Counter Culture 3

3 

Counter 

Culture 

shoptactics 

...and Relax 

The US retailer redefining how we 

interact with physical retail spaces. 

Authentic Reality 

Why nothing still clicks quite like 

experiencing a brand of real. 

Great Escapes 

We roundup the essential retail 

experiences worthy of your air miles. 

Experiential retailers with… 

Treat’s In-store 

visualthinking.co.uk

Contents 

Foreword 3 

Summer Lovin’ 4 

...and Relax 5 

Authentic Reality 7 

2 

Being Human 9 

Cool Covers 10 

Summer Hit 11 

Great Escapes 12 

Holiday Notes 14 

Get On Board 14 

Highly Rated 15 

Winning Teams 17 

Inflated Dreams 19 

Track Performance 20 

Relay Race 21 

Services 22 

Inside this issue you will find these symbols. 

When you see them, it means that there are more 

related articles or a VM Travel report available to 

read on our blog. Or that there are more images 

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on them, and enjoy what you discover.

Foreword 

Welcome to the experiential issue. 

3 

1 2 3 4 5 6 

While many will be enjoying a spot of 

physical relaxation this summer, others will 

be competing: hard. Not least retailers. 

The pressure to perform still weighs 

heavy; like the hopes of an expectant 

nation ahead of the Rio Olympics. To 

borrow a sporting cliché: we are in the 

results business. Whether on the track 

or instore, everyone hopes the next few 

months will bring some great team and 

individual performances. 

Practice really does 

make perfect. 

As anyone who has ever tried to make big 

gains knows: practice really does make 

perfect. It’s why having focus and clear 

goals is a catalyst for retail performance 

improvement. It’s also essential for instore 

teams to be motivated, to train hard and 

be well drilled. 

Our recent work for O2 has been 

described as the ‘best training ever’. 

More importantly, the consistency it has 

brought to retail standards has led to a 

32% increase in instore compliance. Now 

that’s what I call a great performance. 

But being the most ‘technically perfect’ 

doesn’t necessarily make you the most 

interesting. We love sport because it can 

be serve up the unpredictable and the 

unthinkable. We love shopping for the 

same reason. Shoppers have little time 

for the “me too” brigade. They want to 

be amazed, inspired, jolted out of their 

apathy. Thankfully, the power to delight, 

surprise, and engage is not exclusively 

reserved for those with the willingness 

and budgets to spend big. This year’s 

biggest sporting story made that clear. 

So to mainstream retailers I say this: 

try something new, be bold, be brave 

with how you approach developing 

your people, delivering the customer 

experience, and bringing the brand to life 

instore – be fearless. Have a clear game 

plan. Follow it. Then do the hard work in 

training that will allow you to be agile and 

responsive to change. 

Stay with us over the next few pages to 

discover more about how to do just that. 

We promise the experience will be 

a positive one 

Karl McKeever 

Founder & Managing Director 

@karlmckeever | @shoptactics 

F I N I S H 

Counter Culture. Issue No. 3 © Visual Thinking 2016 www.visualthinking.co.uk

Summer 

Lovin’ 

Retailers preparing for new store launches can 

learn a thing or two from holiday romances. Though they 

will promise much and no doubt be intense for many, the 

love often proves to be short-lived. 

4 

Over the next few months, hotels, 

beaches and bars around the world will 

be sprinkled with love. Some will be 

fueled by youthful exuberance. For others, 

it will offer a ‘Shirley Valentine’ sense of 

distraction and welcome escape from 

being stuck in life’s rut. It will induce 

feelings of optimism and a willingness to 

make big plans. But for the majority, the 

summer romance will be short-lived – cut 

down by the reality that back in the world 

of the day-to-day, it would be unlikely to 

maintain its veneer. 

As with holiday romances, new store 

openings can often set the bar of ‘love’ 

too high. The result sees too much 

precious time, effort and money spent 

on supporting the store opening, and not 

enough committed to maintaining the 

love of retail standards and delivering the 

brand experience on a daily basis once 

the sun has set on the launch party. 

In recent years there have been many 

examples of brands that have fallen 

into the ‘launch and leave’ trap. New 

concepts require significant, ongoing 

investment. Failure to do so will 

ensure they never fulfill their true ROI 

potential – it’s as simple as that. Without 

effective retail policy, learning support 

and communication tools to enable 

store teams to deliver a consistent 

brand experience for customers, retail 

performance, like a holiday fling, is only 

likely to disappoint over time. People 

don’t naturally have the experience to 

manage new environments – this needs 

to be built, nurtured and embedded. Like 

working to get that perfect beach body 

before you jet off to attracting admiring 

glances on the beach, managing a new 

store concept places huge demands on 

the management teams, and they need 

specialist and ongoing support to make 

it work. 

Yes, it’s easy to wow people when it’s your 

moment in the sun. But as with admiring 

glance that you will give to the happily 

married old couple, while you holiday; 

people really respect those who are able to 

keep things new and fresh, year after year 


5 

...and Relax 

A change of scenery is sometimes needed to 

rediscover just how much we love home. For US retailer 

Restoration Hardware, its stunning new store has not 

only reinvigorated the building it calls home, but is also 

redefining how we interact with physical retail spaces.

