A recent article from technology and advertising blog PSFK asks whether or not retail-focused smartphone applications make self-service solutions redundant. Even though the piece makes positive mention of Microsoft Surface and Intel’s intelligent digital signage proof of concept, it lists six reasons why retailers should exclusively focus on mobile development:

1. The phone is personal. It already knows who you are and can access what you like and even your purchase preferences like clothing sizes. With an interactive display you often have to start from the beginning.

2. The phone is social. The phone knows who your friends are and allows information before and after purchase to be shared between you and your peers. Sure, interactive displays can be connected to social media but are you really going to put your password to Facebook into an interactive display in a store that you visit once a month?

3. The phone is touchable. Would you rather tap away at the screen on the phone only you use or would you want to touch the smudged screen of the chain-store retailer where thousands of people pass through each day?

4. The phone is consumer-powerful. The phone keeps the power in the hands of the consumer while the interactive display offers the controlled world of the retailer. The interactive display doesn’t provide access to the world of group buying sites, deal services or comparative pricing apps.

5. Because a retailer can doesn’t mean they should. Just because WalMart stores have TVs throughout with advertisements running, it doesn’t mean that this service must be replicated across all retailers. Stores want to program specific environments that create subtle experiences that drive sales. A TV blasting ads – even if it’s interactive – might actually be a turn off for shpppers in many instances.

6. The phone is becoming sensitive. Technology is evolving to allow the phone to notice RFID tags and other ‘internet of things’ technology.

The above points are valid, but they look at the retail sector from a singular perspective. Smartphones are becoming an increasingly integral component in how we shop. They are not, however, the end all and be all of the consumer shopping experience. Just as the functionality of cellphones are growing more advanced so too are interactive digital displays. Retailers are right to focus significant energy on developing applications for mobile phones, but they must also devote resources to alternative in-store communications channels. Mobile is great, so too is digital signage.

What were once little more than computer stations in retail stores are evolving into immersive multi-touch gateways. Interactive video walls and intelligent self-service solutions are beginning to be integrated seamlessly into store environments. Their flexibility begets their utility. They function as integral parts of a store’s atmosphere. They can exist as omniscient sales associates, multi-user entertainment systems, or large-scale online catalogs.

Mobile phones and interactive digital signage should not be looked at as being mutually exclusive at retail. One doesn’t diminish the other. In reality, when they are positioned to enhance each other, consumers reap the greatest benefit. As I detailed in an earlier post, mobile applications and digital signage are allies, NOT adversaries. Whereas the mobile channel is geared around one-to-one interactions, digital displays at retail can be used to extend the engagement to a broad segment of consumers.

Mobile Applications and Digital Signage are Allies, NOT Adversaries

An in-store digital signage network is a one-to-many communication platform, yet still has the potential to foster a deeper connection than a one-to-one mobile interaction. Such is the nature of advertising when the medium is part of the message. It doesn’t mean that one platform, mobile or digital signage, is better than the other. It just illustrates that they offer alternate means of achieving the same goal: Lead Customer X to Purchase Brand A.

Rather than looking at the two platforms as adversaries, one harnesses each technology’s full value when pairing them as allies. Two arrows are always better than one. And, when one medium can increase the impact of another – use them together.

There are times when a brand may be better suited to use mobile instead of digital signage, and vice versa. But, in reality, given the fragmented nature of today’s media environment, its best to develop content for multiple platforms and target your message to reach consumers across various outlets.

Integrating Mobile and Digital Signage: Opportunities Abound

When given the choice of viewing content solely on a smartphone or interacting with the same content on a massive multi-touch display, which would you choose? I would go for the interactive digital signage, selecting the option that extends the boundaries of the user experience. What can be considered more exciting than selecting one option or the other is alternating between the two. Using a mobile phone to interact with a digital screen can create a unique experience that draws in multiple users and builds significant brand awareness (SEE: Locamoda, MegaPhone, Snaptell, Akoo)

Thanks to the portability of content, and innovations in the realm of cross-platform communication, shoppers can move between mobile applications and digital signage without skipping a beat. Each platform can function as a unique retail touchpoint, whereby each shopper has the ability to choose his own digital path though a store.
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A core factor of the retail customer experience is advertising. But, how we speak to a potential customer versus a point-of-sale customer is not the same.

