Archive for March, 2009

Posted on March 16, 2009 - by Nate

An Interview with Lawrence D.

I just posted an article at the digital sign post, interviewing Digital Signage Show’s Lawrence D. We discussed several industry issues and some of the things he’s been working on for the show coming at the beginning of May 2009. He had some interesting things to say regarding both show attendees as well as conference highlights.

Check out the original post by clicking on the link above. 

Posted on March 14, 2009 - by Nate

Paco Underhill: “Why We Buy” part III

Slowly, but surely I’m getting through posting my favorite quotes from Paco Underhill’s “Why We Buy.” 

For more great quotes, please visit “Why We Buy” Part I or “Why We Buy” Part II. If you’ve not read my most recent post regarding Helius and Helios, please visit the Digital SignPost. 

“In retail, the easiest way to make more money is to sell more stuff to your existing customer base.” pg. 55

“The company [that had smaller shopping carts] immediately replaced the carts with new ones that were roughly 40 percent larger. Just as fast, the average sales per customer rose.” pg. 57

“You can’t know how much shoppers will buy until you’ve made the shopping experience as comfortable and easy and practical as possible.” pg. 57

“I attempt to remind everybody that people in storesor restaurants or banks are almost never still; they’re moving from one place to another. And they’re not intent on reading signs–in fact, they’re usually doing something else entirely, like trying to find socks, or seeing which line is shortest, or deciding whether to have the burger or the chicken.” pg. 61

“To say whether a sign or any in-store media works or not, there’s only one way to assess it–in place On the floor of the store.” pg. 61

“There are companies that will measure sign readability by putting subjects into high-tech helmets that measure the smallest eyeball movements, then holding signs before them. But even that won’t tell you if you’ve put the right sign in the wrong place, which happens all the time ( and which, by the way, is actually worse than putting a so-so sign in the perfect place). And it surely can’t predict whether shoppers will read and respond to a sign on the floor of a store, where distractions abound.

“Once you know whether people are reading a sign, you can begin to measure its influence on their behavior. But not until. So the first thing you’ve got to do is get the hell out of that conference room.” pg. 61-62 

“First, you have to get your audience’s attention. Once you’ve done that, you have to present your message in a clear, logical fashion–the beginning, then middle, then the ending. You have to deliver the inforamtion the way people absorb it, a bit at a time, a layer at a time, and in the proper sequence. If you don’t get their attention first, nothing that follows will register. If you tell too much too soon, you’ll overload them and they’ll give up. If you confuse them, they’ll ignore the message altogther.” pg. 62

“So you can’t just look around your store, see where there are empty spots on the walls and put the signs there…every store is a collection of zones.” pg. 63

“Each zone is right for one kind of message and wrong for others. Putting a sign that requires twelve seconds to read in a place where customers spend four seconds is just slightly more effective that putting it in your garage.” pg. 63 

Ideas for locations to place digital signage from from the book: 

• Shoe department
• Escalators
• Digital Menu Boards
• Condiment bar
• standing in line to pay
• @ the tables where people eat
• fast-food tables
• Banks

“When it comes to positioning a sign, the difference between an ideal viewing spot and a terrible one is often just a few feet.” pg. 64

“It’s no surprise that the number-one thing people look at is other people. That’s why some of the most effective signs in fast food restaurants are the ones sitting atop the cash registers–more or less at the level of the cashier’s face. Smart sign placement simply tries to interrupt the shopper’s line of vision and intercept her gaze.” pg. 64 –this is why the reflective/mirror LCDs are great for digital signage applications: people get to look at their favorite person, themselves!

“How much can you read in a second and a half?” 

“Thinking that every sign must stand on its own and contain an entire message is not only unimaginative, it’s ignorant of how human brains operate.” pg. 67

“In one of the prototype stores we studied, hanging behind the cashiers were large baners promoting various services. Fourteen percent of customers read those banners, our reasearchers found, for an average of 5.4 seconds each.” pg. 67 In retail signage, that could be considered an eternity!

“Banks, fast-food restaurants and the post office have this in common: lots of customers standing still and faceing the same direction–ideal opportunities for communication.” pg. 68 

“It’s futuile to try to tell shoppers anything until after they’ve completed their task.” pg. 69

“When you see a sign with a gas pump, or a for and spoon, or a wheelchair, you understand at a glance. That’s the best way to deliver information to people in motion.” pg. 71 

“Anytime pedestrians had to slow down or stop, we concluded, it was because the signs had failed to do their job…the best sign in either case is one you can read fast, and positioned so you can read it while moving.” pg. 71

“If the sign doesn’t work in an imperfect world, it doesn’t work.”  pg. 72 

“One display or sign too many and you’ve created a black hole where no communication manages to get through.” pg. 72 

“Some signs are perfectly fine, except they’re in places they were never intended to go.” pg. 73

“Often retailers simply ask too much of a sign–more than any sign can deliver. A fast-food chain tested a sign systme explaining one version of its ‘meal deals,’ then tried to make the signs clearer, then tested them again and fixed them again until they realized that i wasn’t the signs that were bad–the meal deals were just too complicated to be explained. The deals were changed and the signs worked just fine.” pg. 73

“…a moving digital menu board was read by 48 percent of customers, compared to 17 percent for the same menu board–a nonmoving version–tested earlier.” pg. 73

As you can tell, Paco has got some great stuff and I’m only to page 73! Stay tuned more still to come! 

Posted on March 7, 2009 - by Nate

“Why We Buy” Part II

I’ve been meaning to get back to this: Paco Underhill’s quotes from “Why We Buy,” Part II. 

“In other words, stores, banks, restaurants and other such spaces must be friendly to the specificaitons of the human animal.” pg. 43

“Yet a huge part of what we do is uncover ways in which retail environments fail to recognize and accommodate how human machines are built and how our anatomical and physiological aspects determine what we do.” pg. 43

“We would rather look at people than objects.” pg. 44. This could apply succinctly to digital signage content creation. 

“Amenability and profitability are totally an inextricably linked. Take care of the former, in all its guises, and the latter is assured.” pg. 44

“If there is a display of merchandise, they’re not going to take it in. If there’s a sign, they’ll probably be moving too fast to absorb what it says.” [he was speaking of the instance when people immediately walk into any venue–which is why WalMart gave us “greeters”–he refers to it as “the transition zone”] pg. 45

In either case, store merchandisers can do two sensible things where the transition zone is concerned: They can keep from trying to accomplish anything important there, and they can take steps to keep that zone as small as possible.” pg. 47

 ”We discovered another misuse of the zone a few years ago, when we tested an interactive computerized information fixture that had been designed for Kmart by a division of IBM. It had a touch screen and a keyboard , and you’d ask it where men’s underwear was, for example, and it would give you a map of the store and maybe a coupon for T-shirts or socks. A terrific idea, executed well. It helped customers and spared the store from haivng to pay someone to stand behind a desk and tell people where boys’ sweaters were–seventy-two times a day.” pg. 48

“Placing the computers too close to the door had turned them into very expensive pieces of electronic sculpture.” pg. 48

“That teaches us something about rules–you have to either follow them or break them with gusto. Just ignoring a rule or bending it a little is usually the worst thing you can do.” pg. 49

“Allowing some space between the entrance of a store and a product gives it more time in the shopper’s eye as he or she approaches it.” pg. 50

“At trade shows, the booths just inside the door may seem most desirable, but they’re pretty bad locations” pg. 50

More to come…hopefully not in another 3 weeks like last time :)