Much has been written about the need 

particularly Restoration goes one step 

think about the way you want to live, the 

for retailers to restore the relevance of 

further. Having closed its existing store on 

way we eat, as well as to consider the 

physical spaces. How about creating a 

North Avenue and relocated to one of the 

way we want to interact—socially and 

store that you would want to live in? 

city’s least commercial neighbourhoods, 

with our retail spaces. 

6 

The latest store (if that indeed is even the 

right term) from luxury home furnishing 

retailer, Restoration Hardware, does not 

anchor a mall, but a neighbourhood. It is 

RH Chicago has created a truly 

captivating crossover store, blurring the 

lines between retail, hospitality, and home. 

You can describe RH Chicago, but really 

Make no mistake: you will not stumble 

upon this place while out shopping. 

There is no passing footfall. This is true 

destination retail – delivered in the finest, 

located in the historic and now beautifully 

have to see it. In almost every respect, it 

and most intriguing way possible. Its 

restored Three Arts Club. Originally 

is not a retail space: this is not about the 

success is proof, if needed, that shoppers 

developed as a place for young women 

product. Instead, it’s about a social and 

will travel for a great experience. Above 

to study the performing and visual arts, it 

sensory experience. Everything you can 

all, RH Chicago demonstrates that to 

lay derelict for over 20 years. The stated 

see, you can buy. Everywhere you can sit, 

succeed in modern retail, sometimes you 

aim of RH is to blur the lines between 

you can eat. The result genuinely makes 

have to be brave 

residential and retail. The result of this 

you pause – to imagine new things, to 

UK sales uplift for Australia’s best luxury bedding brand.... 

(with expert VM support from Visual Thinking). 

Store colleagues 

trained for O2 UK 

Increase 


Authentic 

Reality 

Physical stores are having a 

renaissance. Online may be convenient, 

but when it comes to creating shopper 

engagement nothing clicks quite like 

experiencing a brand for real. 

7 

For far too long, retail has been obsessed 

It is the most emotionally rich moments 

but, the experiences we gain from 

with the idea of reduction. The most 

that frame our experience of a brand 

human interaction matter. The better the 

obvious example is the endless race to 

and drive repeat purchases. These 

memory of the store visit, the more likely 

the bottom that has seen retailers waging 

seminal moments take place instore, 

shoppers are to return. 

war to be crowned ‘the cheapest’. In 

reality, those that have pursued this 

strategy have simply eroded their margins 

and left shoppers will a few more pence in 

their pocket, but ultimately unrewarded. 

not online. Stores are the place where 

we go to escape our own four walls – to 

explore, daydream, look in windows, be 

entertained, inspired. 

If you’re buying online it’s probably 

Now, perhaps more than ever, retailers 

seem bound and determined to sell to 

shoppers by bringing their brand story to 

life through engaging instore experiences. 

In other words, why are we different 

Then there is the impact of the online 

because you know what you want 

(and hopefully streets ahead) than the 

shift. Internet purchases are all about 

and it will be a brief exchange. By 

competition? What can we offer you that 

making shopping quicker, easier and more 

developing staff and applying visual 

your life has been missing? And why 

automated: no need to waste time going 

merchandising principles in the right 

should you open your wallet? 

to store, navigating around it, in endless 

queues, coming into contact with store 

teams, or anyone else for that matter. 

Put simply, online is reductive. Rarely do 

they add to the shopping experience. 

Instead, there are focused on what can be 

removed. The best retail websites may be 

things of functional beauty, but can they 

really ever be truly enjoyable experiences 

– in the sense of what we really mean by 

the word ‘enjoyable’? 

way, a retailer adds relevance, interest 

and surprise. You enter a garden centre 

thinking ‘bedding plants’ and exit with 

hanging baskets and planters, a new 

gardening book, and maybe even a pot 

of preserves. But it’s not just through 

carefully considered VM techniques that 

retailers can seduce shoppers. 

We are inherently social creatures. 

Despite ‘social’ media seemingly 

making rooms full of people anything 

But too often, it seems, crafting this sort 

of narrative comes without the necessary 

work to engage the ‘hearts and minds’ of 

those who will need to tell the story and 

ensure stores live up to the standards set 

by the brand promise. Perhaps having the 

most efficient instore processes around 

is only about removing complexity and 

unnecessary tasks to make store team’s 

lives easier. Or perhaps not. The true 

benefit makes the retail experience more 


enjoyable for the shopper, and adds 

value to the bottom line for retailers. It 

makes store teams more efficient and 

effective, enables them to get to the most 

appropriate product presentation solution 

faster, and frees them to demonstrate to 

shoppers how much they know and care 

about the products they sell. 

Despite the urge to use the thin veil of 

‘interactive’ as an excuse to reduce focus 

on store team development, putting all 

your eggs in the digital technology basket 

will now, more than at any time recently, 

only make you the same as everyone 

else. In a world so used to consuming 

via a backlit screen it’s rarely digital 

purchases that we remember: it’s those 

real experiences touched by people 

that we hold dearest. It’s what Visual 

Thinking has spent more than 20 years 

championing – developing the expertise 

and solutions to transform stores, 

and the retail teams in them, to meet 

tomorrow’s business needs today 

Being 

Human 

Retailers should not only be striving to 

personalise the shopping experience. While having robust 

guidelines and giving store teams freedom may sound 

like a contradiction in terms it is possible, and important, 

to stay on-brand while celebrating the individual. 