Sacrifice for the Greater Good

In a consumer’s home, the advertiser competes with everything; there is nothing “endemic” about a TV program, a magazine, or the internet. During a break of a recent sporting event I saw the following ads: Nextel (Wireless), Taco Bell (Food), Zantac (Medicine) Progressive (Insurance), and Ford (Auto). Each advertiser thinks you need their product more than anything else.

Something about the proposition will be sacrificed for the greater good of brand awareness due to factors like broadcast running times and lack of actual products or services. You can only drive a car when you get to the dealership. You can only experience a wireless device by actually using the wireless device. Lifestyle benefits are a core proposition of broadcast advertising; it’s easier to show how your life will be with the product because you can’t actually use the product…yet.

Terrific creative and understanding the audience and the environment is crucial in winning a viewer’s attention.

But retail is different. Very different.

At retail, the competition narrows down to the category. When Nike competes with Budweiser at home, it’s only a matter of who likes shoes and who likes beer. But when Nike competes with Adidas and Reebok and K Swiss and Puma on a wall of footwear, the category focus by both the customer and the advertiser at the point of sale is paramount. This is where the brand “wins the last 10 feet.”

And, in many cases, you can use the product. You can try on the shoes or the clothes. You can test drive the car, or make a wireless connection.

So why do advertisers and venues accept external advertising for the network in a retail environment? Why do so many brands and manufacturers just re-purpose their 30-second awareness ads to run on the shelf?

The Push (or Pull) for Better Content

The simple answer is insufficient data to support the theory that custom content does any better at selling a product than regular broadcast advertising. Numbers get thrown around all too easily: 70% of shopper decisions are made in-store. Or is that 50%? I recently read that POPAI’s MARI project claims that only “… three percent of in-store marketing communications is currently passed and seen by shoppers…” So that means that 97% is ignored? Or is it missed completely? How does this affect the 50-70% of shoppers who make the purchase decisions? In a 2008 study from IMI Consumer Track, North Americans were asked what influenced them to purchase brands they don’t normally purchase. The respondents said they were influenced by an ad they saw on TV 24% of the time.

Statistics, always subjective and often misleading, should compel an argument, not decide it. They should not stand in the way of engaging the customer. Instead of believing in one side of the statistic, look at the other side: 50% may be influenced, but 50% are not. 50% is a really, really big number.

Why should retail marketing push brands and advertisers to create custom content?

You have to stand out. The amount of retail environmental stimuli waging a war for the customer’s attention is close to immeasurable.

Re-purposing advertising does two things: It tells the customer what she already knows, and it tells her you don’t have anything to add to your proposition. Result: She deselects you because there are other, newer things to look at.

Decisions. Decisions.

The customer’s mindset is different in the store. Marketers must stop believing that “purchase decisions” and “unplanned decisions” are the same thing. A purchase decision usually starts outside the store.

I need bar of soap.

Where do I get soap?

At the store.

I’m going to the store.

I’m at the store.

I’m here for soap.

There’s the soap.

External advertising starts the path to purchase by compelling the viewer to decide whether or not he needs what you’re selling. In-store advertising must pick up where broadcast left off – at the curbside or front door – and guide the customer along the path, not simply reiterate what he already knows.

Purchase decisions may lead to unplanned decisions. An unplanned decision is based on impulse. Oh…I need shampoo, too. While I’m here… Where the two types of decisions mix is in the shopper’s mindset at the point of sale. Therefore, the approach to the customer should be different.

Advertising is part of the equation, not the solution; it must work in tandem with everything else.

The Effort Starts Here

The marketing team must collaborate with merchandising team to create that holistic experience. Merchant teams will negotiate massive deals with brands for product placement with little regard for how the product is actually presented to the customer. A big victory for the brand is a prominent location, but the surrounding presentation materials may not complete the entire experience. Marketing must sit at the table and be a part of the deal so that proper attention can be given to the messaging that accompanies the product.

To this end, the need for extra money to create custom content will diminish. The content and production will be part of the negotiated deal for the product life-cycle in the store. It will not be an afterthought tapping into other budgets. Further, because of its separation from any other kind of advertising, it will give marketers the ability to better measure impact.

While statistics may support some of the arguments, they should never make a case. Knowing that the customers at home and customers at a store are different should warrant the argument for custom creative at the point of sale.

Terrific creative, coupled with understanding the audience, is crucial in winning a viewer’s attention.

