"Consumer Reports"

1. What points from this article do you feel are most important?
2. How much do you personally feel you are influenced by a store’s design?
3. Make a check list you could use to analyze a retail store like Paco Underhill does

1. The main points in this article all involve a shoppers tendencies, and a stores attempt to manipulate them. The article begins with Paco Underhill and his attempts to study consumers via video tape and staff inside of stores. He believes in shopping concepts like the invariant right, and the butt-brush theory, because he has tape that shows its relevance. The article then goes on to question if we should fear Paco Underhill and people like him as they are manipulating the consumer to buy things they may not normally buy. The article then goes on to the study of consumers and what they are predisposed to purchase. After answering a short survey, one could tell you the basic tendencies you have when you shop. This process is called typing. However, everyone is influenced by outward opinion. So ones preconceived notions about a product and their original tendency to buy it can be influenced by an outward source known as a market maven. The article describes this Market Maven as a person who knows a great amount about different products and is not shy in giving you their opinion. So not only knowing what one thinks, but also what their Maven thinks is important to these “typists.” Two more points that the article focuses on are the gender gap, and the environment of a store. Starting with the gender gap, it is just as one would expect; women shop longer than men. Women are still the main consumer in America so many stores market their environments to them. The environment of a store is usually targeted to women, but in some cases it is also adjusted to be pleasing to men. Simple things, such as the placement of accessories near the exit for men, so they can grab them on the way out, or the pre-placed matching ties so that when one buys a shirt, a tie that already matches is waiting for him too. These are simple changes a store can make, but many stores go above and beyond this. They stop creating a store and begin creating an environment. They want the consumer to want to be in the store first, and then worry about clothing. The store should be a place the consumer wants to be. The last point the author makes relates to the workings of Walter Whyte. He stands true to the statement that the all of our actions are related in one sense or another. He believes that the greatest attraction to a place is other people, and he also believes that there is a type of subconscious interaction between body language when in public. He does not know what causes what, or why it occurs but he believes it exists.

2. I am somewhat influenced by a store’s design based on an experience that I recently had. I went into a Rheul store the other day. I had never before entered this store or any of their other stores anywhere else. The store front was a brick building with a rout iron fence. I walked in and there was a greeter and to the immediate left a men’s living room. I walked up the flight of stairs in front of me and found a hallway. Rooms lined both sides of the hallway full of clothing targeted for my gender and age. The music was somewhat loud, lighting somewhat dull, but for the most part I liked the atmosphere. It was as if I wanted to just hang out there. Silly as it sounds, this caused me to spend more time in this store than any of the others.

3. Location
Decompression zone
Product Placement
Time in store
Products purchased per visit
Number of customers
Target demographic attracted?