Retail Activation is that domain of marketing that uses experiences to engage shoppers, stimulate purchase, create hype around retail store openings.
Retail activations can be done for multiple reasons – new store launch, new product / variant launch, sampling, inducing trial, test market, run promo offers etc., to name a few.
Retail Activation also goes by other names like in store promotions, instore engagements, store events, shopper marketing, which all work to deliver the same result but the different terminologies are used by different Retail Management Consultants.
Retail is a platform, where a lot of consumers and prospects come together for various reasons, some come with an intention to shop, some with an intention to check what’s new and to just have a look. Many of these people can also be impulsive shoppers and many a times even serious shoppers have changed their brand loyalty at the store level, because they were influenced by some Retail Activation at the store level.
Retail activation is all about communicating the brand promise and experience to the consumer at a place where they have the right TG, at the right time, and in the right frame of mind, most of the times.
Retail activation can happen inside the store, in a mall, on the store sidewalk, interactive store window performances, nearby metros or subway stations etc.

Reasons For Retail Activation Taking A Front Seat

Retail as a category & science is a very vast and has many formats and managing each of these formats require different approaches practiced by Retail Management Consultants. While Retail Management has more to do with the business side of it, it is dependent on the role of activation to help Retail Management achieve its targets across all parameters.

Retail is mostly present in High Streets or inside Malls, where every brand is clambering to gain the attention of the visitor and pull them into their store. And many a times, the actual purchase decision of a pre decided shopper get changed at the last minute, for multiple number of reasons and Retail Management and Brand professionals are still not able to pinpoint one single attribute which made the prospect change her mind at the last minute.

Having said this, and with the ever changing tastes of the consumer it becomes all the more important for brand to have a great retail activation strategy to stand out from the crowd and attract the prospect.

Benefits Of Retail Activation

• Identify New Prospects, reinforce relationships with current customers.
• Attract and Engage Shoppers inside and outside the store.
• Create hype around new store launches, seasonal sales, and special events.
• Get shoppers to interact and engage with brands on the ground and in the digital world as well through digitally integrated retail activations.
• Generate shopper interaction content for the brand.
• Get firsthand feedback.
• Creates an opportunity to engage and influence prospects to shift loyalty.
• Creates the right ambience to get prospects to relate to the brands products and its promise to customers.

Factors Influencing Retail Activation:

• The Brand and the audience.
• The timing.
• The context of the activation.
• The probable mindset of the consumer at the location and at the time of the activation.
• The engagement idea.
• Integrating the offline engagement to the online world.
• The resources who are actually executing the activation and the ambience around the same.
• The key takeaway from the activation for the consumer.
• The overall experience.

Connect with us today and see for some of our successful Retail Activation Consulting assignment case studies, and to also ask for a proposal to energize your brand around your retail environments