There is really only one goal for digital signage: enabling initiative, getting the customer doing something with what he or she has just seen. Regardless of the engagement, a positive outcome is the only desired effect.

Here are three very general areas where digital signage can play a positive role in a customer’s experience within an environment, and the potential pitfall each encounters with poor planning and execution.

Environmental Navigation

Navigation is usually the first impression a customer gets of a store. “Where can I find…?” Good navigation will make the shopper’s experience positive and can reduce time and stress. Digital signage can play a key role in making sure that two goals are met: Showing the customer exactly where to go and showing the easiest way to get there. But you don’t get a second chance at a first impression. Poor navigation techniques, or making the customer work too hard to locate the destination, will disengage a customer before he is even at the destination.

Do we now need GPS in a store?

Education

Learning about a product or service through digital interactivity allows the customer to learn at her pace, not the pace of the employee or the store. The ability for digital engagement (most likely in a kiosk) to be flexible for the customer’s depth of knowledge and desire for education will generate interest, respect and loyalty from the customer.

In contrast, poor education or programming that makes too many assumptions about the customer’s knowledge and has ignored important messaging will sour the experience.

Perception of Time

The ability to cut down on a customer’s perception of time is taken very seriously by environments where waiting (hospitals) or poor attitudes (returning an item that gave you a bad experience) are part of the customer’s experience in the space. Engaging content can change behavior and ultimately reduce a customer’s perception of time.

However, poor execution on basic guidelines, such as the running time on a looping program being shorter than the average time a customer waits, can be a big disappointment. Customers don’t want to see the same thing twice. In addition, creating programming that does not effectively draw attention away from the customer’s purpose in the environment can backfire by making the customer even more aware of the time.

The detail that goes into each category is dependent upon the venue’s strategy with digital signage. Great care should be taken each time. Poor execution with one screen can wreck a customer’s experience in the entire environment. A bad digital signage experience can drive customers away just as fast as bad customer service.

To avoid that end, constant research and understanding will keep your digital experiences fresh and appealing for the customer and the venue.

The show was great!

Not only did I enjoy countless engaging, vibrant conversations, I also came in contact with a wealth of exciting new technologies. The attendance was strong. Optimistic energy fueled the show’s atmosphere. You could tell that attendees recognized how important it is for them to integrate customer-facing technology into their environments.

I had to navigate large crowds throughout the day, especially as I walked through the Innovation Station, a collection of hand-picked retail solutions driving the future of the industry. Kudos need to be given to CRI for bringing together such a great, and diverse, array of solution providers.

The IBM booth (more like a control center) was picked with digital goodies and innovative retail solutions. Just like at the Innovation Station, I had to navigate crowds of engaged attendees to get from point A to point B. Within IBM’s “showcase,” I saw a range of technologies, including location aware mobile applications and in-store augmented reality displays. The company sees the writing on the wall, and knows that the world of bricks-and-mortar is undergoing an in-store digital revolution. IBM sees its deep involvement in various aspects of retailers’ operations as a clear foundation on which to build new media experiences.

NRF 2010 will be remembered for a number of different things, one of which is sure to be the number of tech giants showcasing new digital signage solutions. The show saw digital signage solutions from tech stalwarts like HP, Dell, Intel, Microsoft, and IBM (just to name a few). It is an exciting development for our industry to see the aforementioned “big boys” step into our pond. I’m not saying that they’re not going to stumble here and there along the way. As these companies acclimate themselves to the world of digital signage, they will learn from their mistakes and discover nuances of the market. Their depth of talent, experience, sizable R&D departments, and tech industry leverage is sure to drive DS forward. I see it as a ringing endorsement of the auspicious future that lies ahead for the digital signage marketplace.

With companies like Intel and Microsoft taking a major interest in digital signage, such activity is guaranteed to accelerate the growth of the industry. Not only do many of these DS newcomers want to grow their presence in the sector, they want to take leadership positions therein. We all know that such a thing is easier said than done, but I’m sure that some of the executives I met with are going to have a major impact on this industry. One such individual is Jose Avalos, the Director of Digital Signage at Intel.

Unless you were living under a rock, you heard about the multitouch, holographic intelligent digital signage concept that Intel featured at the show. Equipped with anonymous video analytics (facial recognition software from Cognovision) and an array of top-notch digital and technical features, the innovative solution captured the imagination of attendees. I must applaud Intel and Microsoft for recognizing that one must make a big splash when entering new markets to get people’s attention. Jose Avalos sees and understands the lasting place digital signage will have across the retail ecosystem. Speaking with Jose, even for just a few minutes, was illuminating. He spoke passionately about Intel’s approach to the industry and desire to deliver solutions that will enhance how we shop.

