A simple plan

One by one, the offenders creep inside the premises, sabotaging design and creating disharmony among products. In some cases, a store's identity is stolen outright.

The perpetrators? They sometimes come from the very manufacturers whose products fill retail shelves: garish packaging, free merchandise fixtures, free signs—to mention a few.

Any combination can destroy a retailer's initial sense of 'organization' and thoughtful presentation, along with well-conceived adjacencies, volume zones, sight lines and visual fields. Original graphics and signage, designed to provide a consistent, continuous information system for the customer, has somehow gone awry.

Perhaps more than any other retail environment, the toy store represents retail Darwinism at its most fierce. Each package screams for more attention than the next. With unbridled abandon, manufacturers unleash packages of unlimited color, content and competitive dynamic.

In a toy store, the simple principle of visual dynamics can easily be broken. That principle being, if all parts of a field are equally attractive, then there is no differentiation and no information transmitted. The result is visual anarchy.

The customer wants to purchase! With the exception of the product that is a destination purchase, marginal decisions about whether to purchase or pass are made in the primary moments of encounter, or spontaneously. If products are packed onto the fixtures undifferentiated and allowed to slug it out for themselves, the potential for visual anarchy is great; the eye finds no message, finds no resting spot and passes.

In addition to coping with the cacophony of colorful and aggressive packages, a merchant is still faced with the outright unattractive package, as well as packages overly burdened with text.

While every store presents a unique visual and organizational context for consideration, the savvy merchant can employ some simple generalized strategies to tame the savage package.

Differentiate product on shelves and especially separate the combatants. This essentially means the retailer needs to break the confusion down into manageable nuggets of information. Neutral dividers can be added to, or designed into, casework to segment product into separate messages, reducing the visual 'noise.'

A solution for the unattractive and information-laden package: Get the product out of the box and into the customers' hands. If the customer can touch the product in a self-directed exploration, it is much more likely to be purchased. The product may be displayed only in an active mode on the sales floor, or casework may be set up with the flexibility to hold the packages in a visually defined area with an associated open product display opportunity.

In the case where open product is not advisable (categories with many small or complex parts), a focal display may be established in a closed case with associated open packaged storage.

There's good news and bad news about the 'free' fixtures offered by manufacturers. The good news is that they are designed to maximize attention and hold specific products in a specific manner. The bad news: They are designed to maximize attention and hold specific products in a specific manner.

The visual anarchy principal discussed above applies to the visual field of the store as a whole. If all the fixtures compete equally for attention, the result will be chaos. Fixtures designed for specific products in specific places can be financially 'productive' when full. But the same fixture will scream 'low inventory' if not managed for capacity. Nothing saps the energy of a retail environment like apparent under-stocked fixtures.

Whether through real or perceived pressure from a manufacturer (or the desire to be associated with the brand du jour) the retailer opting for such fixtures can use some guidelines for successfully incorporating them into the store's concept.

• Be selective. If everything is special, nothing is special!
• Manage the product levels.
• Design the fixture into the visual field. Be aware of sight lines and juxtaposed elements that may be obscured or subordinated to the attention grabbers.
• Incorporate the fixture where possible into a volume zone, wall display, or intentional focal element.
• Create a background field where possible. Control approaches and views so that the fixture appears against a controlled field. This is a particularly important point when dealing with the various species of headers that manufacturer's offer to top shelves of their merchandise. If a multiplicity of branded headers is to be incorporated, a neutral zone against which the headers are viewed is a must. The savvy merchant will incorporate elements that reinforce the store's identity into the control field.

As for free signage and graphics offered by manufacturers, retailers need to stand their ground and rigorously stick to their original graphical concept—from storefront down to promotional signage and shelf takers—which is inherent to the store's identity. The savvy merchant will have a rigorously intentional signage and graphics system employed throughout the store. The signage and graphics system will reinforce the merchant's identity and should be extended to shopping bags, mailers and business cards.

To be associated with certain brands is a natural and useful retailing strategy and promotional signage can boost productivity. Subordinating, or compromising continuity and identity in a store design or information system with poorly considered signage decisions, however, will reduce productivity. Following are some things to consider when contemplating a manufacture's offer of free signage.

• A well placed manufacturer's sign or other graphic material can be an effective part of the retail environment. Use of the freebie should be weighed against all of the previously stated concerns of the visual field, and is best employed as a departmental or identifying device.
• The random placement of aggressive signs in a storefront, as if to say, "this brand is in here somewhere," without supporting the store information system, identity, or design, will dilute the message of both the merchant's intentional signage and the manufacturer's sign.
• Be aware of the information in the area that may be subordinated by an aggressive sign.
• Be selective. Again, if every sign is special: visual anarchy.
• Visual anarchy delivers no message.

The retail environment is fluid. 'Things' happen and the visual context shifts. The savvy merchants will remain vigilant, continue to review their environments to determine the effect of any introduced or planned changes. Productivity is the reward.