When Retail Brand Building Meets Dirt Cheap Experience
German shoppers are very price conscious and used to giving up on the shopping experience.
But the grocery store next to my home seems to be going a bit too far! Tampons, remedies (anti-virus), dish liquids and batteries next to food products, altogether in one price-promotion box (don’t perishable products like cream cheese and milk need to be kept cold, by the way?)!
I won’t mention the retailer’s name here, because really, this could be anyone. To call a spade a spade: this is not an exception. Instead, it’s the harsh reality in Germany’s retail environment, unfortunately.
Well, maybe we don’t want it to be different. I mean, the grocery market share of discounters in Germany is almost at 50%. So why spend money to build retail brands, then? Something is obviously totally wrong with the German retail environment!
There is this huge difference between telling people about the brand and letting them experience it for themselves. Most in-store experiences don’t keep up with the intended brand images. In the era of experience marketing, reality simply catches up with communication!
So, your in-store (and shopping) experience has to be in-line with the brand image, if you want to build your retail brand for real. Else, all your communication efforts are useless!