20 Ideas Worth Stealing

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Creativity is a hallmark of the retail industry, and retailers have continued to demonstrate just how inventive, resourceful and imaginative they are over the last 18 months – no small feat given the financial challenges experienced by businesses and consumers alike.

Retailers have come up with clever ways to connect with customers. They’ve created programs and events that attract crowds and leave memorable impressions. They’ve dabbled in Facebook and tried their hands at Twitter. Some companies developed new collections with an eye toward helping shoppers overcome economic hurdles; others tweaked their credit card programs to ease the burden.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; it’s also proven to be an effective business survival tool. We’re not recommending that you steal these ideas outright. Instead, we hope to inspire, to start a conversation and to encourage some brainstorming. Start with the concept, shake it, turn it upside down and see what you come up with: chances are you have the potential to make a great idea even better.

Consider the following a retail survival kit for 2010 (and if you’re one of the companies mentioned herein, consider yourself flattered).

15 Seconds of Fame
American Eagle Outfitters is giving its 15- to 24-year-old customers the star treatment in a way that delivers a big wow.

AEO opened a flagship store at Broadway and 46th Street in Times Square in mid-November.

Capitalizing on its unique location, the specialty retailer installed a 25-story, 15,000-sq.-ft. digital sign outside the store. Called “15 Seconds of Fame,” the project provides customers who make a purchase with the opportunity to have their pictures displayed on the gigantic screen – along with a 20-character-long personal message — for all of Times Square to see. They also receive a plastic card with a photo as a souvenir.

Shoppers also are encouraged to share the experience via Facebook and Twitter. AEO executives say the goal is to offer customers a different experience. There’s no question that the competition for people’s attention in this busy hub is fierce, yet AEO is attracting shoppers and lifting foot traffic with its mega display.

Downward Dog = Upward Momentum
Lululemon Athletica knows how to draw attention to its business and cultivate a devoted following along the way.

Last summer the Vancouver, B.C.-based retailer of yoga-inspired apparel provided free bi-weekly yoga classes in New York City’s Bryant Park and Union Square. On several occasions more than 400 people showed up, yoga mats in tow, to be part of this one-of-a-kind experience.

Complimentary yoga classes are part of the company culture; Lululemon works with local yoga instructors at stores across the country, and the strategy draws in newbies and devotees alike. With more than 100 stores in operation and more coming in 2010, Lululemon is cultivating a devoted following.

Lickity-Split Product Trail
Sampling programs — or “try-vertising” — can be extremely helpful for introducing shoppers to the latest and greatest. Still, you can’t put beverages in direct mail or print.

Refusing to be deterred, Sunny D Beverages encouraged trial of its SunnyD Smoothies using Peel ’n Taste flavor samplers. This sensory marketing experience — described as the oral equivalent of “scratch and sniff” — consisted of Orange Whirl-flavored edible film strips, distributed via shelf-edge dispensers in Food Lion supermarkets, allowing the company to connect with parents (and their kids) at the point of purchase.

Peel ’n Taste strips may be familiar to grown-ups for another reason: The technology, created by First Flavor, has been used by Diageo for its Captain Morgan’s Parrot Bay key-lime flavored rum and Skyy for its Infusions passion fruit-flavored vodka.