Page 53 - February 2021

generations later we “get it” - so is this really the best use of
the shop’s entrance? We don’t think so. When we recently
redesigned Esselunga, Italy’s oldest supermarket, we rotated
this layout by 90 per cent, allocating payment to a cheaper
space and replacing this with a glass box of production,
previously hidden in multiple unseen places.
The prices didn’t change, but now the shop’s window
expresses what Esselunga does best, which is making
great-value fresh food. And by the way: if your on-site
manufacturing teams are in one place, it’s more efficient.
We called our brief “Dimmi” (Italian for “show or tell me”).
Once agreed, this one word drove everything thereafter.
Like the fashion store, this challenged, then “Reinvented
Normal” for supermarkets. But if you really think about it, it
just makes sense.
Perhaps this terrible plague will encourage more retailers
to challenge everything they do? To think about what they
want to communicate to their audience and how best to do
this, but I’m not too hopeful.
Global design agencies will continue to peddle
unaffordable “Experiential” design, or whatever the latest
trend is, and the big four management consultancies will
still sell reports by the pound. My final example is Jurlique. UNIQLO
A wonderful biodynamic Australian skin care “business” that, Think Mr. Selfridge and his incredible invention of Cosmetic
recently sold, wanted to expand globally but was considered Halls, or Amazon’s global dominance built in a nanosecond
too ugly by department stores around the world. of some 10,000 days. They both think entirely about the
Management thought they should go more “mainstream”, customer and what might make their lives better. Working
mimic Clinique perhaps, but when commissioned we visited out how to implement is secondary, and just driven by the
and marveled at the beauty of their farm in South Australia “mechanics” of our age.
and challenged them to tell this story instead. Ultimately people shop, so it’s all about people. My Italian
We re-packaged them with ugly un-flowered buds, and aunt went to the market three times a day, not to shop
created environments that mimicked their potting sheds. It but to gossip and no amount of “Pop Ups” or “Experiential
was brave but honest, and a few years later this “brand” was Retail” would have altered that.
sold again for a multiple that must still make the founders And the online world cannot be replaced by them easily
weep. Why? Because whilst they always had an opinion, they either. Uniqlo is genius, not only because of its value but
were fearful of “normality” and the brand hadn’t expressed because it mimics an online experience making it easy to
it. Now it does. find stuff, select and leave. ALDI does this too.
So, ultimately it’s all about the “questions” we ask and This is our new conditioning more than the need for a
brave inquisitive minds are needed to ask if better than carousel ride. So, ask the right questions, keep it simple and
normal is necessarily best. Reinvent Normal.
aLdI