy of Creative Realities Inc. (CRI) as part of their Anatomy of Wow session.

Jim Dion

In this week’s Harvesting the Low Hanging Fruit session, Jim Dion talked about using the “we” word, but meaning it.  One of the “critical truths” he shared is that people will support what they help to create.  If you want to be a green retailer, you need to get every employee on board.  That means the sales teams interacting directly with your customers as well as management and everyone else behind the scenes.

This week, however, I got to add to my list of lists.  I saw a new (new to me at least) way to categorize U.S. retailers. Interbrand Design Forum’s list cataloged the 50 most valuable U.S. retail brands. In the session, Brands that Have the Power to Change the Retail World, Lee Carpenter and Alfred DuPuy presented the list, discussing why various retailers were on (or off) the list. Their study only included retailers who are public (so they could analyze the financials) and they excluded restaurants.

I’d like to share their methodology for calculating a brand’s value, but I couldn’t write fast enough sitting in the audience and they do a good job of explaining it themselves in the report – which you can read in its entirety here.

Here are a few things I found interesting about various retailers on the list:

• Whole Foods, with a brand value of $496 million, is the only grocery retailer in the top 50.
• American Girl, despite having only 7 retail locations, has a brand value of $641 million
• Netflix, with a brand value of $1.268 billion, is one of the few exclusively online retailers on the list.
• Staples is the only office supplies retailer on the list. Lee cited what they’ve done with their private label products as one reason their brand makes the cut. Their brand value is listed as $7.224 billion.

To see the rankings and brand value of the top 50 retail brands, view The Most Valuable U.S. Retail Brands 2009.

Here were some takeaways from the session about how leaders should be guiding their companies right now:

“Don’t Panic.”

Burt Tansky, Neiman Marcus CEO

The executives all agreed that the retail industry—and much of the economy—is experiencing unprecedented change and challenges. What organizations need from their leaders, Tansky said, is sheer determination. “[The current economy] requires all of us to pull up every leadership trait that we have to show the strengths to our team,” he said. “We have to hone in on the issues. We have to remain positive, we have to stay focused and keep the team focused on the issues at hand.”

Tansky also said that leaders need to focus on their own personal demeanor, stay calm, and not panic.

Communicate.

Believing that “communication is leadership and leadership is communication,” Tindell said people at The Container Store “run around like chickens relentlessly trying to communicate absolutely everything to every single employee at all times.” While he recognizes that this is an impossible task, he believes that the company will come closer to perfection than anyone else “because we’re so dedicated to the notion that communication and leadership are the same thing.”

Kip Tindell, The Container Store

Tindell discussed prospects like salary freezes or layoffs that can understandably rattle and distract employees. Communication, he said, will keep everyone on the same page.

“To have people holding hands and approaching the challenges of this economy together—knowing that they know everything the board room knows—is magical in times like this,” he said. “I think we’re fortunate to be minus the paranoia that goes with employees who feel they don’t know what’s going on.” Tindell said that each employee is aware of what will happen if sales hit a certain point, and what those contingency plans include.

As an aside, Tindell said, the current economy is also a great opportunity to talk with vendors. “They’re dying for that communication too,” he said.

Be flexible.

Roger Farah, Polo Ralph Lauren

One question addressed how retailers can plan without really understanding what is on the horizon. Although uncertainty is high, decisions still need to be made.

“You have to plan and you have to make some assumptions and then you have to adjust if your assumptions are off,” said Farah. “If you’re in a difficult environment you may have to alter the priorities and the work plans of your organizations. I don’t think it fundamentally changes your strategy, it just reorients what’s on top and what’s in second place.”

Remember who you are.

While the executives on the panel represent very different retailers, all agreed that this is not the time for companies to abandon what made them strong.

“These events are not a signal to change,” said Tansky, noting that Neiman Marcus has spent one hundred years defining itself. “You don’t spend that much time developing a brand and let it drop or change because of a crisis, it just can’t be. We have no intention in making any changes of our brand. There is absolutely no groundswell, no discussion, about changing who we are.”

Put your employees first.

The Container Store has always been known for its focus on employees. “We believe in putting the employee first, even before the customer,” Tindell said. “If you take care of your employee better than anybody else, they will take care of the customer better than anybody else. And ultimately, ironically, the shareholder will be better off.”

Even in a down economy, Tindell suggests that executives “not be serious every single minute” and talked extensively about the need for employees to have fun. Acknowledging that it’s “not as much fun coming to work in retail this year as it was three years ago,” Tindell recognizes that keeping morale and productivity high in this environment is a tremendous challenge.

Still, he says, leaders have a duty to their employees. “If you’re lucky enough to be somebody’s employer, you have this huge moral obligation to make sure they look forward to coming to work in the morning,” he said. He also noted that the company is pulling back on bonuses and compensation more in the executive ranks than in other areas.

Bring in outsiders…when it makes sense.

Asked to comment on if he has had better experiences fostering new leadership from within or bringing in new leaders from the outside, Farah said each organization needs to find the best mix. While educating, training and investing in an existing organization is key, he said, it is important from time to time to bring in new talent if the environment has changed or if new skill sets are needed.

But will current employees bristle under new blood? Not necessarily, said Farah. If new, outside leadership is “dramatically better than what exists,” he said, the organization will be accepting. However, the reverse can be a recipe for disaster: “At the end of the day, if you’re replacing inside talent with outside talent and there’s no discernible difference, you lose credibility as an organization.”

Guide young employees.

As a true retail veteran, Burt Tansky spoke clearly about the importance of guiding young employees, for whom this downturn is a first. “I’ve been telling many of our young people who have never been through this to study what’s going on today, study the kind of things that are being put in place to minimize the stress because as their careers develop, they’re going to have to face some of this again,” he said. “We’ll get through this and have a period of prosperity again, but then there will be a bubble. Now is a good time to learn from this experience.”

Cultivate trust.

“Your organization will follow you if they trust you,” Farah said. “Trust is defined by knowing you’ve been thoughtful, knowing that you’ve evaluated the issues and you’re making the decisions that are in the best interest of the organization, then fairly executing them so everybody is contributing. If that trust exists, I think you have a better chance of leading through a difficult economic environment.”

While this seems like a comprehensive list, I’m wondering what’s missing (and I’m sure you’ll tell me). What else should leaders be doing, especially in light of the economy, to help their organizations weather the downturn?

To be successful in the retail marketplace, retailers need to tap into the power of collaboration. Technology solutions can help retailers achieve a more transparent and efficient process across Home Office and Stores as well as with their supply chain. I think the solution used by the FFC is an excellent example of the retail industry collaborating together to share information, reduce costs and at the same improve factory conditions around the world.

Collaboration Solutions can help Retail Organizations become more efficient internally as well. Collaboration can improve processes in a number of areas. A lot of Retailers that I work with are changing the they communicate from Home Office to Stores: the current mode of communication includes using email, fax and phone.  Using Collaboration Solutions, Retailers can publish News, Announcements, training Material, Task Lists on a common platform and target the content to specific groups. Collaboration can also help to ensure improved consistency across all stores and channels, which is vital if customers are going to relate to a retailer’s brand.

One of the big challenges that many retail organizations are facing is a lack of visibility into data and information across the company. Collaboration Solutions can empower employees by giving them access to relevant information in a timely manner to make quick decisions. Some of the collaboration solutions that I have seen being deployed in Retail include Crisis Management, Product Recall, Promotions Management, New Store Openings, New Employee Training, Employee OnBoarding and many more.