Engage Customers Seasonally via Retail Brand Implementation
As one of your most important assets, your brand can provide additional impact with the ability to adapt. Minor changes, based on seasonality, can further develop the relationship between your brand identity and those you serve.
When you think of seasonal branding, your first thoughts probably turn to store shelves where snacks like cookies and candy bars unveil new flavors or varieties several times a year. Another obvious example is with beverages and baked goods. The fall, for instance, will bring references to pumpkin spice and hot chocolate to the forefront. But seasonal retail brand implementation is also a key consideration for businesses with physical locations.
Seasonal branding isn’t a complete branding makeover. It’s simply a seasonal modification or addition to your brand identity. You maintain your core branding but with a twist representing the current season. Once the current season passes, you can revert to your general branding or update your company’s look for the next targeted seasonal brand implementation.
And while most people view seasonality corresponding to the four primary seasons — spring, summer, autumn, winter — modern retailers often handle seasonal merchandising calendars that have more than a dozen seasons. This offers up more potential possibilities for subtle brand tweaks, like season decorations, light store refreshes, or graphical elements that can enhance or build upon your brand’s identity.
There are many reasons to consider seasonal branding for your retail space. The most obvious one is that a seasonal strategy is a proactive way to help celebrate the events and holidays that are important to consumers. By acknowledging these common connections and serving customers what they need when they need it, retailers can build more substantial emotional connections with their shoppers. With more engaging shopping experiences, customers will develop better impressions of the retail brand overall.
Beyond the opportunity to develop more personal and emotional connections with customers, retail brand implementation on a seasonal basis can make sure you either standout from competitors or keep up with those who also choose to take this path.
Furthermore, seasonal branding can show current or potential customers that you’re not afraid of change. Consistency is essential for branding, but the ability to offer adjustments or seasonal tweaks to your core identity indicates your organization is dynamic and fresh. By infusing seasonal aspects into your retail spaces, you’ll build commonality with consumers and show your brand is adaptable, energetic, and engaging — which can very appealing to your audience.
So, what do you need to start seasonal retail brand implementation strategies? You’ll need a capable partner. Let’s discuss what that partner should be able to provide.
Cover every aspect of branding: At Stratus, our brand implementation services help your customers physically experience your brand from exterior signage to the finest interior details.
Aspects of Seasonal Retail Brand Implementation to Consider
With each new seasonal program comes merchandising turnovers, restocks, and resets, to say nothing of the potential signage, lighting, and decorative elements that may be changed. All of these components combine to impact the essence of your brand and shape the experience of customers during each visit. When incorporating seasonal rebranding, it’s essential to manage the process efficiently and to have the means to implement it throughout your footprint as quickly as possible to avoid any inconsistency in your rollout.
Whether you’ll be seasonally rebranding a few dozen locations or a few hundred, there are several aspects of the program that should be considered.
Signage
You’re not developing or unveiling a new brand, only refocusing in the short-term what your brand represents and conveys. Still, you’ll want your locations to reflect that additional seasonal focus and using new or tweaking existing signage is a clear way to get an immediate impact. Seasonal coloring, especially if it complements your existing brand colors, can add flair and create (depending on the goal) a warm, celebratory, or festive environment. Changes in the way lighting highlights existing signage or different illumination techniques impart different emotional responses from your visitors.
A great way to execute temporary, or seasonal, branding is through the use of digital print graphics. Create and design large-format backlit displays, produce high-volume vinyl printing projects, or digitally print surface-mounted signage. With the ability to print on a variety of substrates with high color accuracy, digital graphics give you the ability to both enact larger scale exterior branding elements and innovative interior displays to further engage your customers.
Refresh Services
Important to any retail brand implementation is updating the exteriors and interiors of your locations to support what the new seasonal branding is looking to communicate. Finishing touches on windows, lighting design, windows and doors, flooring, fixtures, and more all impact the perceptions of your retail space. With a seasonal rebranding plan, you’ll have the opportunity to explore many more options that come with refresh services and how they can impact the message you’re trying to convey.
Whether you want a store-wide conversion to embrace a full holiday look, general painting to accentuate a particular motif, minor electrical work to call attention to specific elements, general carpentry work to create innovative displays centered on a seasonal campaign, or many more options, refresh services will open up a wide scope of possibilities. You can even use refresh services to help in remerchandising, such as with moving or removing existing displays or aisle features to make room for seasonal elements. For short-duration, high-volume season programs, you’ll want a partner with the reach and experience to be able to deliver on time.
Experiential Graphics
These graphics represent the integration of brand and message in three dimensional space through typography, color, imagery, form, and texture. The expressions of your brand, and its seasonal accompaniments, can be expressed through analog content, digital experiences, and items like art and sculpture. All of these potential elements pair perfectly with a seasonal retail brand implementation plan.
Environmental graphics — think of an interactive holiday display, or a Halloween-centric showcase calling attention to timely or relevant products — will provide points of connection between your brand, your facilities, and your customers. The right partner will work with you to bring your design to life, in a variety of ways and media, and create an on-brand experiential graphics experience that matches your community, culture, and message.
Protect Your Investments: Learn how our preventive maintenance programs keeps your brand assets in a strong operating condition — at each and every site.
Make Your Seasonal Retail Brand Implementation Efficient
As one of the leading brand implementation companies in the U.S. and Canada, Stratus understands what it takes to make seasonal rebranding a success. Our company supports rebranding efforts through four key service lines: signage, energy, refresh & remodel, and repair & maintenance. Through these four avenues we’re able to implement branding installations that cover both exterior appearances to draw customers in, and interior branding solutions to deliver delightful experiences. With capabilities spanning virtually every aspect of your seasonal program, we’re the team you need to make your message resonate.
Our extensive network of more than 2,300 field partners and our in-house manufacturing capabilities will coordinate the product of any additional brand assets you may need. Our program management team will make sure the project stays on track and on schedule. With logistics and warehousing services we’re able to centralize all needed assets and distribute them accordingly to your locations. We’ll give you the flexibility to execute a seasonal rebranding plan, without impacting your day-to-day operations.
Connect with our team today to learn more about how we can provide infinite possibilities and ideal solutions for your seasonal retail branding implementation.