Driving Retail

Digital Mannequin, screens in the window, digital signage a point of purchase, all should do more than display if you want return on your investment.

This video illustrates how the window display attracts attention, while larger in-store screens demonstrate specific sales promos.  This method creates the excitement of dynamic motion-display, attracting customers' eyes and attention, motivating them to initial action (coming in the store,) then to buying action (promotional offer at point of purchase.)  At this point, a "customering" offer can be made, text or QR coupon redeemable with the next purchase, or other reward-based promotion.

The important thing is to always include a trackable, measurable call to action.  This is where creating that engaging, dynamic customer experience is possible, where the opportunity to create and strengthen a bond in one single line of messaging and action.

Powerful!  And profitable.  Get your systems, images and messages coordinated and keep them moving in a business-oriented direction.  That's where the money is.  That's where the provable power and life-pulse of Digital Signage is.

Road to ROI

Return on Investment, or ROI, is how every investment decision in capital equipment, marketing materials, signage, is made by those who approve expenditures.

An objective is determined, a value assigned to that investment, and then some effort at due diligence in securing the best price (cost-effective) for that investment/purchase.

Someone determines that display and signage is necessary, someone identifies a budget, and then investments are made according to budget.  When a new type of investment (in new technology) for signage or display comes under consideration, then the process begins anew for that particular investment.  Perceived, and actual value are debated and assessed, not always from a fully-informed perspective, but usually some effort is expended in that direction.

The vendor does their best to convey the indispensability of their product; usually from a features/benefits standpoint, but not always in the terms or language that the potential investor uses.  This is a key marketing and sales function:

"What will this investment do for me?" asks the potential buyer.

In the best possible scenario, the seller of the product has informed themselves diligently on the buyer's needs and valuation method, and can answer, "Here's how much this will make you/save you, over --- period of time."  They articulate the value of the product in clear financial terms, and THEN restate the practical or functional values and features.

ROI gives the client/buyer the permission to invest in your product.

Window Video Systems (WVS) have clear, broad and deep ROI potential:

Display more of the client's product in a more dynamic, useful, attractive way than ever before.  Never before has a retailer or business been able to display or demonstrate ALL of their products directly ON their storefront window, in full color and motion repeating the message.  Never have they been able to repeat multiple or different kinds of messages, and especially, selling propositions, whether it be SALE, or pricing incentives, or other types of value propositions, or promotion of upcoming opportunities to the customer.  WVS allows for interactive engagement with the viewing traffic, via QR or text to mobile device.  WVS can drive traffic:  both foot traffic in-store, or traffic to the Web, or to e-commerce portal.  In the process, WVS can allow stores to "capture" viewers via engagement.

WVS is transformative.  It has the potential to enable the retailer or other commercial business to transform how they communicate with customers with more immediacy and more depth.

Always look for ways to articulate and specify value to your OOH displays, to demonstrate ROI.  It is the key to purchase approval.  How does your OOH display provide ROI?

POS Engagement

Customer experience, featuring interactivity (most commonly touch) is the coming thing in the retail industry.  And rightly so.

Brick and mortar retail has the advantage over online retail in that they can provide a superior experience.  After all, online can only provide so much, and all of it "virtual".  But brick and mortar can provide "real" and people are hungering for ever more "real" experiences.  Actual engaging interaction at the Point Of Sale (POS) is a huge distinction and advantage that the brick and mortar store can offer. Apple stores, Microsoft stores, AT&T's new interactive store, and even places like Cabela's and Bass Pro Shops are all great examples of retail POS engagement.  The places that do it really well are destinations.  You love going there.  They keep it real and relevant.

Digital Signage can assist greatly in this POS engagement.  Text campaigns, QR campaigns, Social Media campaigns, even simple signage promo campaigns that drive the viewer to interact in some distinct way with the store, its product or its personnel are all strategies that need to be employed via digital signage.  Please don't stop with mere signage messaging; get that powerful DS or DOOH system working to engage people, especially customers, to add value, to enhance that vital (personal) business relationship.  Every personal interaction you create enhances the relationship in so much more powerful a way than a "like" or a share.

You have the tools; step out of the box, figuratively and literally.  Work on new ways to use your DS, especially Window Video Systems, to engage!

Projecting the Future

Projected Digital Signage has been around now for sometime, and companies throughout the world are taking advantage of night time hours to continue to promote their businesses and and message in provocative and effective ways.

Projected Digital Signage uses projection to transform window space into a digital screen for advertising and display purposes.  People are only just starting to scratch the surface of this powerful, flexible, and affordable signage option.

In the past, there were technical issues making such displays less effective, but today most of those issues have been or are being addressed with better performing screens, projectors and management systems.

The real issues now are more mundane and practical in nature:  who the heck is going to integrate all this stuff and manage the content?  Who is going to strategize?  Do we have to hire someone to run this?  Do we have to train someone to be able to use this?

At this point in time, these issues are not fully answered, except through companies that are integrators with more marketing expertise and familiarity with the medium.  (Looknglas Window Video Systems would be an example.)  But we're getting closer.  And the power to leverage images to move products and people, to connect, to integrate brick and mortar retail sales with online sales and marketing, is rapidly coming to fruition via DOOH, and in this case, projected digital signage.

It's Customer Experience, Stupid!

20 years ago or so, Dick Morris reputedly uttered the famous words to a campaigning Bill Clinton, "It's the economy, stupid!"

Something similar, albeit a little more complex, could be said to retailers the world over.

Online retailing has certainly changed the retail game, but brick and mortar retailers still have the opportunity to flex their power over online purchasing via the age-old method:  Customer experience.

It's the Customer Experience, stupid!

