-By Wolfgang Gruschwitz

Wolfgang Gruschwitz is the owner and managing director of Gruschwitz Corporation, based in Munich, Germany. His company offers full-service visual merchandising expertise to retailers, including Zara and Burberry.

Do you remember how you felt after you saw your favorite movie for the first time or after reading an unforgettable book? Storytelling is a very powerful method of getting an audience involved. This is also true in the housewares industry.

It is human nature to relate our experiences to particular emotions. Oftentimes, you may not remember the exact details of a shopping experience, but can clearly remember if you had an emotional experience. The idea behind “Emotional Branding” uses this natural occurrence to improve the quality of the consumers’ shopping experiences.

Customers always have a need to feel good about their purchases. They want to validate that they made the correct buying decisions -- and ideally have an emotional connection. You can enhance this emotional connection and drive sales by building experiential ties with them. Shared personal experiences and recommendations by friends and family will make customers return to your store again and again.

In the housewares industry, storytelling is especially important. Connecting real-life stories with lasting images results in successes. It is our job to give the customer new ideas about what they can do better with that 12th cup or 40th knife. This is especially important for products that have a long life and infrequent use where we have to arouse new feelings and emotions in order to commence that next purchase.

Create Surprise
In order to create a need, emotions must be aroused and this can only happen if hormones get activated and create human emotions with storytelling, by sparking curiosity or fulfilling a longing. If you manage to surpass expectations, you will be able to connect with the individual and turn them into a loyal customer.

Providing your customers with new experiences can be done easily and inexpensively. Listening, observing, helping and demonstrating products is not expensive. Surprising your customers with the unexpected requires more thought than money. Creating a themed vignette or a playground for the five senses comes down to details, which doesn’t necessarily translate into a great cost.

Become a Recommended Retailer
The customer is a welcome guest and should be treated accordingly. Positive feelings get conveyed, trust grows and sales rise. When you can relate better to your customers and understand their needs, new ideas evolve and new product ideas are generated. What greater accolade is there for a retailer than to be recommended by other shoppers?

Overall, if you succeed in involving the customer, maybe even with entertainment and fun, you have created an emotional brand-building experience.

The Gourmet Retailer is the exclusive U.S. sponsor of gia. The Global Innovator Award program honors housewares retailing excellence in nearly 25 countries around the world. Its global sponsor is the International Home + Housewares Show, which will honor this year’s gia winners at its fair, March 22-24, 2009. For more information, visit www.housewares.org/gia.