NEW YORK — Andy Murray, chief executive officer of Saatchi & Saatchi X, literally bet his house on the store as marketing environment.
The 42-year-old Cincinnati native quit his job at Hallmark, sold his house and relocated with his family to a rental property in Fayetteville, Ark., to start his own business, Brand Works Consulting, where he banked on his three years at Hallmark and another nine at Procter & Gamble. In June 2004, Murray sold his business to Saatchi & Saatchi, where it became the ad agency’s X unit, focused on communicating with people where they shop.
Murray spoke with WWD on how stores can become a more powerful platform for marketing, as the media become more fragmented.
WWD: Where are the best opportunities to connect with people in a shopping environment?
Andy Murray: Communication — talking to shoppers in ways that meet their needs. Two planes are key: inspiration, with the intent to solve problems, and education. Brands struggle to tell their stories in a store’s space, unless they’re brand stores.
WWD: How would you rate fashion’s efforts in this regard?
A.M.: I think fashion is doing a very poor job in communicating fit. Size is confusing and we get very many shoppers who tell us it is frustrating. There’s a problem with the labeling of size and fit — a need for some standards beyond what the size is given as.
WWD: How do you rank the shopping environment as a place to connect with consumers, versus other marketing platforms?
A.M.: High. Because you’re influencing behavior where people really can do something about it. More apparel marketers communicate more emotion in-store … but other points — functional benefits, like, does it wear well? — are very important. Still, with any communication, you have to get through the emotion before you get to the logic.
WWD: Are there particular media or technologies that are underexploited in a store environment?
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A.M.: I am not a big fan of technology unless it puts the customer in control. If it’s style finding or fit finding, at a customer’s discretion, that would help. I’m starting to see technology that doesn’t communicate a brand’s story. A lot of it is wallpaper … ignored by the customers. Most technology in-store is a distraction from the activity of shopping.
WWD: How do you draw the fine line between appeal and overkill in today’s cluttered marketing environment?
A.M.: Retailers today get frustrated with clutter and go to the other extreme of minimalism. Minimalism isn’t particularly effective in inspiring. The answer to clutter is not to get rid of everything. My answer is to build a system, to do it so you have a standard way to appeal to shoppers.