I can’t wait until they open a store here in the US with this concept! So cool!!

A couple interesting store additions that I was just informed of:

STORE TECH:

• State-of-the-art retail performance tracking technology from Vizualize has helped New Balance apply a scientific approach to assessing the initial success and ongoing performance of the new Beijing Experience store. New Balance wanted to measure how the new ‘1906’ look would impact store pulling power and shopper conversion rates.
• Store technology provided New Balance with unobtrusive tools to continuously measure traffic patterns, shopper engagement, customer behavior, demographics and staff interaction via small sensor technologies, including 3D, thermal vision sensors, strategically deployed throughout the store, including entrances and displays, to gather real-time data which is integrated with sophisticated computer modeling for accurate store performance analysis. The resulting insights allow retailers to increase store capture and sales conversion through the deployment of more effective store layout, merchandising and marketing strategies as well as staff to service optimization.
• The New Balance Experience store’s Vizualize technology tracks ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ areas to determine where shoppers go most frequently, which products were drawing the most attention and whether that translated to purchase.  New Balance is then able to determine the true conversion rate for potential shoppers. The performance of marketing initiatives was also measured by tracking how many people viewed the in-store promotional areas as well as individual product displays by measuring traffic flow and dwell time of shoppers.   Outside the store, Vizualize measured how many people walked past the store versus how many people entered and, of those, how many people actually purchased something.
• The information will be used by New Balance to optimize its in-store merchandising, store-layout, staffing levels, media and product placement and product displays.   In addition to understanding shopper behavior, the technology also addresses staffing issues such as whether shoppers are waiting too long for service, staff levels at high traffic areas and whether shoppers are spending too little time in-store.

• The overall New Balance Experience Store design is complimented by audio, visual and olfactory experiences throughout the store including the unique smell of natural woody notes, with a touch of leather, reminiscent of a shoe store’s scent from the mid-20th century. What does New Balance sound and smell like? To create the right atmosphere for the brand product highlights, New Balance deployed a woody scent coupled with 1950′s style “be bop” music. Customers can “bop while they shop” to the sounds of Bill Haley and the Comets, Little Richard, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers and Jerry Lee Lewis.
• Visually, the New Balance Experience Store in complete with décor inspired by New Balance’s heritage with a nostalgic feel harkening back to the 1950s and 60s.  Using materials that are worn and textured, the store’s first level is dedicated to the brand’s rich history, complete with framed archival logos, vintage New Balance ads and various brand paraphernalia dating as far back as 1910.
• In addition, New Balance programmed in-store messaging directs customers to check out the store’s second floor merchandise and repeatedly highlights New Balance’s unique Performance DNA concept. Scientific research has found that 40% of shoppers who listen to in-store audio messages are influenced in their purchasing decisions. This sort of sensory branding has fast become the brave new world of retail. It’s no longer simply enough to present your products or services in a strongly branded visual context; the brand needs to connect and engage with all five senses of the customer in order to create resonance and establish long-term loyalty. This particular New Balance store was all about conveying the brand’s history and heritage over a century of business, so the human senses have been stimulated to project this kind of ‘time capsule’ look and feel to some of the store’s areas.
• Bob Neville Regional Retail Manager for New Balance in Asia Pacific commented “we are very pleased with the way the music, messaging and specially formulated New Balance ‘aroma’ integrate within the built three dimensional aspect of the New Balance Experience Store. We want to create a brand experience that is totally reflective of the brand essence and as such this has to go beyond what you see and encompass all of the human senses. This first Experience Store in Beijing marks the first of a global role out and will for the first time see, hear and smell the New Balance brand in an integrated and total experience”

Best,
Lauren

Lauren Burns | Associate Public Relations Manager | New Balance Lifestyle, PF Flyers, Aravon and Dunham | 20 Guest Street | Boston, MA 02135  | Phone    617-779-7642  | Fax is 617-783-4272 | lauren.burns@newbalance.com