Looking around the show, you couldn’t help but feel the energy that circled the Javits Center floor. The time is upon us to grasp the ship carrying the future of retail. The vessel is filled with impassioned individuals who see the potential inherent in bringing real-time, efficient, and smart technology to the corner store and neighborhood shopping mall.

I welcomed connecting with professionals in the show’s Design Studio. Design houses and architects are definitely keen to the coming flood of technology at retail. I connected with RFID providers, audience analytics firms, customer loyalty companies, and automated retail companies (I love ZoomSystems). With everything I saw, and all of the people I spoke with, I can confidently say that the tide is rising. If you want to ride the wave of new retail engagements and experiences, you better jump on board.

The folks at VeriFone, who just acquired Clear Channel’s Taxi Media operations, are definitely thinking beyond the payment space. With VeriFone’s technical footprint across retail and a range of other industries, they are surely a company to watch as media begins to get further integrated into these solutions. It’s a natural progression to equip POS systems with small-form factor displays that enhance the retail environment.

While Intel’s partnership with Microsoft in developing a multi-touch retail solution has garnered the most press from the show, I was equally captivated by another solution from one of Intel’s partners at NRF. Mark my words that the company I mention next is one that will have a long, prosperous future in the digital signage industry (and beyond!).

YCD Multimedia displayed the robustness of the company’s software solution in driving a nine screen Samsung video wall (plus a tenth interactive screen) from a single player (powered by an Intel processor, of course). The video wall was capable of playing out 9 different channels of content, unique to each screen. I was blown away by the fact that the system was running from one media tower. The screen displayed 4K content, meaning 4X HD resolution, given that each display was running at its native 1080p resolution.

That by itself was impressive, but then Josh Kampel, YCD’s head of business development, took the covers of off the company’s most recent innovation – RAMP. An advertising management system that is as intuitive and beautiful as it is robust, RAMP bridges corporate and local network control, while supporting easy content creation, data management, playlist creation, and campaign scheduling. Their solution is a next step for the digital signage industry.

With everyone that I met (it was a pleasure), and all of the technology that I saw, going to NRF was like walking into FAO Schwartz for the first time as youngster. I feel this way every time I go to one of these shows. As geeky as this sounds, I love technology. I especially love how technology can enhance our lives, how we shop, how we interact, how we communicate, etc. What was great about my trip to NRF this year, is that the vast majority, if not everyone, whom I came in contact with shared that same passion for technology.

In an effort to attract customers, retailers are becoming more category and product agnostic. Walmart’s consumer electronics department is beginning to look a lot like Best Buy’s layout. Best Buy adopted a red theme for their new Musical Instruments department. It looks a lot like Guitar Center. Amazon just takes on everyone with unrivaled inventory. The customer has two choices to make: Click-and-order, or brick-and-mortar. And if the customer can get the same product from any number of retailers, the brand experience becomes the deciding factor for the customer.

The most valuable thing a retailer can own is its position in a customer’s mind. At the retail level, digital signage augments that perception by bringing the brand to life.

A digital signage network is an investment in your brand, not a line item on your P&L sheet. You build it to create a differentiated experience, not to show an ad a customer can see on her TV at home, online, or in another retailer’s space. Running ads for the sake of revenue denigrates the brand equity you have built for the customer experience. The network has a higher purpose at the intersection between the brand and the customer.

Your digital signage network allows you to consistently deliver your brand proposition, withstanding the ebb of market forces, product sales, and incremental revenue. This reflects in a customer’s choice between you and another retailer. Relying on revenue to drive the programming or the experience will force you to rethink your strategy every time the market fluctuates.

With a customer’s ability to deselect messaging as she moves through the retail environment, it is critical that your brand engages her instead of becoming a casualty.

Technically and financially, we’re there. But what about content?

The conventional wisdom is that digital menu boards don’t need to have any particular whiz-bang about the creative. They can be jpegs or motion vector graphics (like Flash or Silverlight), and maybe there’s embedded video. The few digital menu boards I have seen look like regular menu boards.

