Say it with feeling in Romania
Last year, MCS Communications invited us to lead the design of a retail telecom concept for Romania. MCS Communications is a part of the Milomor Trade & Communication Group along with several other companies such as Hat, the official Romanian importer of Samsung mobile phones, and DTH Television, the digital television known as Boom TV. Their goal was to create a new kind of setting to sell products, services and accessories from the telecom, digital TV, photo products and services and multimedia markets.
The new brand, ‘Say’, opens in 60 premium locations across the country, 12 in Bucharest. We’re a London-based agency, but our business is largely international. Our work spans the globe from the US through the UK, through Europe, all the way to India. Our people tackle the differences and similarities
of the world’s cultures on a daily basis. Maybe that’s why we’re able to identify the right local patterns to bring into context while most agencies simply adopt the most recent western trends and end up sanitising valuable meaning.
We find that the best way of getting local insights is by letting our diverse international team interact closely with the client’s team. This means spending time getting to know each other, sharing stories and experiences from other projects and our own experience as consumers. It also involves visiting stores together. Some of these stores will be competitors but many will be from other categories as the insights to good experiences are often found off the beaten track.
“The challenge of this project was to turn spaces into experiences and to turn brand values into shapes,” says Alina Duna, Marketing Manager at MCS who leads the Say brand and retail marketing programmes. “Customer experience is not just about branding, it’s about the bottom line. For example, taking the business models and designing the retail space so the business models influence the flow of customers inside the store.” Working with the Romanian team at Say, we couldn’t have asked for better collaborators, as we immediately felt an affinity with them. They had a strong vision and they wanted to bring something new to the Romanian market: a new retail experience without compromising the business goals.
Brandinstinct consultant Uri Baruchin says: “When we visited some widely loved lifestyle stores in Romania we discovered that they were cosy and welcoming but often a bit messy. On the other hand, when we visited telecom stores they felt cold and distant - white and bare and flooded with neon light. The feeling of the space was a little like a doctor’s waiting room. This was not the experience we were after.”
In our brainstorming with the Say team we tried to understand what was going on. We discussed the sales oriented business goals of the store, but we also explored the kind of feelings we want our visitors to feel and told each other stories of our favourite retail experiences around the world. What we found out is that as shopping becomes a bigger part of the Romanian lifestyle, Romanians want to celebrate this new found abundance in their own way, while still enjoying the benefits of cutting edge trends from the west.
“Every client is different,” says Lee Kew-Moss, retail designer at Brandinstinct, “of course using emerging best practices is a good idea, but that’s not as powerful as coming up with a solution that is unique to your client and that speaks in their audiences’ own language of needs.”
The Say retail experience created through the design of the retail environment aims to deliver the best of both worlds. It is warm and welcoming, and presents a versatile offering in a limited space, but it also maintains clarity and order helping people find what they want within the abundance of products and special deals.
The details of the Say retail design are a classic example of how form and function combine. The white ribbons not only complement the look and feel, they create a feeling of depth in an otherwise small space and invite customers into the shop. The pod creates a centre of attention for new promotions and special offers while using space economically and maintaining a spacious feel. Wall mounted displays support an extensive amount of devices without sacrificing clarity. Across all design elements, multiple opportunities for special offers are created, proving that good design and competitive commerce can go hand in hand.
“We couldn’t be happier,” says Mihai Motora, CEO of MCS Communications. “The Brandinstinct team was highly involved and worked well with our team. They have delivered impressive results in a very short timeline; phenomenally short for a retail project.” “We believe the results of this collaboration will introduce a new standard to Romanian retail. We feel their unique approach enabled us to bring together our business goals with the distinctiveness of our market to create a retail experience that is not to be missed.”
The launch TV advert, which can be seen below, clearly celebrates the retail experience design.