What is Store Profiling? And the Problems It Solves
Up to 50% of retail marketing materials are considered waste. And when millions of dollars, countless hours, and dozens of team members are dedicated to the ideation, customization, design, production, and distribution of these materials, the real cost is significantly higher.
When it comes to retail stores across the country, or even the world, the discrepancies from one location to another are distinct; whether it’s the dimensions of each store, the amount of window or wall space, or even local jargon, it’s challenging for even two stores to effectively utilize the same marketing materials.
What is Store Profiling?
Retailers often struggle walking the line between giving customers a journey that’s both seamless across stores yet tailored to their particular environment and strategy. It might seem like the two are mutually exclusive, but when you deploy a store profiling solution, the two don’t just coexist – they elevate your brand altogether.
Store profiling strategies are executed through a centralized, straightforward store profiling technology platform to drive brand control and complete customization.
Store Profiling in Action: Context-Led Customization
With a store profiling technology platform, each retail store receives an online profile or portal that’s tailored to that location’s unique environment.
This is based on an extensive database of critical components of each store. Any detail that could influence the marketing materials within that location is recorded and used in the design, product, and distribution of promotional displays.
- Information needed for effective store profiling:
- Customer demographics
- Physical store specs - walls, windows, shelves, and floors to support displays
- Amount of staff, cash registers, etc.
Up to 50% of retail marketing materials are considered waste. And when millions of dollars, countless hours, and dozens of team members are dedicated to the ideation, customization, design, production, and distribution of these materials, the real cost is significantly higher.
How Store Profiling Solves Retail Problems
Amid growing expectations of retailers, they have to employ solutions that are comprehensive yet scalable. A store profiling strategy removes friction from marketing and makes it easy for retailers to deliver consistent, memorable customer experiences from one store to the next.
Retail Solution 1: Brand Control
“Our locations are doing their own thing.” “We don’t look like the same company.”
The process of developing store-specific marketing materials is made seamless while giving corporate and/or regional teams complete brand and budget control. Corporate teams can pre-set each location’s design assets, collateral, types of displays, etc.
Large stores with more surface area have significantly more ground to cover with marketing materials than their smaller-scale counterparts.
Retail Solution 2: Budget Control
“I have no idea what each location is spending the budget on.”
Corporate teams can pre-set each location’s budget and the quantity of each display. Not only do retailers know exactly how much they’re spending, but they can keep track of exactly what each dollar is going towards. With time, this helps them determine what’s worth the investment and what’s not, guiding retailers towards smarter, more valuable decisions every time they need new marketing materials.
Retail Solution 3: Localization at Mass Scale
“We serve hundreds of communities that are all so different. It’s impossible to customize for each location.”
A store located in a town that primarily speaks Spanish won’t use the same copy as one with a majority English speaking audience.
A store profiling approach takes into account every factor that makes your store unique, then constructs your in-store promotional & merchandising materials around each of those factors to personalize and enrich your customers’ experience. This might sound unrealistic for widespread chains, but at Drummond, it doesn’t matter if you have fifty locations or two thousand – we leave no stone unturned and craft every last detail down to your store’s exact needs and circumstances.
Retail Solution 4: Less Waste
“We don’t want to throw all of this away, but we just don’t have any use for it.”
When stores receive marketing kits that don’t suit their needs, they’re left with no choice but to throw them out – creating unnecessary waste and leaving those stores at a disadvantage with what they’re able to display.
Not only are stores losing their ability to sell effectively with marketing materials, they’re losing the money that went into those materials in the first place. And without those displays, customers can’t find and take advantage of in-store sales and promotions. This means you’re not only investing in sunk costs, but you’re driving away the business that would otherwise make up for those expenses.
Control and Customization Through Store Profiling
When over 80% of purchasing decisions are made in-store, you can’t afford to leave your in-store promotion up to chance. When you have both control and customization guiding your process, you’re left with a store profiling strategy that’s catered-to customers, produces less waste, and spoken through a clearer brand voice. Store profiling makes your promotional activities AND the customer journey effortless, taking the hassle and waste out of every step of the process.
Tools like Wavelength give you customization that scales and enables you to identify the data that tells you exactly what your store needs. We handle each step of the marketing procurement process, whether you’re looking for print, point-of-sale, or promotional items – with security, agility, and flexibility every step of the way. Try Wavelength here +
