innovation

The Emotional Retail Game

by Michelle Hespe There are many convoluted dimensions when it comes to creating a special retail experience, and while Wolfgang Gruschwitz believes that the emotional dimension is the key to enticing a consumer into purchasing products, today it’s also about understanding a customer’s lifestyle choices in order to create a strong story for your brand, and a #PerfectStore.…

Emotive Retailing

Retail is not just about selling things—it’s about emotionally engaging potential customers, bringing them into your story and helping to make their dreams come true, explains retail expert and gia judge, Wolfgang Gruschwitz. The point of sale is, of course, the aim of a retailer. However, just as the journey is often more important and fulfilling than the destination, the…

Put a Smile in Your Display

by Martin M. Pegler What is a smile? Is it the enigmatic look on the face of the Mona Lisa that is called the Da Vinci smile? OR, is it that sudden expression of relief or pleasure or satisfaction that turns a dark, frowning visage into a sunny, glowing face that exudes a sense of hope?? There have been hundreds of songs written about SMILES, from the sad but lovely one by…

gia – Celebration of Retail Excellence and Innovation

Every March in Chicago, the IHA Global Innovation Awards (gia) are hosted by the International Housewares Association. The gia awards, “the Oscars® of the housewares industry”, bring together the world’s most innovative retailers, all having been voted as the best in their country. The IHA Global Innovation Awards program was created to celebrate excellence and innovation in…

Show to Sell: Cross Merchandising

by Martin M. Pegler Visual Merchandising is really a very simple concept to understand. “Visual” refers to sight and “showing” while “Merchandising” is about “selling”. WE—people who believe in and are practitioners of VM—believe that it is very important to show your products in a way that makes the shopping process simple—easy—convenient for the shoppers. It is important…

Recycling and Display Props

By Martin M. Pegler Props, I would imagine, is short for “properties” and “properties” can be anything that adds something to a scene, a setting, a display. If we were to look around us, we would see we are standing in the center of a field of display props: from the furniture in the room, the plants, the unused rolls of wallpaper, the tableware, the collection of pots and…

Informing Innovation: Designing the Future of Food

Meet LinYee Yuan, MOLD; Kavita Shukla, Fenugreen; Kyleigh Wawak and Eleanor Sandford, gravitytank; Brad Crepeau, Food Cycle Science We think about food several times a day, but may not think about food design when we rush for our morning coffee or dig into our dinner. Design is more than a beautiful food arrangement prepared by a restaurant chef. Design and food connect in…

Design Debut: Meet Doug Foreman and the biēm Butter Sprayer

Design Debut brings the very latest new products to the Show. These entrepreneurs come from the dynamic start up culture and often establish their companies with Kickstarter support. For example, the biēm Butter Sprayer, which transforms a real stick of butter to a spray in seconds, launched on March 1st. This new hand-held device gives users a much more efficient way to use…

The Smart Kitchen: Trends and Early Success Stories

By Vicki Matranga Design Programs Coordinator Informing Innovation: Meet Greg Kahn, GK Digital Media, Santiago Merea, Yummly; Jenny Cooper, Google and Mike Fretwell, Jarden Consumer Solutions Home environments, kitchen appliances, phones—how do they connect and why? Physical products that respond to our activities and communicate with each other and with services promise…