Enhancing the In-Store Experience
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Enhancing the in-store experience for female customers of Tommy Hilfiger Achieving more together Foreword The ‘Anton Dreesmann Leerstoel voor Retailmarketing’ Foundation - supported by a group of leading retailers in the Netherlands - has chosen Rabobank as its partner to host and co-organise its annual congress. The partnership started in 2011 and we have prolonged this successful collaboration until at least 2020. We appreciate the opportunity to share our knowledge and views on retail with key players and other stakeholders in the sector. The January 2017 congress, ‘Retailing Beyond Borders – Working on Transition’ took place in the Duisenberg Auditorium in Utrecht. During this congress the ‘Rabobank Anton Dreesmann Thesis Award´ was granted to Samira Darkaoui for her thesis entitled ‘Enhancing the in-store experience for female customers of Tommy Hilfiger´. Part of this award is the publication of the thesis as a book. The result of which is now in front of you. Capturing and embedding knowledge is important, both for Rabobank as a knowledge-driven financial organisation and for retailers. We therefore support the initiatives of the Foundation to combine scholarly knowledge with retail practice. The ´Rabobank Anton Dreesmann Thesis Award´ is one of these initiatives. The thesis of Samira Darkaoui, who graduated from the Delft University of Technology, discusses an actual and interesting case at Tommy Hilfiger, the well-known fashion player. The problem for Tommy Hilfiger is the lack of connection that women have with the brand. In order to address this issue, a systematic approach is followed. A wide number of topics is taken into account including brand identity, store interior and (female) consumer behaviour in order to understand the complete shopping experience. Based on the various studies, several recommendations are made, including: (i) introducing a specific womenswear label to improve brand identity, (ii) changing the store interior; this includes digital elements like the development of a Fashion Inspiration Wall; all changes are aimed at a better and more coherent (omnichannel) shopping experience, (iii) increasing customer loyalty and consumer engagement. An implementation plan was set up in order to turn the recommendations into actions. This approach can serve as an example for other (fashion) retailers to address the challenges in their companies. I trust that the thesis will energise and inspire you to go out and grab the opportunities in the retail market. Kind regards, Jos Voss RaboResearch - Sector Specialist Retail March 2017 Foreword 3 Master thesis for Tommy Hilfiger Europe B.V. February 2015 - August 2015 GRADUATION PROJECT BY Samira Darkaoui | 400805 BSc Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences MSc Design for Interaction Industrial Design Engineering Specialization: Retail Design SUPERVISORY TEAM Delft University of Technology dr. H.H.C.M. Christiaans | Chair Applied Ergonomics & Design (AED) Industrial Design Engineering ir. L.M.M. de Wit | Mentor The Architecture of the Interior Architecture and the Built Environment Tommy Hilfiger Europe B.V. ir. D.J.M van Ingen | Mentor Concept Architect, Store & Concept Design ing. S.E.P. Lucas | Mentor Director Store & Concept Design 4 Enhancing the in-store experience Acknowledgements These past six months have been a bumpy ride Of course, I am also thankful for all the women, with the occasional highs and (mostly) stressed who have participated in my research and took out lows. However, when I am writing this, I have the time to put the effort into contributing to almost made it and it would not be without the my project. You ensured that I got constructive help of others. In this section I would like to thank feedback, resulting in a concept that would really the people that helped me come this far. Not only be appealing to the shopping women out there. those who helped me in completing this thesis, but also those who have been there from the start. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my best friend, who is extremely dear and special First of all, I want to thank my company mentors to me. I want to thank you for your constant and Jannelien van Ingen and Suzanne Lucas for giving continuous support over the years that I have me the opportunity to work within their team known you. You have always been there for me and on my graduation project. They have helped me helped me come out at the other end when I was gain extensive retail knowledge and gave me new getting too stressed. Your presence has kept me insights to work with. Jannelien has been great in from going insane these past few months. helping me structuring my thoughts and letting me think out of the box, whereas Suzanne also Furthermore, I want to thank my parents and helped me with maintaining a holistic view on the other loved ones, who were there for me and have shopping experience. supported me throughout my studies. It is their constant support and belief in me that has helped Next to that, I want to give my gratitude to my two me come this far. university coaches, Henri Christiaans and Leontine de Wit. They were the ones that kept me on my toes and stimulated me to research and execute this graduation project to the best of my abilities. You were the ones to reassure me when I was being too much of a perfectionist yet again. Also, a special thanks to all the employees of the Tommy Hilfiger HQ office, the Tommy Hilfiger stores in Amsterdam, The Hague and Oostende. They enabled me to perform my customer research and user studies and really gave me the idea that I was part of a team, even if it was only for a couple of days. Acknowledgements 5 Executive Summary Tommy Hilfiger is one of the world’s leading not find what she was looking for, e.g. the lifestyle brands. Its style is recognised as classic Womenswear area. They often do not know if American cool with a preppy twist. It delivers the store sells female clothes, because is not premium styling, quality and value to its worldwide made clear. They feel that the focus could be customers. The brand has a wide variety of more on women. collections and products. One of those collections is women’s sportswear (WSW): Womenswear. • The overall female customer knows the brand Tommy Hilfiger, but does not shop at their The problem definition lies in the lack of stores or even online. It does not fit with their connection that women have with the brand. style or it is too expensive. They also have the There is a stronger focus on the men’s division, impression that the brand is more focused on which results in a more prominent location in- men than on women. They are of the opinion store, namely the front. This causes many female that if Tommy Hilfiger wants to attract more customers to think that that specific store does women to their stores, that Womenswear not sell Womenswear. All of this results in a lower should get a much stronger identity. conversion rate for women. Even though there are three types of customers, all To approach this problem, several studies were customers can enter the store with a different mind conducted. They can be roughly subdivided into state: locating, exploring or dreaming. However, three categories: brand identity, interior specific it can be concluded that customers, who enter a and overall shopping experience. Tommy Hilfiger store with a locating mind state, A brand identity study was carried out to see will in most cases always return to the store. This how both employees and customers perceive has to do with the fact, that a large part of the loyal the brand. The brand is known to have a high customers enter the store with a locating mind brand awareness, but the image and identity state. They know beforehand which brand they is not properly conveyed. Employees have an want to visit that day. However, to attract other inconsistent opinion about both the product and customers, the exploring and dreaming mind state target group, whereas customers are rather neutral should be addressed better. or have negative things to say about the brand. To address the exploring and dreaming mind state, Based on the customer journey in The Hague, three a holistic, overall shopping experience should be types of customers could be defined: created. This will make the brand more appealing to women and will ensure them to stay longer in- • The loyal Tommy customer is satisfied with store, which will again result in a higher conversion the brand and its products. In most cases rate. This means that the interaction between they come for the product (and brand) and the customer and the brand should be inspiring, will buy it if they like it. exploring, involving, effortless and intuitive. • Bouncers are customers who enter the store To achieve this holistic shopping experience, the and leave within 10 seconds. In most cases whole customer journey should be taken into the bouncer left quickly, because she could account. 6 Enhancing the in-store experience Therefore, five steps in the customer journey are Subsequently, with such a holistic vision it is defined to be part of the holistic vision: difficult to see what and when everything can be 01. Entering the store incorporated. Therefore, an implementation plan is 02. Browsing set up to give the company insights into the best 03. Fitting possible approach. The implementation is split into 04. Checkout three phases: 05. Leaving the store 01. Brand identity - Introducing Hilfiger Woman and (re)connecting with both loyal and new Before even implementing a holistic vision in-store, customers.