Hellooo retailers!  Are you listening?  There are 4 other senses to address, to sell, besides just visual, and sometimes audio (online.)  There are taste, touch, smell, and the overall sensory experience of being in the modern marketplace.  People still want to have more than just a "virtual experience".  That has been proven in spades, vis a vis, Apple stores.

You have the advantage, the upper hand!  Use what's at your disposal:  DOOH, in all its forms.
Lots of talk is swirling around mobile, and mobile commerce, but DOOH is a medium that can tie other media together, such as mobile and online.  It can, and should, all integrate.  There is far more than just putting LCD screens, or video walls, or interactive projected displays to work.  Far, far more.  Use your locations, and your DOOH to drive traffic, to introduce new selling propositions, to drive mobile (QR, and especially text coupons, offers and promos.)

Adoption comes in fits and starts.  DOOH must continue to make itself more retail-available.  This means both pricing and ease of implementation, management, everyday use.

Being very self-serving, I offer window video systems as a great example.  Messages, writ large, directly on the front window, displaying and then offering a sales proposition.  Intriguing, and then enticing (text coupons, POS promo offers.)  So much is available, so many possibilities.  Get with a strategic integrator and get your strategy going.  The ability to drive traffic and measurable ROI is here, and it can be very cost effective.  The only time DOOH fails in terms of ROI, is when the objectives are not clearly defined, and the method for achieving ROI not executed well.

If you have a great selling proposition, get it up there on DOOH and watch the sales in your brick and mortar store climb!  DOOH allows the power and flexibility to create both an intriguing customer experience, and a satisfying purchasing experience as well.  Combining the two is the key to the coming brick and mortar retail revival.

Don't Send a Boy to do a Man's Job

There is an old proverb that says that sending a message by the hand of a fool is like cutting off your own feet.

This is equally true when you blindly trust your messaging (digital signage content) to whoever, delegating to a third-party service or a lower-level employee, leaving that all-important strategic job to someone with no vested interest or motivation for the profit-producing necessity of your message.

Your message is what people will think of you.
Your message is all people know about what you want them to do.
Your message (including your display) is the primary information a prospective customer has, in order to make a buying decision!

Why would you delegate that?  The classic thing business people do is to neglect their message, in favor of "getting things done".  Well, you ain't gonna get much done without customers buying, and they're not going to buy unless you convince them with your message in all its facets.

When I walk through a mall, or surf online, I want to know why I should buy.  I want to know what you're offering.  I want to know what's better about your product, or offer.  I want to know if you know what you're doing or if you're fly-by-night.  I want to know what kind of value I'm getting.  I want to know what's in it for me.

Too often, when you delegate your company messaging, those questions don't get answered, and then you don't sell as much, or make as much, because you delegated your messaging to someone who doesn't understand or value your priorities.

Digital Signage ISN'T ABOUT THE HARDWARE, the screens, the software, the brightness, etc.  Those are all important, but only in that they are a part of delivering YOUR MESSAGE effectively!  If you use DS or DOOH, then watch your messaging carefully, measure it, and revise it, hone it, until it performs.  Watch it like a hawk, and use it to produce measurable results!  Devise a method (I'm not telling you to run out and buy more equipment or software) for tracking, measuring, and understanding the results of your display system.  DS and DOOH are money-making machines when properly implemented.

Your DS messaging is a job that, if you do delegate it, you must oversee carefully and demand a result from.  DS and DOOH are extremely powerful tools, but make sure they are used to the effect you desire.

We advocate a direct selling proposition and call to action, the result of which can be tracked exclusively to your DS or DOOH display, and measured.  For example, if you provide a text coupon, be sure that it is tracked accurately.  Don't just throw a video loop on there and forget about it.  Make sure that message looks how it is supposed to look, gets where it is supposed to go, and does what you intend it to do.

Retail Marketing After Dark

There's nothing better than a business marketing tool that works for you, even when you're not around. When the retail store closes, there is still traffic passing by that can and should be marketed to.

After hours, or night time, is prime time for using your storefront for marketing. Using a Window Video System (WVS) by Looknglas to animate and bring your storefront windows to life works BEST after dark. Better contrast, no competing with the internal store displays, reaching target audience even when the store is closed can make a huge difference. How about advertising tomorrow's sale? How about promoting your website or Social Media marketing site? How about inviting them to use their phone to download your mobile coupon? There are so many ways to use WVS after dark to continue to market and literally SELL your products.

What did Clapton say? "After midnight, we're gonna let it all hang out!" You've got the brick and mortar location and that window space---use it to make money!

Revitalizing Retail

For the last three years, brick and mortar retailers have been up against it. With this ridiculous double-dipping economic recession, combined with increasing competition from online retailers, and consumers spending less, it has been tough, tough, tough.

Retail needs a shot in the arm.

Window Video Systems (WVS) in the form of Digital Windows and especially, Digital Mannequin, represent a watershed opportunity to put a lot of excitement back into the shopping experience.

"Live" models, directly on the glass, there one moment, gone the next, replaced with an in-the-moment sales promo message, offer, or text coupon offer.

WVS does, attraction, display, direct marketing, store hours, whatever type of message the retailer needs. The ability to change you message right on the front of your store, as many times as you wish, is here. Posters? Passe. LCD screens? Got a tv at home. Mannequins? Missed that.

But color, moving images right on the window glass? Awesome, intriquing, irresistable. When designers and retailers realize they can do a mini-fashion show right on the chains' storefront windows, all across the chain, it will revolutionize the mentality of display. Get ready for the fun, and get ready to start making more money. WVS by Looknglas: the Window of Opportunity is Here.