8 

Whether at a national and global level, 

instore effectiveness is so often defined 

by the policies and procedures that are 

put in place to control brand delivery. Best 

practice behaviour, regularly repeated, is 

good. Extremely good. Deviate from the 

rules however and it can have serious 

consequences on retail performance – 

let individuality loose at your peril. 

Little wonder then that mainstream 

retailers, with their vast store estates and 

large numbers of retail employees are 

keen to lock down exactly what is and 

isn’t on-brand. At Visual Thinking, we 

help retailers accelerate the process of 

making that happen – capturing essential 

policy detail to deliver best practice 

instore standards and create better 

business outcomes. 

But in the drive for slavish consistency, 

some retailers are putting the human scale 

under threat of becoming an endangered 

species. And the effects of that can 

be just as detrimental to performance 

as poor standards themselves. 

Personalisation and customisation are two 

of the hottest topics in retail right now, 

with shoppers increasingly buying into 

tailored promotions, and the concept of 

a ‘brand for me’, as they continue to look 

for retail experiences and products that 

are more individual and relevant. 

At a time when these trends are on 

the rise, finding a way to ensure store 

staff can apply retail policy with real 

personality, and still remain true to the 

brand, is vital. If not managed in the 

right way, attempts to achieve uniformity 

can all too easily lack the all-important 

human touch – suffocating the very real 

individuals that retailers rely on to bring 

the brand to life instore day in, day out. 

People do not want monotonous 

conveyor belt retail experiences and 

humanoid sales associates any more 

than they want their musicians to be 

manufactured, or their elite sports stars 

to be robotic machines. Success means 

finding a balance: standardisation without 

the boredom. We get it. And so do the 

clients Visual Thinking work with. From 

Levi’s and Harley-Davidson to Sainsbury’s 

and Wilko. It means developing instore 

guidelines in a way that provides a clear 

framework within which to work whilst 

giving people the freedom needed to 

make the store feel ‘human’. After all, no 

one is better placed to deliver the brand 

than the people on the shop floor

Cool Covers 

Image source: trésorparisien 

Music and bookstores are seeing a resurgence. The secret to 

challenging the threat of digital alternatives? A fresh take on a past hit – 

exploiting our love for physical things, and the physical places that sell them. 

Throughout the summer, millions of us will attend music festivals 

or pick up a book while on holiday. Seamlessly merging both 

a physical and virtual experience at the same time, each has 

the power to transport us somewhere else. Think of it in those 

terms and they are arguably the ultimate in Augmented Reality. 

In reality, music and bookstores stand as proud pillars of 

independence and defiance in today’s ‘always-on’ digital world, 

and our rediscovered love affair with books and vinyl records 

shows no sign of abating. 

Last summer, Sonia Rykiel’s upgraded Parisian flagship store 

featured floor-to-ceiling bookcases filled with more than 50,000 

books, and not a digital screen in sight. For others, books and 

vinyl are becoming the new coffee. Urban Outfitters features 

both, with lounge seating to let an entire generation that has 

never truly owned physical music sit and immerse themselves 

in something other than social media. 

9 


10 

Perhaps it is attention to detail that we 

value: the texture, the colour, the beauty 

of the cover and the care and quality that 

goes into them. It’s why album artwork is 

so revered, and why book publishers are 

investing so much in design to reimagine 

past classics. You absolutely can judge a 

book by its cover. Otherwise it’s just text. 

And you can get text free online. 

Whatever the reason, there’s renewed 

interest in the printed word. Fewer e-books 

are being turned on. Vinyl record sales 

are on the up, too – by 70% in 2016. So 

much so that there’s a good chance you 

will find your favourite 12” in your local 

supermarket. Yes, really. When Sainsbury’s 

announced that it was to start selling vinyls 

in 171 of its stores it became the biggest 

vinyl retailer on the high street. 

The demise of Borders, Tower Records 

and Virgin Megastores t(later Zavvi) from 

our high streets saw those of a certain 

generation wax lyrical about the beauty 

of thumbing through a great page-turning 

novel, or poring over the sleeve notes of 

the latest album release and the joy of 

popping a needle on a record. 

Surely though, there was no need to 

visit a physical shop? Online you can be 

surrounded by every book and musician 

imaginable, all accessible with a few 

taps of your finger. But with every waking 

hour seemingly spent ‘living’ on screen, 

more and more of us want to switch off. 

And we’re doing so by reconnecting with 

tangible, tactile experiences. In a world 

obsessed with instant gratification, more 

and more of us are realising that often it’s 

the ‘how’, and not just being able to have 

something when you want it, that delivers 

the pay off. 

more and more of us 

want to switch off 

This ‘awakening’ is seeing a new bread 

of stores, along with some old favourites, 

tapping into the emotional joy that we 

were perhaps too quick to abandon in our 

rush to ‘discover’ something new based 

on algorithms. Think Saraiva Bookstore in 

São Paulo, the Yan Ji You Book Store in 

China, or Tokyo’s imaginative Book and 

Bed Hostel. 

In many ways, achieving success in such 

niche markets could be seen as having 

to put principles before profit, but not so. 

Mainstream retailers like Waterstone’s are 

rediscovering and redefining their relevance 

– it announced last October that it was 

removing Amazon Kindle e-books from its 

stores. Its re-modelled Tottenham Court 

Road store is focused on creating a social 

destination for book lovers, with the instore 

environment and regular events connecting 

enabling the retailer to really connect with 

shoppers’ passion points. 

