8 great ways to visually brand your store

If your merchandising goal is to stop shoppers in their tracks—and it is—you need novel, distinct visuals placed strategically on the grounds that say, in essence, LOOK HERE! The following examples, found at retail and entertainment centers inside and outside the industry, take the process one step farther, as they also help brand the business and say, in essence, BUY HERE!

Gourding the treasure
In the fall, Gale’s Westlake in Westlake, Ohio, crafts a clever display area using pumpkins as integral parts of the structure. What’s inside? Does it matter? Everyone ventures into the hut to find out. And everyone remembers Gale’s Westlake as “the pumpkin place.”

The Love Bug
Rockledge Gardens is one of Florida’s better-known retail outlets. The Volkswagen Beetle that greets customers as they enter the premises is the BEST-KNOWN part about Rockledge Gardens. Do the math.

Chew on this one
As retailers watch a changing of the customer guard from Boomer to Xer, they’re noting that the latter group often has kids in tow. Here’s a tip from the proprietors of practically every mall in every city: kids love gum from gumball machines.

Chalk it up to nostalgia
Nothing says, “whoa” to the hurried/worried customer quite like a rustic display featuring throwback wagons. Well, nothing, except a rustic display featuring throwback wagons AND an old-school chalkboard that outlines today’s specials.

Yellow ain’t mellow
Two displays in a mall sit side-by-side. One features cuddly stuffed animals. The other, the one displaying bright yellow items, gets more customer attention. That says a lot about how you should use hues.

TV or not TV? That isn’t even a question
Nicholson-Hardie, a two-location garden retailer in a ritzy area of Dallas, not only turns a portion of its merchandising over to televisions, it taps its more creative staffers to craft the content that is aired. The result: great ratings, year in and year out.

Tall tales
If you’ve ever visited Florida’s Disneyworld you’ve shared a story or two thousand with your friends. Several, no doubt, focused on the incredible topiary figures that help mark various locations at the park … and that keep kids of all ages talking for days about how these incredible creations are actually—get this—plants!

Friendly climbs
Merchandising gurus, talking about how best to display items vertically, will tell you to “climb the ladder.” One simple—and highly effective—way to do that is … well … to literally climb the ladder. This versatile merchandising tool can be used with most items in a store and in various parts of the store to create a branding element that kills a bunch of birds with a few pieces of wood.