In October, I joined Tony and the Reebok global team on the Western European market visit, travelling to 3 cities Barcelona, Zurich and Berlin.
First off, we hit sunny Barcelona, meeting up with the Spanish team, Sales, Marketing and of course VM.
As a collective team on market visits we discuss local strategy combined with global strategy and direction.
Once in the department store El Cortes Ingles we saw some local challenges and jumped right into the VM solutions, which is my favourite part! We used the time implementing the necessary visual merchandising updates and coaching the local VM team to ensure that they understand the reasons behind any changes. We left ECI confident that they were happy with the result and could manage the updates effectively in future, then it was on to the next city.
Flying to Switzerland was an experience that took my breath away, the view of the mountains was indescribable.
Within the Jelmoli department store, Reebok has an unmissable space with amazing VM standards, we were inspired by the mannequin army on arrival. Wanting to take the space to the next level, we introduced and trained the VM team on merchandising the footwear wall by colour, to see how customers respond to this way of shopping.
The next and final stop for me was Berlin. We visited two Reebok spaces, travelling by train and really got a sense of the city between stores.
Both spaces were low on stock with broken size ranges due to great sell out. As a team we discussed the challenges and worked out next steps, including consolidating product and removing some fixtures from the floor until new stock was delivered.
We also took the time to re-style mannequins in both spaces creating more of a lifestyle look and feel, by adding layers, accessories and tweaking the key outfits that were supported by current campaign graphics. We coached the VM team, explaining how this approach will attract customers, increase sell out and create a consistent Reebok image across Europe.
During our visits, we also familiarise ourselves with the key competitors, keeping up to date with local trends and retail expressions. Luckily our visit to Berlin coincided with the opening of the new Intersport retail concept, it was great to see how this sports retailer merchandised different brands cohesively and the new store design is very modern and inspiring compared to their existing one.
On our return to the UK we regroup with the Reebok global team and create a very detailed post visit report. This is shared with the markets, so they can all see each other’s progress and learn from one another.
3 days, 3 cities, short and sweet but very effective!
Here at trc, we have proved that to ensure sustainable growth, improved competency and consistency of implementation we need to maintain regular communication and visit frequency to the key Reebok markets. To find out more about how we work with brands to help create, support and deliver a global VM strategy head to our work here.
Cigie Florent
Visual Manager
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