Now in its tenth year, Record Store Day 

is a worldwide celebration of independent 

record shops – a reminder of the 

eccentricities only found in real stores, and 

a clear sign that people still give a damn 

about good record shops. There is the 

enduring success of Reckless Record in 

Soho. It opened its doors in 1984 and is 

still going strong – proving that, like the 

power of the written word or a song, it’s 

not just about the product, but how you 

package it that makes all the difference. 

Just as some retailers in this sector got 

wrong-footed, so will others if they do 

not focus on how to make shopping the 

most enjoyable moment in your day. But 

those stores that get it right are testament 

to the value of creating physical, genuine 

and engaging retail experiences, delivered 

with sensitivity to the product and 

knowledgeable staff. As Waterstones’ boss 

James Daunt so perfectly summed up: 

“When you face oblivion, it forces you to 

look at what you’re doing and to do it a lot 

better.” Other sectors take note 


Summer Hit 

Glastonbury, mud and Hunters may headline 

in the minds of UK music festival lovers, but in Japan it’s 

all about Fuji Rock. This year, it marks 20 years as Asia’s 

premier music festival – the launch of Hunter’s first store 

in Tokyo couldn’t have been better timed. 

Visual Thinking Abroad 

Where we’ve been in 2016 

Louise McJannet 

Senior Retail Consultant 

@shoptactics_lm 

Jul 

Cologne 

11 Tokyo is a city of breathtaking efficiency 

implemented VM standards that Visual 

Jun 

Dubai 

Mexico City 

– the perfect place then for delivering VM 

Thinking has made its name delivering. 

launch support for a new flagship store, 

within a very precise timescale. 

After spending just a few days in the 

city’s Ginza district, I realised that 

the Japanese capital is a fascinating 

tangle of opposites; the store’s blend 

of handcrafted replica silver birch trees 

and mirror-clad walls – that reflect the 

contemporary-heritage feel of the Hunter 

brand so well – fits like a dream here. 

The Japanese have been soaking up all 

that classic British brands have to offer 

for many years now, and Hunter sees the 

country as one of the most important and 

exciting markets. 

Here, for me, perhaps more than anywhere 

else, those standards had a creative affinity 

with the city itself. Imposing and ordered 

but full of warmth, it’s a place that I quickly 

fell in love with while supporting Hunter’s 

store launch in Japan. 

Working closely with the Head of Brand 

and Marketing Manager, it’s already 

proved to be a busy summer for everyone 

at Hunter. Soon after arriving back from 

Japan, attention turned to supporting 

the launch of the brand’s festival pop-up 

within TopShop, and The World’s Smallest 

Festival inside a portable loo, right in the 

heart of its Regent Street store, as part of 

May 

Apr 

Mar 

Chicago 

Washington 

Marrakesh 

Rome 

Prague 

New York 

Hong Kong 

Tokyo 

Budapest 

Designed by Checkland Kindleysides 

in collaboration with Hunter creative 

director Alasdhair Willis – the same team 

its #BeAHeadliner campaign. The unique 

Hunter spirit and sense of humour once 

again displayed: at its very best 

Feb 

Barcelona 

Dublin 

responsible for its London flagship store 

– the multi-sensory retail experience 

showcases the Hunter Original footwear, 

outerwear and accessories collections, 

Jan 

Cologne 

Amsterdam 

alongside the Hunter Field performance 

collection. It also features the meticulously 


Great Escapes 

From the chaos and clamour of 

the Medina in Marrakesh to the heights of 

urban retail in Hong Kong, we round up the 

essential experiences worthy of your air 

miles right now. 

Hong Kong 

Space in Hong Kong is scarce – with 

vertigo-inducing skyscrapers, busy 

inhabitants and big brand retailers 

crammed into every square kilometre, 

and all fighting for attention, as our 

team discovered when we dispatched 

them to profile its streets and stores. 

Far from a place for the fainthearted, the 

pace of retail here is truly intensive – a 

combination of high footfall and speed 

of purchase. Hong Kong is arguably one 

of, if not the most established shopping 

metropolis of East Asia. But despite the 

size of its importance, it’s small. Order is 

therefore everything, especially instore – 

each one fitted out to the level you would 

expect within a large flagship store. 

12 


13 

Marrakech 

One of the reasons Marrakech attracts 

so many tourists is down to the fact that 

it taps into our sense of exploration and 

discovery. The ancient city of Marrakech 

seems a world away from the gleaming 

shopping capitals of London, Paris, 

Dubai or New York. The maze-like 

streets inside the Medina, the walled 

Old City of Marrakech, are filled with 

chaos and clamour. The markets are 

both curious and bizarre; a dense and 

dimly lit warren of ramshackle shops, 

grimy workshops and tiny kiosks that 

sit alongside luxury spas and boutique 

riads. Here good, bad and frankly 

awful traders sit side by side, with little 

thought given to structuring the stalls 

into anything that could create an easy, 

logical and cohesive customer journey. 

Looking at these kind of retail markets can 

open your eyes to fresh ideas in the same 

way that the latest shiny concept store in 

the west can. While I am not suggesting 

that retailers should become as ‘informal’ 

as the Medina, injecting a greater sense 

of freedom and discovery into the retail 

experience can be key to creating 

a more engaging customer journey 

instore. Despite our relentless quest for 

uniformity, brands should also consider 

ways in which they could lift some of their 

self-imposed restrictions. The appeal 

of discount supermarkets such as Lidl 

and Aldi lies not just in the fact that 

they offer low prices but also because 

customers can find interesting continental 

goods alongside their usual groceries. 

