Paco Underhill Visits Microsoft

Paco Underhill, author of Why We Buy and Call of the Mall, and CEO and founder of Envirosell, visited our marketing team today. He was engaging and inspiring as he covered the basics of retail marketing and the changing landscape.

Paco pointed out that as marketing professionals, we've become extremely good at measuring how well our marketing impacts sales. We can tell how much of something is selling, where it's selling, and what's working. It's interesting to note that what we're not good at measuring is how much we're leaving on the table. How much more could be made if we do things differently? Why do customers decide not to buy our product? How often do they simply ignore our marketing? How many times does the shopping environment actually impede sales?

His guiding premise is that in-store communications is the best way to convert someone from a browser to a purchaser. His company has done extensive research in the way people interact with their environment while shopping. They not only will stop and ask shoppers questions, but they'll actually stand in the aisles of Nordstrom’s or Target or Best Buy and watch shoppers as they walk through the store, as they pick up product, read marketing material, look for something, or knock stuff from a display.

The Butt-Brush
Paco laughed as he admitted his tombstone would probably say something about the term he coined: "the butt-brush effect." He said there's a "browsing coefficient" that shows that the more comfortable someone is browsing, the more likely they are to convert from a shopper to a purchaser. When aisles are too tight, people are likely to brush you butt as they walk by, instantly making the shopping experience unpleasant. In fact, he showed in some videos how people have a "butt brush radar" that goes off when someone gets close to brushing your butt.

Tech as Fashion
Paco mentioned the changes in the tech market is going through, and that tech is “coming back to the mall on the heels of fashion.” The cell phone isn’t being purchased for its feature set as much as it is for the way it looks, driven by the fact that the technology is so good, it’s somewhat transparent—people just expect it to work. He cites the focus on design prevalent with Apple.

Women Buying Tech
He spent some time talking about how technology stores (Best Buy, CompUSA, Circuit City in the US) are focusing more and more on women as shoppers. He gave the example of how uncomfortable (most) men are shopping in a store like Victoria’s Secret (complete my purchase and get me out as fast as you can!), and is working with tech retailers not to make the same mistake. Not only are women getting more comfortable with tech, but tech retailers are getting more direct at designing their stores for both men and women.

Multi-Cultural Marketing
He also mentioned some work being done to make multi-cultural cities like Seattle more global in their approach to marketing. Displays across the country in big chain stores all use pictures of people who look like they’re from Duluth, Iowa. There’s an opportunity to use merchandising that is locally targeted, especially with recent innovations in digital printing. He challenged us to look for ways to use the custom capabilities of new digital printing processes to target our own merchandising more effectively.

Parking Lots
One of the interesting concepts he talked about was “companion parking lots.” Research shows that more shoppers often take companions along (spouses, boyfriends/girlfriends, kids), and that they often are part of the purchasing decision making. Giving them a place to wait where they’re comfortable is imperative to them participating at all. There’s long-term parking where someone can wait for 30 minutes or more while someone else shops—I often will hang out at Radio Shack while my wife shops at The Bon. There’s medium-term parking, where someone comes in the store, but waits while someone else shops (the kids looking at children’s books while the parent browses). And there’s short-term parking where someone who needs to be part of the decision can wait for a few minutes (a friend sitting outside a dressing room to give feedback on how something looks on them). Stores that do this right make the whole shopping environment more comfortable.

Paco thinks that there’s a big opportunity for an entrepreneur to make a ton of money doing something with this concept. The person parking is such a captive audience—he or she will look at or read almost anything available to them while they wait. He showed video of a theater lobby where there was a group of men waiting for their girlfriends/spouses while they visited a restroom after a movie. He says the formula is perfect for an increase in sales—attendance is predictable, the demographic is defined by the movie, the message could be uniquely targeted, and there’s a regular flow of people just standing there with nothing to do but wait. Interesting.

It was great to have such a brilliant person available to teach us and answer questions.

Thanks to Kim Rickett’s (Owner of Kim Rickett’s Book Events and VP of Northwest Bookfest) for arranging the visit!