Knowing Your Retail Display Customer – Life Stages in Retail

Note: This is part of the “Knowing Your Retail Display Customer” blog series by Creative Displays Now.

Retailers and consumer product manufacturers often take life stages and life events into account when promoting their products or services. There is a reason most store displays for adult diapers are not hot pink. In fact, major life events such as birthdays, graduations, weddings, anniversaries, etc., are often the most prominent visual merchandising in the store environment. By targeting life stages, marketers effectively connect products to emotional memories.

Life stages are very meaningful and emotional, and the associated in-store promotion should match these feelings appropriately. Successful brand marketers can interlace the power of these emotions and memories of important life events with their brand. For example, when thinking of Johnson & Johnson, many consumers envision beautiful newborn babies. Nothing is more emotional and gripping than babies. Just look at YouTube.

We all remember the emotions of starting the school year: excitement, anxiety, new clothes and new friends. We also remember being in the store, shopping with our parents for new supplies and, if we were lucky, a new backpack. It seems like back-to-school retail displays make it into stores earlier and earlier each year. Here are some that Creative Displays Now has produced over the years – note the bright colors and fun designs in the floor display and pallet display below.

At the other end of the aging theme, another huge industry is healthcare for seniors. The display stands for products for seniors are typically more mature, with softer color schemes and smart photos designed for comfort and trust:

 

Although it is more of an ongoing phenomenon than a single stage or event, the process of aging, itself, has created a market worth hundreds of millions of dollars. This Curel retail store display we designed and manufactured has the term “Life’s Stages” printed right on the display, and references pregnancy, motherhood, and menopause:

We all have strong emotional ties to significant life events. When planning, designing, and manufacturing retail displays for products or services associated with these events, it is important to evoke these feelings from the consumer and associate the product with those powerful feelings.

Contact Creative Displays Now to discuss how we can help you with your next retail display or packaging project.