Make no mistake: when it comes to 

how you manage retail space, there is a 

fine line between delivering intrigue and 

confusion. So-called organised chaos 

might seem attractive but to do it well 

requires a highly considered approach 

and investment to develop clearly 

defined retail standards and policies. But 

introducing the kind of excitement that 

the Medina offers in a structured and 

consistent way, could make the overall 

experience in some UK retailers less stiff, 

stuffy and, ultimately, richer. Surely that’s 

what we all want, in way one or another 


Holiday Notes 

A summer break just wouldn’t 

be the same without some stimulating 

reading material. Wherever your travels 

take you off, why not take five minutes and 

catch up on what the Visual Thinking team 

has been up to, at home and abroad. 

14 

@karlmckeever 

— 

Easy to see why @mothercareuk is performing well again. 

Great #CX, VM instore. Here in @MallofEmirates 

M&S shares slump 47.5% in 2 days as city analysts seem 

generally underwhelmed by new plans to reinvigorate 

clothing & home #seenitallbefore 

Had a great day with clients working through action plans 

for their major #VM development programme starting soon 

#leisure 

Read my latest column about failure of @BHS_UK 

in @retailfocus magazine 

Good luck to the @shoptactics team @shoptatics_st 

@shoptactics_hb creating #VM magic for a 

#sportslifestyle brand in #MiltonKeynes tonight. 

Get on Board 

Here’s our shopping list of 

upcoming events, conferences and 

industry awards over the coming months 

to help you top-up your retail knowledge 

intake as the tan starts to fade. 

12—14 September 2016 

Paris Retail Week 

Porte de Versailles, Paris 

@shoptactics 

— 

Popping the big question. It’s #weddingseason 

@karlmckeever’s latest @retailfocus column: 

bit.ly/28QhhZ9 

13—15 September 2016 

International Retail Design Conference 

Le Westin Montreal, Canada 

Should Great Britain be rebranded ‘Bargain Britain’? 

Read our insight report: bit.ly/1OgwJxr 

Today @karlmckeever will be chairing the @RetailBulletin 

Customer Engagement Conference. Follow on #TRBce 

5 October 2016 

Retail HR Summit 2016 

Cavendish Conference Centre, London 

How to achieve in-store success when expanding 

internationally by @shoptactics_kk bit.ly/1rgMw4x 

Clearly defined zones & innovative touches add up 

to a shopper focused experience. Read more: 

bit.ly/1XQunHk 

12—13 October 2016 

Retail Congress Asia Pacific 

Mandarin Oriental, Kuala Lumpur 

Facebook Galleries 

24 November 2016 

VM and Display Awards 2016 

Bloomsbury, London 

Keep up to date with latest retail stories and images from 

our travels, as we showcase the global retail stars catching 

our eye. Like us and we’ll like you back! 


Highly Rated 

Before jetting off this summer, many of us will 

have first checked-in to explore online reviews. They raise 

many interesting points, including whether a comparable 

high profile retail site would be a good idea and how 

shoppers would rate store performance. 

15

16 

Kirsty Kean 

Senior Business Development Manager 

@shoptactics_kk 

Bustling, charming, memorable, or run 

down, noisy and disappointing? Plenty of 

us will be busily reading or writing reviews 

on some of the world’s favourite and notso-favourite 

summer destinations over the 

next few months. 

In an age when we seem willing to ‘share’ 

every aspect of our lives online, review 

websites and forums have become 

hugely popular. On the upside, websites 

such a TripAdvisor have provided a 

counterweight to the old cliché that 

people only leave feedback when they 

receive a bad experience. Though not 

always unbiased and constructive, 

millions of us do trust the content of 

reviews left on its site, or others like it. 

But it’s not entirely good news. It used 

to be said that a dissatisfied customer 

would tell up to ten people. Thanks to 

review websites that figure has multiplied 

into who knows how many – thousands, 

tens of thousands, millions even. 

What is certain is that they are now the 

perfect go-to destination for pre-purchase 

research or to vent a little post-purchase 

frustration. As such, both have become 

a useful and powerful weapon in the 

modern customers’ armoury. From hotel 

stays, to restaurant dining experiences 

and even taxi journeys, we increasingly 

vote with our fingers. 

Naturally, the ability to give ‘anonymous’ 

feedback is great news for us Brits. 

Rarely ones to openly complain, it has 

made many of us feel empowered to 

disconnect from the effects of saying 

what we really feel. Few of us consider 

the impact of shooting from the hip in 

the heat of the moment and giving a 

low rating. But there are consequences. 

Falling below a 4.5 rating puts Uber 

drivers at serious risk of being thrown off 

the network. Is that really the result we 

wanted when we tapped our rating? 

From hotel stays, to 

restaurant dining 

experiences and even 

taxi journeys, we 

increasingly vote with 

our fingers. 

Until now, retail stores have avoided 

this kind of high profile and very public 

online scrutiny. Yes, there are sites 

such as Reevo, that allow shoppers to 

share their experiences of retailers, but 

by comparison it is all very low key. So 

what if TripAdvisor were to branch out 

into reviews of stores: how would yours 

fare? How would visitors to your stores 

rate the brand experience; product 

presentation; ease of shop; customer 

service; or knowledge of store teams? 

