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How To Manage a Global Retail Experience: Scaling Solutions Without Compromising Consistency
With a global footprint to manage and maintain, brands are increasingly looking for reliable and consistent sensory solutions alongside something special for their flagship stores. Mat Wilde, SVP EMEA Sales at Mood Media, explains how brands can balance extraordinary installations with their everyday operations
Brand consistency or brand moment?
That’s the question many global organizations face when they are looking to roll-out in-store experiences across an international retail footprint.
Flagship stores are designed to encapsulate your brand identity. They stand out from the rest of your stores not only due to their expansive size and prestigious locations, but also because of the unique customer experiences they offer.
It’s in these spaces that digital solutions can take center stage. High-quality audio, immersive video walls, and interactive installations combine to create a store that leaves a lasting impression.
“The North Face on Regent Street highlights what’s possible with a flagship. The brand brings its passion for the great outdoors to the in-store environment with a 360-degree projection dome that mimics a mountain base camp. Visitors can lie beneath and watch as birds fly overhead,” notes Mat. “It’s an extraordinary feature, but not something that the brand can – or wants to – replicate in its stores worldwide.”
Instead, most brands look to invest in a set blend of sensory solutions that provide a consistent in-store experience in all their stores, which can then be amplified in their flagships. Visit an outpost of any global or nationwide brand and you’ll likely see that the screens behind the points of sale, the music, and the scent are all the same.
“Retailer expectations have changed a lot in recent years,” Mat clarifies. “Focus has shifted towards value, with decision makers asking, what do we deliver consistently from our top flagship all the way down to our local outlet stores?”
That means designing solutions that revolve around the same elements but differ in scale and content depending on store type.
“We’re seeing more elements that are transferable from the flagship out to other stores in the network,” Mat explains. “But the content for a flagship is built out differently, it’s more bespoke.”
Why reliable technology is the secret to a satisfying customer experience
The value of experiential solutions, even in smaller stores, is starting to become more widely acknowledged.
“Experience might not yet be seen as business critical, but it’s increasingly a higher priority,” Mat continues. “CEOs on store visits will now point out nuances in the music volume or sound quality, for example. They want the experience to be unique and for it to suit their customer type.”
While a full-height video wall or signature scent may not be essential to a store’s everyday operations, malfunctioning digital solutions can be more harmful than you might think.
“The damage caused by a dark screen or a quiet store can be quite severe, especially when it comes to brand reputation,” Mat cautions.
The answer is Managed Services; a Mood Media solution that is more in-demand now than ever before.
Proactive monitoring, preventative maintenance, spare pool services, and black screen monitoring are all designed to reduce system downtime and avoid customer disappointment. In fact, Gartner found that 98% of organizations using proactive IT monitoring report fewer system outages than those without it and Aberdeen Group discovered that preventative maintenance leads to a 30% reduction in repair costs.
Close collaboration with in-house IT teams, stakeholders, and existing external providers ensures solutions are integrated seamlessly while our proprietary CMS, Mood Harmony, enables easy remote management.
Using the flagship as a test case before expanding to all stores
While consistency and reliability are key when managing solutions across a global store footprint, experimenting in a flagship or pop-up location can provide valuable learnings ahead of a full roll-out.
Lift and learn solutions are an ideal way to gather data that can not only inform your retail environment, but also product development and marketing strategies.
“One brand we worked with installed an innovative solution where video content relating to a new product launch was triggered by a sensor,” Mat recalls. “The results were then used to measure initial customer interest and shared directly with the development team.”
Every implementation comes with new learnings. In-store retail media, for example, is an emerging channel that many brands are starting to experiment with. The most effective roll-outs prioritize data gathering and making changes based on the numbers. Placement and content both impact how retail media resonates with customers and drives sales, which is why exploring installations in different locations in-store can be extremely valuable. A large-scale retail media deployment with multiple touchpoints all intended to drive revenue, for example, can provide insights into the endcaps that didn’t engage.
“With a relatively new and rapidly evolving solution like in-store retail media, the more we do, the more we learn,” Mat adds.
Take a phased approach supported by strong communication
Co-ordinating in-store solutions with a global multichannel strategy can be complicated, which is why strong – and considered – communication is essential.
Mat advises treating each territory differently, adapting to regional communication preferences while still being mindful of the global brand mission.
Following a phased approach to introducing and upgrading sensory solutions often proves more effective than trying to implement everything immediately. Working in stages allows time for testing, learning, and optimizing through the inclusion of first party and loyalty program data.
Managing a global retail experience requires patience, bravery, and persistence. Patience to work in phases, gather the data and move forward based on what it tells you; bravery to invest in innovative experiential solutions to make your flagship stand out; and persistence to commit to a standard set of solutions for every store in your footprint to ensure brand consistency and operational ease.
Author: Mat Wilde
As Senior Vice President for EMEA Sales at Mood Media, Mat provides executive leadership for strategic sales and business development across the region. With more than 20 years of experience, Mat is an expert in our integrated solutions portfolio – including visual communications, music and audio, and scent marketing – and by translating customer objectives into scalable, insight-led solutions, he enables clients to elevate customer experience, accelerate digital transformation, and achieve their marketing ambitions. Sustainability and responsible growth are central to his approach, ensuring we deliver enduring value for our clients, our people, and the markets we serve..
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