Is that the optimal way to do it? I haven’t a clue, as my fast food patronage doesn’t extend much beyond buying coffee at Tim Horton’s now and then. But there’s an interesting piece in Wednesday’s New York Times (you may need to register to read it, but that’s free) about the psychology of menus that is worth a read if planning or peddling menu boards is in the cards for 2010.

Restaurant operators are fiddling, the story says, with combinations of prices, adjectives, fonts, type sizes, ink colors and placement on the page to try to coax diners into spending a little more money.

The use of menu engineers and consultants is exploding in the casual dining arena and among national chains, a sector of the business that has been especially pinched by the economy. In response, they are tapping into a growing body of research into the science of menu pricing and writing, hoping the way to a diner’s heart is not only through the stomach, but through the unconscious.

This piece, I should stress, is all about the menus a waiter or waitress hands to you, not menus up on boards. But there is good stuff in here that is broadly applicable to anyone trying to get people ordering more.

In the “Ten Commandments for Menu Success,” an article published in Restaurant Hospitality magazine in 1994, Allen H. Kelson, a restaurant consultant, wrote, “If admen had souls, many would probably trade them for an opportunity every restaurateur already has: the ability to place an advertisement in every customer’s hand before they part with their money.”

And like advertisements, menus contain plenty of subliminal messages.

Some restaurants use what researchers call decoys. For example, they may place a really expensive item at the top of the menu, so that other dishes look more reasonably priced; research shows that diners tend to order neither the most nor least expensive items, drifting toward the middle. Or restaurants might play up a profitable dish by using more appetizing adjectives and placing it next to a less profitable dish with less description so the contrast entices the diner to order the profitable dish.

Research by Brian Wansink, director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University and the author of “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think,” suggests that the average person makes more than 200 decisions about food every day, many of them unconsciously, including the choices made from reading menus.

Menu design draws some of its inspiration from newspaper layout, which puts the most important articles at the top right of the front page, where the eyes tend to be drawn. Some restaurants will place their most profitable items, or their specials, in that spot. Or they place a dotted outline or a box around the item, put more white space around it to make the dish stand out or, in what menu researchers say is one of the most effective tools, add a photograph of the item or an icon like a chili pepper.

Interesting reading, and a good reminder that our emerging industry can learn a lot from the efforts made on the more traditional sides of businesses.

As the mobile web and smartphones approach mainstream adoption, we will see more robust uses of mobile technology in retail environments. The growth of the mobile application economy, spurred by the launch of the iPhone, has succeeded in bringing tools to market that make our daily lives easier (inside and outside of the home).

“We are at the cusp of this technology really driving a lot of activity during the shopping season,” said Stacy Janiak, United States retail practice leader at Deloitte. “It is both an opportunity and a challenge for a retailer, because you can have a consumer who can cross-shop your store with other bricks-and-mortar stores or online, all from the convenience of your aisle.”

Retailers need to embrace the mobile web and smartphone applications. Consumers are increasingly using applications from companies like ShopSavvy, RedLaser, and My Coupons to ensure that they are getting the best deals at retail. While it can be argued that applications like ShopSavvy and Red Laser, barcode readers for real-time price comparisons, hinder bricks-and-mortar retail, these consumer-based tools, in truth, challenge retailers to evolve. They push retailers to learn more about their customers, react more adeptly to changes in consumer demand, and enhance their shopper marketing efforts.

When a consumer pulls his iPhone from his pocket and scans the tag of a leather jacket to get price comparisons from nearby retailers and e-commerce sites, it creates a clear opportunity for the retailer whose store he’s in to rise to the challenge. Accepting the fact that consumers have product buying guides, price comparison tools, customer reviews, etc. at their fingertips, pushes retailers to adapt to a marketplace now dominated by empowered consumers.

Whether it be in the form of matching prices customers receive from mobile applications, delivering real-time mobile coupons, offering customer loyalty incentives, or providing value-added services at no cost, offline retailers must flex their marketing, customer service, and sales muscle to stay competitive.

If someone standing in one store scans a product with ShopSavvy, for example, a retailer down the street could deliver the shopper a coupon for the same item. A major retailer is already doing that in a few test cities, including Seattle, said Alexander Muse, co-founder of Big in Japan, the start-up that created ShopSavvy.

