The Five Fundamentals of Retail Design

Context - Consumers, culture, economics, environment  

Strategy - What, when, why, where

Innovation - Retail is the most competitive of all human industries 

Communication - The brand identity & positioning

Execution - The moment of truth - and the tool kit required to implement 

Culture 

Working regionally across a diverse range of cultures, it is important to understand culture and how brands need to transverse culture.

“Culture should be regarded as the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group, and that it encompasses, in addition to art and literature, lifestyles, ways of living.”

- UNESCO

Our Retail Past Informs our Retail Present

1980’s The decade of the mall

1990’s The decade of the discounters 

2000’s The decade of luxury 

2010’s The decade of experience 

2020’s The internet of things 

Our world is increasingly complex 

• Difficult to interpret

• Multiple Forces

• Technological

• Regulatory

• Oblique

• Competitive

• Challenging
  

  
  

There is no more business as usual.

Everything has changed, is changing and will continue to change.

Five global consumer supertrends

• Experiential

• Individualism

• Eco-establishment

• Well-being

• Back to basics
  

Consumers today feel a deep sense of mental weariness and boredom with the sameness being created in commercial environments.

Developers, Architects, Designers, failed to identify the lust of life of the consumer and provide the human factor.

Today’s market place is a war of ideas, unless you stand for something you wont stand out.

To be successful in this new economy, retailers need something more than “vision” something deeper than “brand” Only a radical and emotional big idea will give you the space that rivals cant invade.

The things people buy – products and services are becoming more and more similar, as it becomes increasingly easier for one company to copy another technological advantage. This has a simple but devastating consequence: in the absence of economic differences, emotional logic will become the single most important business driver.

“Art is an adventure into an unknown world, which can be explored only by those willing to take risks.”  

- Mark Rothko, In the New York Times, 13 June 1943