VMSD - July 2013 - (Page 20)

S PE CI A L REPORT : VISUAL M ERC HA N DISIN G TR E N DS Brand Ambassadors Young visual merchandisers are integrating social media and design. By Steve Kaufman, Editor-at-Large There’s a new generation of visual merchandisers who’ve grown up with iPhone apps, social media, texting and tweeting. And they’re bringing this knowledge to in-store life, with exciting programs that bridge the world of mannequins and window displays with the world of digital technology. Gina Mercatili, 23, is part of that generation, a recent graduate of the visual merchandising program at the LIM College in New York. She’s working as merchandising coordinator at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. This is not, however, some compromise position for a young visual merchandiser until the tough job market improves. What Mercatili does – promoting the brands of the Barclays Center, the borough of Brooklyn, the National Basketball Association’s Brooklyn Nets, Brooklyn Boxing and Brooklyn Hoops (plus the National Hockey League’s Islanders in 2015) – is a perfect window into what visual merchandising has become today. An increasing number of today’s young professionals see their job as strategic marketing, promoting the essence of their brand, whether it’s a department store chain, a line of apparel or a sports venue in a borough desperate for national recognition since the Dodgers baseball team fled town 55 years ago. They don’t see it as selling a sweater, they see it as selling an idea. And the young practitioners who are doing the work tend to agree. “Visual is no longer just about what product you’ve decided to put on your focal ‘third window’ 20 JULY 2013 | vmsd.com table, but what story you want to tell,” says 34-yearold Faith Bartrug, owner of Faith Bartrug Design (Columbus, Ohio). For Mercatili, that story is the return of major league sports to “I-Get-No-Respect” Brooklyn, which, after all, would be the fourth-largest U.S. city if it were not part of New York – there are 2.5 million people for whom the borough is not simply an address but an identity, an emotional connection. Her first assignment was the arena’s kickoff marketing campaign, called “My Borough is Thorough.” Mercatili worked to oversee the introduction of a line of community-centric T-shirts that called out “Hello Brooklyn,” “Hello Flatbush,” “Hello Bed Stuy,” “Hello Coney Island” and several other neighborhood references. And while Mercatili was busy driving consumer acceptance of products and developing planograms for her two Nets stores, one at the Barclays Center and one in Coney Island, she was also using today’s all-important digital technology and social media. “During the NBA playoffs in the spring, I ordered shirts that said #helloplayoffs,” she says, “and invited people to text ‘shirt’ for a chance to win a free one. That allowed us to grow our digital fan base and follow up with retail-specific team news blasts.” She used HTML to design emails with trackable links so she could measure how many people clicked http://www.vmsd.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of VMSD - July 2013

VMSD - July 2013
Contents
From the Editor
Vmsd Editorial Advisory Board
The Goods
Design Detail
Brand Ambassadors
Visual Edge
Chambers of Fashion
Fertile Ground
Showroom
Showroom
Ad Index
Checking Out

VMSD - July 2013