Other applications, including Yowza, use the GPS location information in cellphones to send shoppers coupons for stores within walking distance of where they’re standing. “This empowers consumers to make a smart decision,” Mr. Muse said. “Already, retailers are starting to figure out, ‘I need to be in this game.’ ”

There was a fantastic article in Friday’s New York Times that detailed the depths to which mobile applications are being utilized at retail during the holiday season. The piece is a must read. Not only do I recommend the article, but I implore you to read it.

Without getting into the full details of Brogan’s retail misadventure (a search for the Timberland Earthkeepers brand boot), his frustration stemmed from contact with a string of apathetic store associates who lacked knowledge of Timberland’s new line of boots.The negative aspect of his shopping experience was exacerbated by the fact that the Timberland store he visited had not yet received their first shipment of the company’s new Earthkeepers boots. This element of the experience grew exponentially worse once Brogan returned home and found the shoes in stock on Zappos.

In summing up the whole experience, Brogan wrote the following:

I guess, in thinking this all over a bit more, I’ve come to realize that there’s really very little reason to walk into a brick and mortar retail store for most products these days. I can research better on the web. I can get better opinions on the web. I can find better deals via the web. And I can actually order something that was advertised, when using a web channel.

What does that tell YOU about retail?

Chris Brogan’s large community of readers responded en masse. While a large number agreed with his criticism of Timberland (”Why couldn’t the guy working at the original Timberland store pull up their corporate website and order them for him?”), some felt remiss that Brogan didn’t offer actionable marketing or customer service solutions to improve face-to-face retail.

Shifting one’s behavior to only shopping online, is not the answer. I wholeheartedly agree that the majority of face-to-face retail experiences underwhelm when compared to the online alternative. That doesn’t mean, however, that bricks-and-mortar retail is relegated to a subservient position to its online counterpart; or that consumers must accept that most in-store experiences will leave them wanting more.

Bricks-and-mortar is not destined to become an irrelevant relic of the pre-digital age. If anything, deficiencies in bricks-and-mortar service create opportunities for change. I believe that we are headed toward a bricks-and-mortar retail revolution. The Web has fostered customer expectations that call for quick, efficient, and flexible service. With countless alternatives to shopping in stores filled with disenfranchised, apathetic associates, retailers cannot afford to let their bricks-and-mortar establishments become customer service graveyards.

E-commerce has changed the game for retail. Customers expect to find what they are looking for in an instant, receive recommendations based on recent purchases, and, ultimately, have the ability to shape their own shopping experience. Retailers need to take technologies from the Web and bring them into bricks-and-mortar. They need to equip associates with devices and technologies that enhance their product knowledge. Associates must have digital tools at the ready. They need to have detailed product information at their fingertips at all times. They must have the ability to pull up real-time inventory information, access product fact sheets with the push of a button, and offer store patrons customized assistance.

The days of unknowledgeable associates being the status quo are over. The lessons learned through e-commerce and web-based shopper analysis call for more robust in-store experiences. Just as e-commerce storefronts offer targeted shopping experiences based on consumer preferences so too must physical stores fluidly respond to the needs of different customers.

The solution isn’t to transition to online-only sales channels, but to demand that face-to-face retail fulfills the same needs that consumers have come to expect online. Bricks-and-mortar retail is far from being as efficient, technologically-advanced, or flexible as it could be, and should be. This is one of the reasons why digital signage and self-service technology are such exciting fields to be in. Empowered consumers require retail experiences that speak to their individual needs and desires.

“Where is the…?”
“Do you have…?”

Yet, the retailer has not executed digital signage that can answer these questions. The ideal place for this digital concierge is in the store’s “landing zone,” or the first 20 feet or so inside the doors. Some retailers prefer to keep this area free from a lot of noise and promotion as a way to allow the customer to decompress and transition from traveling to the store to the experience inside it.

I believe this is the very place where customers expect to be directed. Customers enter and orient themselves with the new surroundings. Those that are short on time do not walk to the back of the store and then ask, “Where is the…?” They would prefer to ask up front and get their shopping finished.

In February, 2009, Herb Sorensen wrote “Deconstructing the Shopping Trip (so far!).” Mr, Sorensen states that these questions are actually an effort by customers to break down barriers erected by the brands and retailers. The two questions he sees (closely related to the two above) are:

Where is the . . ?
Which one of these . . ?

“The first of these plagues the shopper when store layout does not match the shopper’s natural navigational practices and the second when it is unclear which of many options is the right one for the shopper.”

So why is it that retailers have yet to fully embrace this as an opportunity to assist the customer’s path to purchase?

