Stores Magazine - October 2007 - (Page 26) EXECUTIVE SUITE / DIGITAL SIGNAGE It’s the Message, Not the Medium Mass customization will make digital signage more effective BY FIONA SOLTES here was a time, as retail lore would have it, that individual customer preferences were handwritten on notecards or tucked into binders. It allowed for a personalized experience every time that customer walked into the store – and that, in turn, bred loyalty and repeat visits. points out that umbrellas are in aisle three. “Unlike a static sign, which is basically ignorant of who’s looking at it, digital signage offers the ability to consider CRM data, demographics and even the weather to deliver – in theory – the right message to the right person at the right time,” says Steven Keith Platt, director of the Platt Retail Institute. “That will have a major impact on the buying process.” These days, however, our technology-crazed society offers Digital signage remains an emerging technology and, therenew options for “mass customization” and digital signage tops fore, has yet to reach its full potential in connecting store with the list. But for those electronic messages to be truly effective, consumer. It also has yet to fully blossom as a tool for building many say, they’ll have to outgrow their somewhat annoying brand equity and improving the in-store experience. adolescence. Platt would like to see metrics that delineate just how effecIt’s easy enough to imagine the scene: You’re standing in line tive the use of digital signage is. And he’s not alone: Retailers considering such investments would also like to see clear ROI. at a store, and there’s a flat-panel screen nearby. It’s playing an Todd Eastman is manager of experience media for Best Buy. advertisement about an item in the store, the same national ad His team produces “just about anything you see in one of our that you’ve seen at home on TV — only now it’s louder, closstores that moves or makes a sound,” and he equates brand eqer and you can’t change the channel. uity with “a customer’s perceived value of a product or service Worse yet, the ad is on a three-minute loop, and since you’ve based on name, image, characteristics and personal preferbeen waiting for more than five minutes … here it comes again. ences.” At this point, are you likely to have a positive association with the store, the brand or the experience as a whole? The challenge, then, is not just measuring effectiveness; it’s Hardly. Instead of offering a personalized, relevant interalso figuring out exactly what “effective” means. “Each one change, the digital signage did just the opposite – and it may of us rates those characteristics differently depending on what’s important to us,” Eastman says. “The have been enough to make you want to shop Digital signage tricky part is, how do you develop someelsewhere in the future. remains an emerging thing that caters directly to me? Or to Now consider an alternate scenario: Even technology and has you?” though you’re shopping at a big-box retailer, yet to reach its In the case of a single-brand rea screen catches your eye when it displays the full potential in tailer (Apple, Nike), it could scores from your child’s neighborhood soccer connecting store league. Not only that, but it shows the local with consumer be easy to tie that brand to weather, and since rain is in the forecast, it a related event using T 26 STORES / OCTOBER 2007 WWW.STORES.ORG http://WWW.STORES.ORG
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