Member Article

Thinking ?outside the box? to change staff perceptions

Christine Knott, Managing Director of UK Retail Training and Field Marketing company Beyond the Box, encourages bosses to think ’outside the box’.

Background

When a new, unknown brand is introduced to the shop floor that has no heritage, provenance or brand equity and is up against some of the biggest names in retail, the challenge is not just to convince customers of its value but retail staff too.

In recent years Dixons Retail have been slowly introducing such brands under their ‘Exclusive to Currys PC World’ range of electrical goods, these include Currys Essentials and Advent.

While changing perceptions is difficult, it is not unachievable, as Beyond The Box proved with their bespoke training for Dixons Retail’s latest new brand - the Goji Tinchy Stryder range of headphones.

It was just two years ago when Dixons Retail introduced this new range – a lifestyle brand aimed at the young, fashion savvy, ‘on-the-go’ customer who wants to stay connected.

In line with the brand values, Beyond The Box devised an engaging retail training strategy and created ‘Goji TV’ training sessions. These were delivered at Dixons’ annual training roadshow to create positive perceptions of the Goji Tinchy Stryder range before the products went onto the shop floor.

The Product

This new range was a brave step by Dixons. This young, fashionable, savvy shopper is not their mainstream customer, but they wanted to take a risk and try and attract them early in the loyalty stage and keep them coming back for life.

To help develop and build this new brand, Dixons partnered with Tinchy Stryder - a well known hip-hop artist, to launch the range of headphones. Their intention being to appeal directly to this new audience and rival the more expensive brand options on the market, such as Beats.

The Tinchy Stryder headphones offer high end quality but at a reasonable price, costing from just £29.99 in comparison to brand rival Beats, which cost upwards of £100.

There are nine headphones in the Goji Tinchy Stryder range; in ear, on ear and over ear. Each comes in a choice of three colours and a further option of travel speakers.

The Challenge

As any retailer will know, it is a huge step to try and sell new, unknown brand products and more often than not perception – even among in-store staff - is often that the range must be cheap. These misconceptions are often because staff have not been exposed to persuasive marketing campaigns that create brand equity.

This was the challenge for Beyond The Box: how could Dixons Retail change the perceptions of their own staff to ensure the headphones were given a fair sales push in comparison to established brands?

It is a common misconception among retail staff to view unknown branded products as poorer quality than mainstream branded items. The Dixons Retail staff are no exception. It was therefore vitally important that these perceptions were changed before the launch, if the brand was to have any chance at being a success.

The Solution

In response to this challenge, Beyond The Box came up with an innovative and ‘out of the box’ solution.

At the annual training roadshow, which is held specifically for Dixons’ staff to learn about new products, Beyond The Box developed an engaging training programme aimed at changing perceptions before the launch.

As part of the Audio Visual category the Tinchy Stryder SKU was up against some of the biggest brands including Toshiba, Samsung and Sony. Other sections included computing and white goods.

These were all big brands, which invested heavily in creating aspirational marketing content linked to lifestyle and music culture so the training needed to mirror these messages so to engage the staff in the value proposition of the brand.

Beyond The Box created Goji Television (GTV) where staff undertook roleplay as part of a TV programme. After learning the basics about the product and the range they were asked to create a ‘rap’ and share it with the rest of the staff.

In keeping with the brand ambassador, Tinchy Stryder, they had to base their rap on different urban music scenarios so they understood how and when the headphones would be most useful.

For example, on public transport, the over-ear, a headphone which covers the whole ear, would be best to keep noise down for other passengers and best for you to be able to hear your music without interruption.

Out of the eight big brands who took part in the training sessions, the training from Beyond The Box was voted as one of the most engaging and useful by delegates of the roadshow.

The training was a huge success not only in changing staff perceptions but also in converting sales. The headphones launched in Dixons Retail stores with outstanding sales figures and proved a force to be reckoned with against its branded rivals.

A clear example of how a well thought out, engaging training plan can indeed change staff perceptions, no matter how deep rooted their affiliation may be with a brand.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Beyond the Box .