Intimo più mare n° 200 - Luglio 2015

ENGLISH TRANSLATION
it known that you understand, that you realize what the customers
are looking for. More than making an immediate sale, this is the
overarching goal. The customers want to be understood. The most
important skill is to give the impression that you truly understand what
you are doing, and that you also understand the particular needs
of the customer you are currently dealing with. You should give the
impression that you are dealing with an important individual and not
just another customer. Dedication is a key concept in this formula:
you have to be ready to dedicate time, attention and care.
Someone who is willing to dedicate time just to you. Devoted only to
you. In order that you can devote attention to yourself. Customized
attention. Both from the sales person and the customer toward herself.
Indeed, she knows herself and what she wants. I know myself and
what I want. The perfect saleswoman identifies with you and is able
to put herself in your shoes.
COURTESY AND KNOW-HOW
“Courtesy and skill”
Courteous skill and skillful courtesy. Being knowledgeable, but without
flaunting it. Provide tips as if you were divulging a secret. It’s crucially
important to be served in a friendly manner. A good sales person is
someone who advises, but without being insistent. Never vaunt your
knowledge in a superior, pushy way, making the customer feel silly
and incompetent. Experience and the brand are important, making
it possible to establish a dialogue with the customer, understanding
her needs and guaranteeing that what the brand stands for is valid,
but without coming off as a precious know-it-all. It’s not a question
of age; skill is a matter of genuine passion. The women participating
in the focus groups stated that they had found young sales people
who were highly competent and clearly doing their job with genuine
passion and dedication. Remember that the term craft implies having
mastered a skill. Courteous skill amounts to an added value of the
product, opening the way to a more rewarding dialogue; but, above
all, it constitutes a friendly database and the customer knows she
can rely on it.
THE MIRROR OF THE CUSTOMER
“Multiple personalities”
We’re not referring to a pathology, but rather the ability to amaze and
surprise. The store is the mirror of the customer and the customer
reveals herself in this mirror. The customer wants the mirror to reflect
her, but also to reveal new aspects of her personality. Finding the courage
to be daring means, first of all, having the courage to be oneself.
The store has to be able to provide a customer with the courage to
be her true self, happy with herself, thrilled with the uniqueness and
exceptional qualities with which each and every woman is endowed.
But it’s nice to be beautiful both inside and outside, to be able to
surprise and be surprised oneself, to change and allow someone else
to assist in the adventure of that changing process. Even if it means
we eventually only return to be who we always were. A store has
to be able to offer the opportunity for multiplying one’s personality,
enabling a woman to be a thousand different women, even if she
basically remains true to her own character. The secret lies in being
able to maintain the secret, revealing the genuine self only to those
who deserve to behold it. It’s all about playing with identity.
DIFFERENT ZONES
“Divide the store into different areas”
Regardless of the store’s size, be sure and divide it up into different
areas. In order to impress and appeal to different customers. To avoid
that women simply come in. It’s not a question of divide and conquer
and not even brand, product or target segmentation. An effective store
is a mosaic of symbols which conspire to reflect the multifaceted
image of a customer. A woman has to be able to maintain or change
her image of herself, therefore she has to be able to maintain or
change the mirror. Dividing a store means creating numerous facets.
It means saying to the customer: just look at how many women you
can be while, all the time, remaining true to yourself. And if you only
want to be yourself, look at how many delightful ways you have for
doing so. Once you have divided up the shop, that ‘just look’ has to
become signals, tests, images which communicate to the customer
that here she is who she wants to be. That particular sector, partition,
division, that world. In the end, there refers to the entire store as a
whole. And for the woman it becomes her store.
DARE TO SPLURGE
“Give yourself a little verve”
Coined as a recommendation for stores, actually it’s the need which
a store has to try to satisfy: make it possible for the customers to
give themselves a little verve. Color, vivacity, seduction which serve,
above all, to seduce the customers. Verve, life, vitality. It’s amazing
how much this little phrase actually says: give, give to yourself, from
yourself, freely and sincerely a little, a touch, a tiny bit (recalling the
touch of the magic wand) of verve, in other words, a touch of life.
The etymology of this term is itself surprising, referring primarily to
knowing how to express oneself with vivacity.
A BREAK
“A cup of coffee”
A break, a moment of rest, repose, like enjoying a quiet cup of coffee.
A break or interruption in the daily routine. In contemporary
Italian political jargon one would speak in terms of an expression of
discontinuity. Let’s imagine a cup of coffee in the context of an office
break. Or when we stop to grant ourselves the pleasure of eating a
piece of chocolate candy. These are necessary interruptions which
enable us to continue, to get on with our lives. Visiting a store can be
seen in these same terms, i.e. not related to a specific concrete need
for something, but rather to satisfy a need for no other reason than
following an inner urge. Going into a store satisfies a non-materialistic
need, i.e. one that not necessarily results in the purchase of something.
But cultivating this need on the part of the store lays down
the groundwork for building customer loyalty. It’s a sort of reverse
strategy: build a personal, cordial, intimate and friendly relationship
which is not based on having convinced someone to buy a specific
product. This type of strategy is especially effective as it can be used
for any type of product.
UNCONSTRAINED SHOPPING
“Moving about freely”
This doesn’t just depend on the size of a given store and not even the
opportunity to wander around without being hassled by a gaggle of
store clerks pestering you about what you are looking for. It’s a genuine
emotional need that customers (women) have. “I’m going out for a
stroll” implies a mental phenomenon as much as a physical action.
It’s similar the idea of taking a break, taking a journey and the need
to be free of hassles and confusion. But this metaphor for freedom
contains a direct link with basic, simple personal movement: take a
walk, take a stroll, amble about, wander around, ramble, take the air
without a thought, enjoy a leisurely constitutional and so on and so
forth. A store represents an opportunity, a means and a context for
this type of activity (or, rather, need). It should be understood that we
are referring to a mental meandering: a sense of freedom, therefore
not depending on the size or dimension of the store. For example: a
stroll along the beach at sunset, where the boundless freedom of the
open sea meets the limitations of the land, by oneself or accompanied,
the sensations, sounds and fragrances. One must think like this.
A MOMENT RESERVED JUST FOR ONESELF
“If you want to give yourself a gift”
It’s a gift one gives to oneself. Even if it only means strolling into
a shop. It’s the sort of activity that has no practical end. An act of
pampering oneself, caressing oneself, complementing oneself and
indulging oneself. “Thanks to a little gift to myself if fee pampered”.
It’s a sort of vindication, sometimes even a vendetta, frequently a
compensation, always a gratification. It’s a way of saying thank you
to yourself (when the person who really should do so neglects to).
Sometimes it is triggered by feeling at a loss, feeling hurt or unhappy,
but often it is simply a spontaneous gift made to oneself. In the latter
instance, the if you want plays a larger role in this activity than the
gift itself; the important, crucial and determining point is to grant
oneself a gift. It’s an affirmation of emotional and affective autonomy,
not necessarily caused by a lack of something needed or desirable.
If you want (freedom) to give yourself (relationship with oneself, rec-