Retail
Sense of engagement
Jewelers are taking a multisensory approach to enhance their appeal to customers.
By Joyce Kauf
Almost all jewelers describe their store ambience as “inviting…welcoming…like home.” Yet creating an environment that encourages people to buy may require more subtlety than a warm greeting or a comfortable place to sit. In fact, customers may not even be aware of the individual elements that set the stage for shopping. In an effort to drive business, jewelers are now embracing a multisensory approach incorporating sight, touch, hearing, smell and taste.
“We made an intentional decision to make all five senses part of our brand,” explains Dianna Rae High, owner of Dianna Rae Jewelry in Lafayette, Louisiana. “Generally, people buy jewelry to celebrate a special time in their lives. But that doesn’t mean it’s stress-free. Often, it’s an emotional and expensive decision. By touching all the senses,
we’re trying to make it as pleasurable as possible.”
The décor at Erik Runyan Jewelers in Vancouver, Washington, has what owner Erik Runyan describes as an “Under the Canoe” theme (see box). “It was a well-thought-out plan to include sensory marketing in our new store, which would also make it more interesting to a new generation of customers,” he says. “The canoe and the nautical ambience are 100% branding.”
Sensory marketing gives jewelers an edge. “I can’t compete on any level with a big-box store,” explains Runyan. “Yet I can swim in a different niche and do well.” To illustrate the point, he recalls how one young man who had purchased an engagement ring couldn’t wait to show his fiancée the store. “The store environment made him proud to buy it here.”
Hanging from the ceiling of Erik Runyan Jewelers is the retailer’s signature image: a 30-foot, hand-hewn, upside-down wooden canoe.
“Everything that happens ‘Under the Canoe’ is unique,” explains Erik Runyan, a fourth-generation jeweler and licensed ship captain.
While a nautical theme is at the helm of the store’s branding, it is the display case of the Side by Side Diamond Selling Solution by Joseph Asher Collection that anchors the multisensory appeal. The approximately 6-foot-tall, jet-black showcase is filled with product.
“Its rotating LED lights make the diamonds in the collection wink and sparkle even when you’re standing still,” says Runyan. “Several times each week, someone literally comes through our doors just to get a closer look at it. It’s like a beacon.”
Once a customer is standing in front of the display, a salesperson will walk over and click a remote control. “And then we watch the customer’s jaw drop as the front glass retracts like a super-smooth treasure chest,” he continues. “Then, when the salesperson reaches in and selects a piece of jewelry to show the dazzled customer, a video starts playing on the built-in 24-inch screen, highlighting the very piece that is being shown.”
It only takes a short time for the show to work its magic. In the span of about two minutes, says Runyan, this selling tool has “pulled in a customer off the street, raised their eyebrows with hidden technology, and tickled their emotions by showing synchronized videos of happy jewelry events. Now that’s customer engagement.”
Image: Dianna Rae JewelryArticle from the Rapaport Magazine - July 2019. To subscribe click here.
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