7 Tips for Curating Your Personal Brand Retail Experience

Is your personal brand creating an experience that wows your customers? One that keeps them coming back.

You are the Creative Director of the brand of You. So, adopt the art of atmospherics for your personal brand. Design an environment that attracts your ideal audience. And keeps them wanting more of your carefully curated experience.

In my earlier posts on story listening and style personality, I shared another side of my career.  In parallel to my marketing career, I’ve also gained 13 years in fashion retail. I’d worked Friday nights and over the weekends, simply because I loved the energy of a shop floor. For the most part, this was because of the people. But, there was another silent force behind my loyalty - the atmosphere. Or, as popularly termed in retail, ‘atmospherics’.

What is atmospherics?

‘Atmospherics’ is a term borrowed from architecture.  It was first popularised in retail by Phillip Kotler. The renowned marketer’s paper, Atmospherics as a Marketing Tool, was featured in the Journal of Retail in 1974.

Atmospherics centres around intentional commercial design and the human sensory experience to produce particular emotional effects. This uses the elements of sight, smell, sound and touch.

In 2000, Turley, L W and Milliman, R E in the Journal of Business Research expanded on the concept. It had since gained momentum in the business and research world. The duo progressed the idea by including the human variables too.

Today, atmospherics relates to both physical and online spaces.

Harness the power of atmospherics and intentional design. You’ll create a memorable experience for your personal brand.

Tip #1: Design your personal brand ‘shop front window’

Your personal brand is the business of ‘You’. So, your brand touchpoints, online and offline, are your retail experience. Your shop front window, therefore, becomes critical. In a noisy marketplace, it’s your first opportunity to create a favourable impression.

Your shop front window should:

• Get the attention of your ideal audience with appropriate:

• Headlines

• Images

• Fonts

• Colours

• Other aesthetic details and styles that represent you and resonate with them

• Draw your ideal audience by using:

• Exceptional presentation standards

• Messages that create curiosity

• Look open:

• Welcome your audience in

• Have up-to-date information and content. Showing the space is active

Tip #2: Create your personal brand welcome experience

Visitors to your personal brand space are like having customers in your shop. Make them feel welcome, like the VIP guest they are.

Your welcome experience should greet them and make them feel comfortable. In retail, this is literally the ‘welcome’. Whether you appreciate the help of sales assistants or not, recall how you’ve felt when you haven’t been greeted. Particularly, in an intimate setting, you likely wanted to leave. Make your audience want to stay.

Tip #3: Curate the sensory experience of your personal brand

Whether it’s digital or physical, consider your personal brand's sensory experience.  Use some or all of the dimensions of:

• Sight

• Smell

• Touch

• Sound

• Taste

Even online, careful imagery and copywriting can create all these dimensions. Users will access their own ‘representational systems’. Recalling their experiences with universally recognisable attributes.

Keep your desired sensory experience in mind for online meetings too. Remember, your space is a cue for what your personal brand represents. Elements - from style to colour and textures - are sending your desired messages. And also reflect your style personality.

Tip #4: Communicate value-based messaging

A retail experience has human variables. So, ensure the retail experience of your personal brand:

• Reminds your people you’re here to help

• Shows empathy by clearly understanding their needs

• Online, shows authority by providing refined solutions with clear features and benefits

• Understands the potential objectives

• Helps your people make a decision

Tip #5: Open the relationship with your personal brand

Be clear on how you’re opening, not closing, a relationship. Retailers commonly invite people to join their email list. If you don’t have this, point them to social media accounts, blogs, podcasts or YouTubes channels or your direct contact details. Anywhere you’ll have regular connection.

In my retail experience, we‘d say “see you next time”. Leaving the customer feeling welcomed back and keeping the relationship open.

Tip #6: Embrace the magic of tidying up your personal brand

Marie Kondo’s best-seller, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, started a revolution. She made tidying up a movement. This was cleverly packaged in the concept of only keeping things that truly ‘spark joy’. Consider this for your personal brand.

Create a retail experience for your brand, offline and online, that aligns with your brand values and personality. Include artefacts and symbols that mean something to you. Like your brand messages, if you’re emotionally connected to something, others might be too. At the least, they’ll act as conversation starters to build rapport.

Be relentless in maintaining your presentation standards. Consider impressions formed in a poorly presented store versus one with impeccable standards.

Tip #7: Give your ideal people a reason to come back to your personal brand

The retail experience is continually evolving to keep the environment fresh. Think re-merchandising and injection of new products. Maintain brand consistency, while providing ongoing value.

Apply the same principles to your personal brand, particularly in online content creation:

• Deliver new content: Serve your audiences’ evolving needs.

• Schedule your deliveries: Deliver content on consistent days and times. Help your audience know when to expect your new arrivals.

• Deliver timely content: Like in retail, move with the seasons. Show empathy for changing mindstates and environments.

The small details are often easily overlooked. Be intentional in the design of your personal brand at all touchpoints. Create a complete sensory experience that inspires you, while attracting your ideal people.

So, what does your personal brand retail experience look and feel like?