The result would prove interesting, 

maybe even surprising. 

We’re going to stick our necks out a 

little here and say that perhaps retail 

needs such a high-profile equivalent 

of its own. Feedback from customers 

is a precious commodity and needs to 

be given a platform. Inertia can all too 

easily creep in. Good can all too quickly 

become viewed as ‘good enough’. More 

importantly, identifying accurate ways 

to quantify what’s working (and what’s 

not) across the retail experience acts as 

a useful aid to support internal calls for 

investment in future store improvement 

and employee engagement programmes. 

While a suitable platform for Like-ing 

stores, or not, may be still to come, 

retailers do at least already have the tools 

at their disposal to conduct objective 

reviews of their own. Focused on 

delivering actionable intelligence on what 

is happening instore, and the reasons 

why, visual brand audits use proven 

analytics to capture the data and visual 

evidence that matters. There can often be 

an imbalance of where time and resources 

are spent to help plans succeed in the 

longer term. High performing stores may 

require less ongoing investment to embed 

retail performance improvement than 

those where maintaining retail standards 

has historically proven a struggle. Audits 

provide the ‘proof’ – giving senior 

management the vital information they 

need to accelerate the pace of change 

based on truly inform decisions. 

Countless retailers have benefited from 

the value that in-depth visual brand audit 

reviews can provide. Few are better 

placed to conduct an independent, 

authoritative and comprehensive 

assessment of current brand delivery 

and store standards than Visual 

Thinking. Instore as in life, and so often 

holidays too, the destination may be 

the reason we travel, but it’s how we 

rate the journey that really matters 


17 

Winning Teams 

Retail success can live or die by how effectively teams deliver 

the physical brand experience instore. Creating a harmonious working 

environment is all well and good, but transforming retail performance 

demands full engagement and ultra efficiency. 


18 

Having someone on your back because 

teams are underperforming is one thing. 

But, literally, having someone on your 

back – over a 253.5 metre course – is 

quite another. Of all the sporting events 

that are taking place this summer, you 

will be forgiven if the annual World Wife- 

Carrying Championships pass you by. 

Each year, the event held in Sonkajärvi, 

Finland, attracts couples from around 

the world. Though it’s unlikely to ever 

become an Olympic sport, it is does 

serve as a particularly good example 

of the symbiotic relationship that exists 

between people, working together 

‘as one’, and enduring success. 

Marriage has always been seen 

as a stepping-stone to stability. A 

demonstration of what is possible 

when people with a shared interest and 

common goals unite – the starting point 

to inspire a better future, if you will. 

Taking the analogy a step further; marriage 

brings efficiency. Intuitive understanding, 

divided tasks, even finishing each other’s 

sentences. Regardless of the context – in 

the home, in sport, or instore, teams who 

work effectively with one another have the 

capacity for increased productivity. Find 

ways to ensure stores teams work more 

efficiently, and you will be more profitable. 

For retailers, it’s a simple equation. 

But as anyone who has ever been 

married, or taken part in team sports, 

will tell you; success requires clear 

communication and understanding of 

roles, responsibilities and expectations. 

Equally, that ‘truth’ applies instore. In 

reality, that requires retailers to rethink 

traditional approaches to engagement: 

buying in to the idea that real change can 

only start by securing real buy-in. In other 

words, winning hearts and minds. Teams 

will always perform well if they believe 

in what they are doing, and understand 

why. Just ask leading UK brands like O2, 

Sainsbury’s, Triumph Motorcycles, Big 

W in Australia, or any number of others 

we’ve worked with over the years. 

Simply leading people up the mountain (or 

carrying them round an obstacle course) 

is not enough. What’s really important 

is equipping people with the learning, 

development and communication tools 

they need to work well together and 

keep them at the top. That requires 

training to be made believable, practical, 

evidence-based and focused on common 

sense, using the power of the group to 

make it stick. Success means focusing 

employees’ attention to ensure they don’t 

just get the message – they ‘live’ it. 

There is a marked difference between 

telling people what to do, and getting 

them to a place where they themselves 

recognise what is the right thing to do. 

This is a crucial tipping point when store 

teams and senior management begin 

to see that getting it right delivers real 

performance improvement. It also has 

a magnetic effect on the relationship 

between the store and its customers 


Inflated 

Dreams 

With the Olympics on the horizon we 

travel to Brazil to take the temperature of a 

nation that’s currently experiencing its fare share 

of developments – from recessionary fears and 

the struggles of international brands, to a local 

retailer hoping they have their eye on the ball. 

19 


Rio’s preparations for the 2016 Olympics 

Cup four years ago. During day games, 

The retailer wasn’t tropicalized, and still 

were famously declared the ‘worst ever’ by 

shopping malls saw sales down 30%, 

isn’t – favouring a push-button roll out 

the IOC vice-president two years ago. But 

many stores reduced their working hours, 

of its US business instead of ensuring 

the run up to the Games for the country’s 

while staffing costs increased. In short, 

that VM, products and overall shopper 

retailers hasn’t gone smoothly either, to 

most brands were asking for the World 

experience reflect regional tastes, styles 

put it mildly. While the world may eagerly 

Cup to end. They will be hoping for better 

and shopper preferences. 

20 

be counting down to when the Olympic 

celebrations begin, in Brazil the samba 

mood has become somewhat muted, as 

the economy, and retail fortunes in the 

country continue to flounder. 

during the Olympics. 

