Andrea Syverson's Merchandising Musings: Create Products That Gratify
How gratifying is your brand’s product experience? Does it exceed your customers’ expectations? I recently came across Hook & Tackle’s BeerCan Island Short, and I immediately thought of the children’s best-selling story, “The Little Engine That Could.”
I never realized until I saw this particular article of clothing just how much a little pair of shorts could do! This workhorse of a product is over the top with benefits its customers love. Here's the hangtag that came with the clothing (see image to the right) — a perfect mini advertisement of all the product’s many features.
The BeerCan Island Short was created by its merchants to work hard to “endure a lifetime of adventures” for its wearers. Are some of your products working this hard? Should they be? Could they be? This hangtag reinforces the brand story shared on Hook & Tackle’s website for seasoned anglers:
“Not just a frame of mind, BeerCan Island is a place on the map. Sandwiched between the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean in Miami, Florida USA. Boaters rendezvous at BeerCan Island and barbecue, swim and tell jokes. The BeerCan Island short captures the essence of all the good times experienced by so many boaters over so many years on this rock in the middle of the bay … The Uniform of the industry!”
Why not stop, take some time and create detailed hangtags like the one above for your top 10 products. Have your merchants prove why each of their products would gratify your customers. Whether you actually use these hangtags on the products is immaterial.
The exercise will challenge your team to think about both potential meaningful product enhancements and/or help you call out ones already inherent in products that may have been overlooked in your present product descriptions. Either way, this product gratification exercise will help you further your brand’s “delight factor,” and may just set you apart from the competition.
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- Andrea Syverson