The holiday shopping season is rarely the enjoyable treat we see played out by so many retailers in their holiday campaigns. Instead of jingle-bell laden happy music, fluffy snow, rosy cheeks, and beautiful store employees, we have bad weather, empty shelves, muzak, and employees who would rather hit the local tavern than help the umteenth customer find the batteries. This is a terrific mixture for stress.

This year will be another “make or break” season for some retailers, and they are pulling out all the stops to make sure they don’t push daisies next spring. One plan is not adding employee head count in the store, the part-time seasonal workers that come in to help with the customer traffic rush. This is an easy way to avoid costs.

Providing a solution to the most basic questions a customer has would solve two challenges: It would alleviate stress on the shopper to search and discover the item of choice was out of stock; and it would reduce the stress on an employee to help every single customer that walks through the door, instead focusing on customers that need detailed help. The ideal state finds the navigational interactive device tied to the local POS system to indicate whether an item is still in stock.

Interactive navigation is ideal in situations where customers can shop on their terms, and the holiday shopping season provides no better time to execute this type of digital interactivity.

Maybe that’s why the internet is so attractive for holiday shopping. You can search for something and find it without leaving your comfy chair as the fireplace crackles, the fluffy snow mounts outside your window, and your iPod rattles the ornaments with “Winter Wonderland.”

The new American Eagle store has an absolutely towering 25-storey wall of tight pixel LEDs rising from a corner off the landmark square, and wrapping around it. Other stores and media companies have also spent Lord knows how much making themselves noticed.

It’s all quite amazing, and has very little to do with digital signage as it plays out day to day, Yes, they are signs, and they are digital. But the comparison end pretty much there.

What these big boards tell us, though, is just how important it is to be big with visuals. Most of what’s deployed in the digital signage industry right now is, quite arguably, too small for its surroundings. A screen that eats a wall in someone’s main living area at home looks relatively tiny hanging from a high ceiling in a 100,000 square foot food barn. Unless a screen is down at eye level or nested with product, a big LCD or plasma in many settings struggles to get noticed.

The novelty factor of big flat panel monitors is long gone, so people aren’t looking at them because they are there.

So what do you do? Try other stuff.

In retail, and the other indoor spaces that are the mainstream of what we called digital signage, big LEDs don’t really work. Too costly, too bright, and while the image reproduction on the indoor versions can look pretty good from a distance, up close, the visuals look terrible. The LED bulbs are too far apart. They have a role, but a limited one.

Big projection screens present too many maintenance issues and physical challenges, and the visuals never look great in a bright room. Sunlight and ambient light are the enemies and may always be.

LCD and plasma walls that have screens stitched together look much better, but even the newest ones still have very noticeable seams between the screens, and are a lot of work to keep all looking the same. They have presence, but what gets put up tends to look compromised from the moment these walls turn on.

That’s why I was very intrigued about a new product being rolled out by Christie Digital, a company that has been in the projection business for many decades, but has now developed a product that takes the display business in a new direction.

I did some writing for the company in the lead-up to the launch of MicroTiles, so there is my conflict declared. But that’s where my interests end. I am writing about the technology now, because it deals effectively with the BIG thing.

The tiles have very bright LED light engines inside self-contained units that can stack and join in any number of shapes. So instead of a video wall always being a uniform wall, it can be as jagged as a bar chart tracking the stock market. It can wrap around door frames. It can run up support columns, or look like an LED ribbon board in a sports arena.

The difference is that the clarity and color reproduction are superior to LED and better even than the monster LCD and plasma stuff in rich guys’ home cinemas. The units will last for more than seven years at 24/7 usage. And they service fast and easily from the front, and are self-aware, meaning the Tiles talk to each other and calibrate on the fly. Where regular video walls get patchy from screen to screen, these tiles steadily compare notes and sync up.

And the seams are 1 mm. That’s it. Hairline.

Gorgeous stuff. A little pricey and meant for now for flagship stores and big-ticket venues. But over time, these units could be very commonplace.

The reason: They deal with all the issues and needs of BIG.

That is very good news for all of us. A lot of retailers are not yet doing digital signage because what they have seen in store has large been uninspiring and lacking true impact. Ad sales on many networks struggle because the screens they install doesn’t get the notice numbers they need.

But when display technology can get fitted into these sorts of environments and both dominate and fit the space, that really is BIG.