In terms of managing large-scale 

infrastructure projects, Brazil will have 

learned many valuable lessons from 

hosting the world’s two biggest sporting 

One domestic success story is fashion 

retailer, Renner. Competing with the likes 

of Riachuelo, Marisa and C&A, it’s on an 

aggressive expansion drive and, so far, is 

bucking the downward economic curve. 

The fierce competition that will place 

tournaments so close to each other. But 

It plans to go from 283 stores to 450 

on the track in August will be nothing 

many international retailers in the country 

by 2021 – eyeing international growth 

compared to what’s already happening 

are still coming to terms with the cost of 

as a means of hitting those targets. Its 

instore. Last year, 100,000 retail stores 

their own mistakes in recent years. 

senior management team have chosen 

closed. Inflation and interest rates remain 

high, as does unemployment, while both 

the BRL and consumer confidence remain 

low. It’s led to Brazilian consumers to 

explore alternative purchase models such 

as sharing, rent and exchange, which 

allows them to still take advantage of the 

small pleasures of life, without the full 

cost of ownership. 

Shoppers waited anxiously outside 

Topshop when it opened its first store 

back in 2012, keen to see the collection 

at first hand. It was one of the first 

international fast fashion brands to 

arrive in Brazil that year. Fast forward to 

2016 and the brand has closed its last 

store, in São Paulo – the story behind 

its withdrawal once again throwing a 

to follow the lead of other large fashion 

chains, such as Zara, by identifying 

neighbouring countries with a similar 

profile to their customers. As a result, 

it will begin by crossing the border into 

Uruguay – opening two stores next year 

in Montevideo. 

It’s a welcome sign that, despite 

everything being far from perfect, there 

As for the major shopping mall 

spotlight on the challenges of operating 

really is much to be hopeful about. But 

developments that were built around 

international franchise agreements. 

hope alone will not bring success. The 

the optimism, investment and desire for 

regeneration that befitted the host of 

nation of both the World Cup and the 

Olympics: the accelerated growth had 

its price. Of 13,400 thousand stores 

launched between 2013 and 2015, 

approximately 6,000 remain unoccupied. 

US retailer Walmart has also struggled. 

When the brand first arrived, the message 

was clear: Walmart would streamroll the 

competition. Two decades later, however, 

the picture is very different. It remains 

in third position, behind Pão de Açucar 

and Carrefour. As is often the case, 

retail winners in Brazil, like the athletes 

themselves, will be those who play the 

long game – putting the time, effort 

and energy in day after day, so they 

can deliver a strong and consistent 

performance on the big stage 

To make matters worse, retailers enjoyed 

Walmart’s problems can be put down 

little direct benefit from hosting the World 

to a failure to adapt to the local market. 


Track 

Performance 

As in sport, live performance monitoring can 

be fundamental to retail success. From back to front 

of store, new innovative digital tools are reshaping 

approaches to VM standards, improving both efficiency 

and team development. 

Being able to perform consistently at 

the highest level is what marks out 

the great from the good. As in sport, 

live performance monitoring instore 

can be fundamental to both retailer 

success and team development. 

Today’s sporting elite continues to 

invest significant time and energy in 

technology to monitor performance. 

Often displayed on iPads in real-time, 

the information that is now available can 

give both individuals and teams a truly 

competitive edge. But the importance of 

speed and accuracy is not just confined 

to the track. It can also be the difference 

between efficiently delivered retail 

standards, and poor store performance. 

Performance data has been a huge 

part of retail for a long time. When it 

comes to analysing shopper and sales 

data, the tech and know-how behind 

it can be baffling to all but a few. But 

new VM Apps are now also help to 

deliver performance improvements 

in a way that is both accessible 

and measurable to the masses. 

21 


Too often, technology has focused 

on collecting data on what happens, 

without looking at informing how it 

happens. For those obsessed with 

making improvements in everything they 

do, a new breed of interactive digital 

tools are enabling retailers to fine-tune 

their own tactics around hitting instore 

compliance targets – assisting task 

sequencing, tracking activities and 

ensuring store teams are performing 

in the most efficient way possible. 

The digital tool has allowed store teams 

to focus and align with each other and 

the retailer to support the implementation 

of minimum store standards. Covering 

everything from back to front of store, 

it provides comprehensive store 

guidelines in a format that can be easily 

referenced – featuring a mix of policy 

information, 360˚ store photography, 

motion graphics and video content 

delivered through a stimulating, 

enhanced online user experience. 

Compliance with store 

standards has risen 

from 58% to over 82% 

22 

Although VM policies and manuals may 

set out desired performance benchmarks 

and provide ‘the detail’, it’s a recognised 

fact that simply having access to 

information does not always lead to being 

more effective. The most important part 

is being able to present the information 

in a format people can work with. A lot of 

people are visual learners, making stepby-step 

iPad based tools the right choice 

for engaging large numbers of store staff. 

Brands such as O2 are using innovative 

digital solutions in very practical, useful 

ways, to help store teams monitor and 

drive instore compliance. Launched in 

2015, its ‘Love what you do – Visual 

Excellence’ digital tool was designed to 

increase the participation and motivation 

of stores teams to implement and 

consistently maintain the highest levels 

of VM and store standards – across all 

fixtures, displays, windows, service areas 

and stockrooms. 

