This past year has seen exponential growing interest in… pet retailing!
Le Bon Marché is thus not innovating with its most recent activation.
BUT it is doing what it does best: bringing enhanced immersion and theatrality to the trend. This is after all one of the things this Parisian department store is known for.
Let me dissect what I most appreciated:
1. The width of the offer. And more specifically, the amount of personalisation options:
- Things for the pets: collars, leads, beds…
- Things for the proud parents: clothing, handkerchiefs, phone cases…
- And things for the home: rugs, prints, wire art pieces…
I also liked the inclusion of a doggy f&b offer to make it fully immersive. One customer I approached feeding her beloved pet a cookie told me she was “living her best life!”
Talk about memorability!
And last on the offer: the special editions including a « Bon Marche rive gauche » Snoopy sweater I still dream of!
2. Of course as a retail designer I focused more on the physical space and how it delivered the experience. And here what stood out was:
- the bold choice of colours > one per floor
- the contrasting application of a white bone shape in various forms to create a unified theme: as cladding on the columns to frame the spaces, on the escalators to call visitors to visit the various locations, as a pattern on the walls and as impressive chandeliers
- “dog houses” dressing the product displays. I really liked the interplay between the abstract house and real dog photos.
- the immaculate VM
- nice product information signage
- the fun head turning dog cutouts cladding the upper floor banisters, creating animation and interest
Amazing, right?
Could it have been even better?
A few small things come to mind:
- I missed some higher level storytelling signage: why this theme here? What can customers expect? Etc.
- Signage on the GF to indicate the upper floor installations. If we hadn’t heard staff mention it, we would have missed it.
- I love the “dog cafe” idea but was a bit underwhelmed by its physical formalisation…
These remain minor “room for improvement” notes on a physical store activation that is not only visually impactful but considers customer experience in a 360 way: starting with reflecting on retailer and location relevance, then digging into target customer wishes, to finish with curating a unique offer and crafting a fully immersive environment to deliver it.
The retail designer in me only has one thing to say: CONGRATULATIONS!
And as a customer, though I am not a dog owner, I had to hold myself back on purchases.
I can only imagine how proud dog parents would fare!
Interested to learn more about designing such physical retail experiences? Get in touch!
