If you look at good marketing today, it’s clear that storytelling is the secret to any successful brand.
But with your retail store as your brand, are you making the most of your storytelling abilities?
Here’s a unique idea: Brand museums.
Imagine an in-store display area with a timeline of your company’s history with pictures of the founder when they first opened the store, past iterations of the store and more fun and interesting history.
Some retailers have a section of their website that talks about the history, but it’s more engaging when it’s in a store — especially if you’re busy and customers need to wait a few minutes for the next salesperson.
It also serves as a fairly easy way to market and tell stories to customers in a place they’re more likely to see it and feel the impact of it.
If you want to create a brand museum, ask yourself three questions:
- What will engage customers with your display? You need to connect with customers on an emotional level. Show them the real people behind the business and how they work hard to meet customers’ needs. This authenticity is key to building trust with consumers.
- What parts of your story will people connect with the most? Not everyone will connect with every aspect of your store’s story. But if you speak to the broader values of the brand, you may find customers share the same values.
For example, if your store has been heavily focused on sustainability, charity or community involvement since the start, customers may connect with those acts and become more loyal because they like what you do as a store. - Where do you start when building a brand museum? First, collect all of the historical facts you can find. Sort through them and find ones that may speak to people on a human level, or ones that are notably significant. Just make sure there’s a reason and purpose behind the history you’re sharing.
In terms of the display itself, you don’t have to go crazy or take up too much room in the store, and you should look at it as an investment in your brand. Think about a tablet that lets people scroll through slides of the history — but make sure it’s visible so people don’t walk right by it. A simple QR code that they can scan on their phones would also be easy.
And if you want to take it a step further, work with a tech company to build an interactive brand guide that would be fun for adults and kids visiting the store.
Don’t forget to ask your customers what they think about it and use their feedback to make changes and adjustments until you’ve got a solid presentation that is both fun and engaging.
There isn’t one book that will tell you everything you need to do to market well, because good marketing ideas are built on creativity and thinking outside the box, like brand museums.