Iamge: O2 Visual Excellence tool 

Completed daily by teams within 

each store, its introduction has been 

credited with stimulating greatly 

improved store presentation across 

the O2 retail estate. Thanks to the 

tool, compliance with standards has 

risen from 58% to over 82%. 

Results are paramount. Though 

anyone who thinks performance can 

be reduced to an App is probably 

deluding themselves. Technology can 

modify behaviour, but as any sports 

performance coach will tell you, how 

well people understand and apply 

what technology is telling them is 

what can make all the difference 


Relay Race 

With shoppers able to order that 

must-have item at the swipe of a button, 

could the race to get goods into the hands 

of shoppers see brand delivery stumbling 

over the line? 

BR 

A 

ND 

Lit in Greece back in April, the Olympic 

Effective brand delivery used to be 

you know so well – are typically missing. 

23 

torch will have been carried by 12,000 

relatively straightforward to crack. Not 

And although retailers may have strict 

torchbearers through 329 Brazilian cities 

only did you have experts like Visual 

contractual requirements in place with 

by the time it arrives in Rio this summer. 

Thinking to deliver group workshops and 

courier companies in terms of SLAs 

The Torch Relay is perhaps the ultimate 

large-scale learning events to embed the 

concerning ‘hard’ elements – the most 

example of effective brand delivery – 

message of why effective brand delivered 

cost effective, the most efficient – a 

consistently presenting the Games and 

matters, but for retailers there was also a 

lack of understanding on the part of 

its values to millions of people wherever 

singular focus on the store. 

the provider and, most importantly, the 

they may see it, despite passing through 

person on the customers’ doorstep 

countless hands. 

around ‘softer’ requirements of brand 

Sadly, not every exchange goes quite as 

smoothly. Just ask the 2004 US men’s 

4x100m relay team – it cost them a Gold 

medal at the Olympics in Athens. On 

paper they had the fastest feet. They 

were just cursed with bad hands. 

Requirements of brand 

experience can often result 

in a failure to deliver the 

brand promise 

experience can often result in a failure 

to deliver the brand promise, and in so 

doing disappoint customers. Get it wrong 

and shoppers could call into question the 

trust and positivity that has been so hard 

earned by the brand. 

Developments in home delivery services 

mean that retailers are now in a relay 

race of their own. Delivery by drone 

may be one step closer to take off with 

Amazon Prime Air, but it’s likely to be a 

few years until it eventually becomes the 

mainstream route of choice. Until that day 

arrives, retailers continue to rely on more 

conventional methods of passing goods 

from store (or warehouse) to customers’ 

But the touchpoints have fractured 

and you ignore this emerging and 

all-important stage at your peril. 

With shoppers able to buy online for 

home delivery, responsibility for not 

only the goods but also the brand 

experience at the final point of delivery 

is in their hands. Here, the familiar (and 

Simply delivering a brand’s products is not 

always enough, without the experience 

having the same ‘feel’. Does that mean 

third party providers should receive 

training in what it means to deliver a 

retailer’s brand in a way that lives up 

to and reflects its DNA? Think of it as if 

there was a parcel carrying your brand’s 

reputation and you have your answer: 

‘Fragile: Handle with Care’ 

homes – third party couriers. 

reassuring) hallmarks – everything that 

confirms you will ‘experience’ the brand 


Services 

If you’ve not experienced the 

benefits of Visual Thinking before, here are 

a few ways you can increase your retail 

performance even further. 

24 

Digital Learning Tools 

To hold our attention, learning tools must 

be engaging and easy to understand. 

Our range of digital learning tools are just 

that. Presented in a user-friendly format, 

they can be used as a standalone learning 

resource or form part of a complete training 

solution. Flexible and cost-effective, they 

can cover a range of subjects including 

store presentation, policy implementation, 

product launches, seasonal events and 

customer service training. 

VM & Retail Training 

To make a real difference instore you need 

to invest where it matters most – winning 

the hearts and minds of your people. 

That way, you can bring about lasting 

change, and ensure the brand experience 

is presented to shoppers as you intended 

– in every store, every day. From group 

workshops through to self-learning and 

one-to-one coaching, our engaging, easily 

digestible training helps people to gain 

essential knowledge skills, so they can 

recognise what good looks like and, most 

importantly, buy into why it matters. 

Visual Brand Audits 

Making lasting improvements to retail 

strategy and VM delivery starts by 

precisely identifying the issues that may 

be limiting your stores’ potential. Our 

Visual Brand Audits provide a detailed 

assessment of what’s happening 

instore. And, just as importantly, the 

reasons why. We provide an expert 

critique of current store operations, 

customer service and retail standards, 

supported by statistical, photographic 

and comment-based findings. 

VM & Retail Policy and Manuals 

When existing VM policy just doesn’t cut it, 

how about reinvigorating your stores with 

best-in-class retail presentation? You’ll 

be surprised by the difference we make. 

Stores will be easier and more enjoyable 

places to shop, with products presented 

to maximise space and sales potential. 

We work across all market sectors – 

giving your brand access to cutting-edge 

presentation and display techniques. 


Success: Licked 

The journey to retail performance improvement 

is never far away with Visual Thinking by your side. Come 

and visit our website to find out more. 

Have we met? 

Join us online for retail best practice on the go, as 

we bring you the latest news, reviews, insights and 

images from our VM travels around the world. 

VT 

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Visual Thinking 

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