For years, the majority of cash at quick service restaurants has gone “through the window.”  The growing car culture has dictated a focus on drive-thru efficiency to the point where the dining room has become an afterthought to operators and subsequently a barrier to customers.

The cost of updating and maintaining a dining room has seemed cost prohibitive to many QSR chains and their franchisees, especially in light of the high drive-thru ratio. But by not offering a unique, pleasant dining experience, they have let the brand image wither on the vine. And it’s now coming back to haunt them. I contend that the high drive-thru ratio is in large part due to customers avoiding the “ick” factor of enduring outdated, smelly, deteriorating environments with no sense of place or brand personality.

The dining room is the brand.
Most customers will, at some point, come inside and that is the greatest opportunity to make a connection. Panera and Starbucks understood this a long time ago and snagged loads of customers that wanted a clean and cozy place to enjoy the product. McDonalds and Burger King have seen the light and announced major remodeling and prototype initiatives that appear to be paying off.

So to my friends in the QSR and Fast Casual game: differentiated, branded and engaging experiences win with customers; there is only so much connection you can make at the pay window. So elevate your brand with every possible touchpoint including the most important and substantial asset you have—your dining room.

While I was listening to WNYC Radiolab the other day I came across an interesting episode centered on choice and decision making influencers. Being a designer, I am always searching for new ideas and concepts to weave into my work, so I clicked on the link. In an hour the host took me through a whirlwind of studies examining the variations of why we choose the way we do and what factors can influence our decisions. And what does it all boil down too? 

Stress has a tremendous affect on our ability to make appropriate selection.

To quote my mother, this over-simplified answer is an “astute observation of the obvious.” However, when broken apart, the program’s individual experiments struck me as simple learning blocks that could easily be applied to a retail environment. 

Basically, if a person is over-stimulated in an environment a simple decision of what apple to buy can become ridiculously hard because there is too much information for them to just make a choice. They start to tune out their fast moving intuition to make a more educated selection on an item that they could really care less about. In the end, those who were over-stimulated tend to be disappointed.

Thinking back on several “happy purchases” I have made in my life, I can say with certainty that they were at my favorite stores. They were bought out of instant inspiration or times when I felt confident and in control. These purchases put me on a pedestal and made me feel better about myself.

In retail design, we need to understand what creates stressful environments and craft spaces that destroy those barriers. We should champion the customer by creating awareness without overload and give them a purchase they can feel rewarded about.

It looks like consumer frugality is settling in for a long stay. For most shoppers, the new thriftiness is a cautious choice in the face of an insecure future. There is money to spend, but there is a new social consciousness around the idea of value. Value has less to do with price and more to do with intangible benefits, such as time-saving, problem-solving, convenience, consistency, creativity and confidence building.

In such an atmosphere, retailers would do well to redefine and reintroduce themselves. The key is a new and deeper understanding of brand and customer.

When it comes to retail brands, it is always difficult for businesses to get away from logo-centric thinking and question the company components that may or may not resonate with consumers. But devoting time to introspection now, while the economy is in limbo, could help find the crucial differentiation, credibility and greater relevance needed to win. Once found, these elements can be introduced into the brand experience, usually without the need for big capital-intensive physical transformations.

For example, although the extreme value category is seeing gains now, once the recovery takes hold, how will stores retain the trial customers driven through their doors by the recession? Dollar General knew that to go forward it needed to stand for something other than a cluttered, random, “cheapest” experience. By subjecting itself to a peeling back process, Dollar General revealed its original roots as an “honest and casual” brand. And after listening to its customers, the retailer discovered it needed to add a new dimension: fresh.

The subsequently refreshed brand is introducing itself through its almost 8,500 stores, supported by a conservative budget. The store plan is more shoppable and the brand benefits are clear; the regular customers are reassured that their favorite store didn’t change too radically and the new customers are encouraged by the experience. Even for the extreme value category, it’s a far better strategy to add value than pound the price drum.

It has always been difficult to create appropriate goods and services without shopper insight. Lack of it often leads to broadened assortments beyond a retail brand’s legitimacy. While stuck in the current economic limbo, companies can use the time to learn more about the new customer. It’s a given that today’s consumers escape traditional demographic conventions. Attitudes and values are a better predictor of shopper behavior than age and income. Decoding them requires a more sophisticated, retail analytics-driven approach to shopper research. These tools allow retailers to map the decision processes of each of their segments and identify both the connections and the gaps. Those with the highest to engage the shopper can be redesigned to be more effective.

This is where the idea of brand “touchpoints” comes into play. In the past, customers were “touched” by companies through the store, an associate or the telephone. It was easy to imbue those moments with a cohesive and consistent brand style. In a Web 2.0 world, the touchpoints seem almost infinite, from web pages to tweets. In the analog world they include new store concepts such as those planned, oddly enough, by Microsoft, which feels that people need something tangible in a digital world. And store formats designed to enter denser locations, such as Safeway’s urban lifestyle grocery in Washington D.C. From eBay to Hermes, pop up stores continue to be favored as way to surprise and interrupt consumer expectations. All offer the chance to put a new twist on brand so that people approach it in a different context, and see how it fits in their new framework.

Armed with endless touchpoint possibilities, how does a company choose? Three words retailers will be hearing more in the future are “prioritize,” “optimize” and “orchestrate.” Prioritize in regards to touchpoints, optimize in terms of ROI and orchestrate the elements of the brand experience—from flagships to digital sales receipts.

Hallmark, the specialty card and gift retailer, offers its products through its own stores as well as as supermarkets, drugstores and mass merchants. Its tradition of innovation has taken it into many digital territories, from television to in-store kiosks, online offerings and greeting card software. With so many touchpoints, each with its own potential for return, the challenge is to determine which of the many actions the company could take to please its customers, according to what priority.

Again, breaking down the big picture requires a repeatable analytics driven approach to brand impression management in order to guide thinking about the design of every touchpoint, so that all are aligned and orchestrated according to a brand that’s been refreshed and redefined according to shopper needs.

The new frugality is not solely about price. Quality, price and reason will share top consideration in the customer’s mind. For them, transactions will revolve more and more around ideas, information and relationships. As retail brands adapt to this new customer culture, they will redefine their ideas, values and positioning to stay in the game. In an age of frugality, thrift—the wise use of resources—is a cherished cultural value. It can also become a winning retail strategy.