Stores Magazine - December 2007 - (Page 57)

team began holding brainstorming sessions across the country. Everyone from tire technicians to vice presidents was included, all with the goal of gathering ideas that would be fast, practical and cost-free to implement. The initial list of 829 proposals was eventually sifted down to 36. At that point, they included things like follow-up calls to customers, market-specific store hours, female clerks and part-time staffing on Sundays. Those variables were then mixed into unique “recipe” combinations for testing at 128 stores — a handful of changes at each one. After implementing those recipes for six weeks, the mathematical analysis began. As it turned out, BFRC was spending a lot of money on things that had virtually no impact – and the company isn’t alone. QualPro has found that only 25 percent of ideas tested through MVT — no matter how strong those concepts seemed at the outset — make a positive difference. Another 53 percent make no difference at all; those that remain actually have a negative impact. “Probably the biggest surprise for me was that there’s only a 2 percent predictive factor,” Perdew says. “When you survey people and they give you ideas that you believe will work, and then look at the results, there’s only a 2 percent correlation. It surprised me how far from reality our perceptions are. And I don’t think you can find that out any other way.” Lessons learned BFRC, which was already in the process of re-imaging its stores, learned that window graphics have no effect, even though they’d been hotly contested within the company. They learned that female clerks are more likely to stay at the counter ready to wait on customers, rather than migrate back to the service bay to lend a hand. And they learned that shifting direct mail pieces to later in the week – and adding new ZIP codes – provided a huge return. WWW.STORES.ORG And the process itself brought an added bonus: a boost for the company’s workers, who were happy to offer their thoughts. “Our CEO has often said that MVT is the best morale-building methodology in the history of mankind,” Cochran says. “It breeds a culture of empowerment, and the rank-and-file get really excited when they find out people are coming to ask their ideas. What MVT does is focus on the impact of the idea rather than its source, and that’s really exciting. It’s literally a way that companies can mine the creativity of their entire workforce, and do so in a way that’s very efficient.” Perfect candidates MVT QualPro has tested is “a way that more than 100,000 companies can variables for more mine the creativity of than 1,000 compaor there. And those little their entire workforce, nies over the last changes can have signifiand do so in a way 25 years. Retail opcant unintended consethat’s very efficient.” erations are ideal for quences. — Dave Cochran, MVT, Cochran says, “A QualPro client coined QualPro because the actions typithe phrase, ‘Test what you’ll imcally identified can result in plement, and implement what comp sales of 5 to 15 percentage points. you’ve tested,’” Cochran says. “There is Instead of simply bringing in a conalways that temptation to … include sultant to discuss what has worked elsethings that can be tested but would be where or running tests on one “good” really hard to implement. We try to head idea at a time, MVT allows companies those off. to find unique synergies that they might “But what’s even more tempting is to not otherwise have considered, he says. see the results of something that works “When we do two things together, we and say, ‘We can make this even better find that there may be a different impact when we roll it out.’ There’s just as great than when we do them individually,” a chance that the change will destroy Cochran says. “Think about taking two that finding as enhance it. Sure, you medicines, for example; it wouldn’t be have ideas to make it better,” he says, unusual to find that one might affect the “but let’s test those ideas.” efficacy of the other.” For his part, Perdew says, “there are Because MVT is successful at winthings today that I won’t make a decinowing out the truly beneficial ideas, sion on without running an MVT. My Cochran says, some companies use the advice is, don’t question the process, and process over and over. “People are simmore than anything else, don’t question ply amazed by the size of the impact that the results. This allows you to feel concan be accomplished.” fident about where you’re putting your StORES But therein lies a challenge. Sometime and emphasis.” times, company executives get so excitFiona Soltes, who splits her time ed when they see the test results that they between “retail therapy” and freelance believe they can improve the picture writing, lives near Nashville, Tenn. even more by tweaking something here STORES / DECEMBER 2007 57 http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Stores Magazine - December 2007

STORES - December 2007 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Holiday Shopping Extravagance What Shoppers Think 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Niche Marketing Eight Predictions for 2008 Concept2Watch Merchandising Strategy Sourcing E-Commerce Supply Chain Warehouse Management Software Contactless Payments Marketing Marketing Online Loeb Retail Letter ARTS Update Point of View NRF News Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

Stores Magazine - December 2007

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