By Mike Duffy | May 27, 2020
Shopping for cosmetics is both an emotional and an experiential journey. While it often starts online, with social media influencers and tutorials, the journey typically ends in the store. That’s where products can be sampled and evaluated before a final purchasing decision is made. That’s why the in-store experience is so critical to a brand’s image and authenticity.
To this point, Makeup Revolution® was preparing to launch a brand extension called I Heart Revolution®, which would premier at Ulta® stores. In addition to reinforcing their brand image, they wanted their in-store presence to stand out in a crowded aisle, where there is little visual differentiation. To ensure success, Niven took a step back and defined the success factors for every stage of the launch process, starting with Design: Differentiate from the sea of sameness. Niven developed unique tray fronts, which acted as product showcases and facilitated a fun and playful set presentation. They also helped to tell a more holistic story around each product collection.
Incorporate educational messaging. The tray fronts allowed for on-shelf educational graphics, as well as added brand and product messaging that tied into the packaging. Optimize the planogram and product flow. We evaluated several POG layouts and graphic combinations in order to make the most of product grouping and messaging. To ensure proper installation once the fixtures arrived at the store, the success factors for Engineering included streamlining the design’s executional requirements
Select the right materials and processes. Many manufacturers jump straight to injection molding for all aspects of their fixture program. But after careful analysis, we determined that by slightly altering our engineering, we could reduce tooling costs. We also increased system flexibility by using a common-sense combination of molding, extruding, and machining parts. Create a commonality of parts. This engineering approach allowed Makeup Revolution to share components across all three of its brands, while still achieving three unique brand images. The use of common parts further reduced tooling investments, minimized inventory requirements, and lowered component costs across the multiple programs. Make installation easy. The use of modular components made it easier to adjust the system for future updates. And by creating common components across three brands, we decreased the learning curve for the merchandising teams.
