All the layers of a retail space need more Thoughtful Design
Butterwood is an innovative design agency with a retail mindset for physical space. Butterwood is Architecture and Interior Design combined with Brand Strategy. We help people who think about physical spaces to understand the human experience layer that determines business success. We don't just design spaces, we design experiences.
Design is about more than creating a visual impact, good design is aesthetically pleasing but also unobtrusive and simple. Good design is innovative, useful and helps people understand things that are complex. Good design is honest, long-lasting and environmentally-friendly.
Aesthetics without substance or meaning is temporary, disposable and wasteful. In modern retail, the temporary aesthetic has overwhelmed good design, and this is creating many wasteful and disposable outcomes.
We love retail, we want to see it thrive and grow. People depend on retailers for the things we all need to live our lives. Respecting customers means respecting the environment and doing all that you can to minimise your impact.
This is a design problem, designers are needed by retailers for their thoughtfulness. We started Butterwood because we want to eliminate and reduce waste with great design.
Thoughtful Designers craft experiences that resonate on a human level and spark joy. Thoughtful Design makes more money. It attracts strangers into your business for the first time. Thoughtful Design engages prospects with stories about your business, your brand and how your product could be a meaningful part of their life. Thoughtful Design turns strangers and prospects into customers, retail is the business of connecting, joining, signing up, transacting, buying. Thoughtful Design drives your business, and the world, forward.
In spite of the digital revolution, most purchases are still made in physical retail spaces - because humans crave experiences. A desire for experiences drives us out into the world, and we often end up at a retailer, buying something.
Thoughtful Designers are needed to reimagine physical spaces from the perspective of the modern retailer. We need designers who think about attracting strangers, engaging prospects and connecting customers. When design is rooted in thoughtfulness, it becomes transformative, creating experiences that resonate on a human level, and ultimately, driving monetary value.
If a retail business depends on continuous product innovation to drive customers into physical spaces - it is incredibly unsustainable. Bulk selling necessitates large-scale manufacturing processes, extensive use of materials and a significant amount of carbon emissions. The sell-through rates of a new product range can often be minuscule.
Brands can be damaged by availability of discounted product, so the vast majority of a poorly conceived range, new colour-way or boring product feature, ends up in landfill. Any brand that relies on high product turnover has an emerging publicity problem, as customers seem to be several steps ahead of businesses when it comes to sustainability.
Designing a compelling experience into your physical spaces is the solution to this sustainability problem. If customers are attracted into your branded retail location for the experience, your brand will have no problems securing sales at a premium. Perhaps your customer doesn’t even need more of your products; maybe there’s even money to be made taking some products back from customers. Could your business join customers in finding further usage of the things you make or sell?
“An experience occurs when a company intentionally uses services as the stage, and goods as props, to engage individual customers in a way that creates a memorable event.” B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore, Harvard Business Review, July 1998.
Retail has many layers, even the most outer layer, it’s precinct, can define the entire experience. Architects, designers, contractors and tradespeople bring the building to life. There is an internal shell, hosting a services layer. Walls floors and roofs must be constructed inline with codes and lease conditions. All of the design choices made along the way effect the final experience of the space.
Understanding these layers from an architectural design perspective is critical for retailers to control the experience they want to create. Butterwood is Architecture and Interior Design combined with the extra layer of Brand Strategy. We understand the human experience layer that often determines business success.
Most retailers have very little control over the building constructions or exteriors. They choose locations and precincts based on the perceived success it will have amongst key target groups.
Walls, floors and ceilings are the most critical, costly (and potentially unsustainable) parts of a retail fit out. These land firmly in the architects or interior designers realm and play a critical role in the overall experience of the space. After that, comes the stuff, fittings, fixtures, furniture and displays. Most retail spaces draw on interior design practices and skillsets to finalise the experience. Then there’s all the products, spaces for staff, safety protocols. It’s a lot.
Architecture requires patience and an appreciation for permanence. In commercial, interior design acts as a crucial architectural element. This is especially significant in the retail landscape.
Brand strategy is about understanding people and brands. Strategists observe human behaviour to uncover deep insights. Retail is an experience. For a brand strategist retail is the most creatively interesting space in which to execute, observe and learn.
Experiences in the physical space have layers, retail visitors might not notice the materials used to construct walls, floors and ceilings, but they could certainly report back on the overall ambiance of a space. The language most humans use to describe an experience does not include architectural descriptions of things - they use emotive words. “It just makes me feel ________”
Fine dining is a simple analogy for a retail experience. Guests travel to a precinct, arrive at a venue, feel the space. The physical layers define this part of the experience for patrons. Choosing a restaurant in a fine dining precinct creates different expectations to choosing one that stands by itself defining a precinct.
After arriving and settling in patrons then experience the food and all the artefacts that play a role in the dinging experience (plates, glasses, cutlery etc). Restaurants will strive to perfect each of these layers, the slightest blemish could see an entire meal comped to satisfy discerning diners.
All the layers are been meticulously designed to give a sense of style to the experience.
But the core experience isn’t really about the space, the food, or cutlery or furniture. It’s all about the service, greeters and waiters predict your every need, the chef will often visit your table, maybe your car gets a valet - the experience is a highly detailed, theatrical performance by each staff member.
If you sell an undifferentiated commodity good, that means people can get it anywhere, and you are forced to compete on market prices. Service elevates a product from a commodity fighting on price, into a premium priced brand. Most big brands today also offer a range of services organised around the central product category.
Differentiation occurs when people choose your store location because a suite of useful services surround it. The experience you provide turn prospects into loyal repeating customers.
Pine & Gilmore (see the graph and the quote above) way back in 1998, spoke of four key principles used to design experiences into your business model.
Still today, these are the main tenets of creating a compelling retail experience. The addition of social media and influencers appears to have effected retail dramatically. But, most of what they have done is provide new channels for ‘engaging individual customers’ and a whole bunch of data about people sharing things ‘in a way that creates a memorable event’. Today’s retail experiences begin before the store visit occurs and continues long after the store visit is finished.
Emma Butterworth, design lead at Butterwood and current Associate Director at Those Architects. Emma brings to both roles over 15 years of experience in creating timeless residential and commercial spaces. Having grown up in Toowoomba and Brisbane, Emma's architectural designs are significantly influenced by the Queensland lifestyle and its close connection with nature. Emma brings her experience gained in San Francisco, New York City and Sydney, home to Brisbane.
Warwick Heathwood is a seasoned strategist in retail and experiential agencies. Prior to co-founding Campfire x in Sydney, he held the position of North America Strategy Head at Set Creative, New York. Warwick has also developed advertising, retail and experiential strategies in leadership roles at renowned firms like Leo Burnett, TBWA, R/GA, and Argonaut in San Francisco, as well as shopper marketing agencies Arc and Integer and global experiential creative agencies Jack Morton Worldwide and Imagination.
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