Eclectic store spreads its wings with new location, window-display finesse
BY LISA BIANK FASIG | CINCINNATI BUSINESS COURIER
OVER-THE-RHINE – The way George Crawford sees it, a stack of vases in a shop window does not stop traffic. But 60 butterflies against a snow-white landscape? That is something that will capture a pedestrian’s curiosity.
So the co-owner of Metronation, the eclectic gift shop on Vine Street, is taking a page from the old-school retail playbook when it comes to marketing: He’s reverting to the dramatic window display, those stylized, story-telling exhibits that were once a staple of department stores and small shops. The kind of displays that went well beyond a mannequin in a cardigan and might use ornamental trees and frosted dishes to create an emotional connection with passers-by.
“In a city the size of Cincinnati, when you’ve been around for six years and you advertise and advertise and advertise, you’re kind of beating a dead horse,” Crawford said. “If you have this window and it’s outrageous, then people come back to the office and say, ‘You’ve got to see the new window at Metronation.’”
It is one of many shifts occurring at Metronation, nine months after Crawford and his partners, Jerry Schmidt and Melissa Waters, relocated from Elm Street to this stretch of Vine called the Gateway Quarter. And their strategy goes beyond the growth of their own store. As part of a fast-emerging neighborhood, Metronation – as well as its retail neighbors – is adjusting to change as much as contributing to the success of a district.
The owners have had to adjust their merchandising for their new market, for instance, and sales are stronger. They’ve launched a line of private-label soaps featuring fragrances with input from their new customers. And they are earmarking part of their advertising budget for their own in-house marketing efforts: the window display.
Consider it a revival of sorts. Such store presentations have faded over the past two or three decades, said Steve Kaufman, editor of VMSD magazine, which focuses on visual merchandising. Retailers have moved from the streets to the malls, expanded to include hundreds of stores and cut back on the training needed to create such elaborate displays, he said.
“The retail window, going back to the early part of the last century, was really designed for the walker, the passer-by. You were trying to entice her to step into your store,” he said.
In a neighborhood like the Gateway Quarter, where 103 condominiums have been constructed in the past two years and an additional 107 are planned, such foot traffic is likely. “My advice would be do it and then try to measure the effects,” Kaufman said.
Not that Metronation is doing away with its advertising. It is dedicating just 10 percent to 20 percent of its total marketing budget to window displays, Crawford said. That number is hard to peg since, after the move from Elm Street, Metronation’s ad spending itself has declined. The neighborhood has gotten so much publicity – the local media covers many of the store, restaurant and condo construction developments. Crawford doesn’t see the need to advertise as much, for now.
At the same time monthly sales are up, about 25 percent to 35 percent on average. The crowd is different, and the store is much bigger – 2,700 square feet compared with 900 square feet. Crawford is finding that purses or lamps that sold briskly at his former location on Elm Street sit still on Vine, and vice versa. So Crawford and his partners are tailoring their merchandise to meet local demands, and in the process becoming an important part of the transforming neighborhood.
All this led him to rethink the window display. Crawford’s background is in visual merchandising with Woolworth Corp., the former owner of the San Francisco Music Co., Northern Reflections and Claire’s Boutique stores. He could make the store eye-catching, feed an urge and help distinguish the Gateway Quarter.
Other retailers in the Quarter are doing the same.
“It literally is our window to the street and how we convey who we are,” said Dan Korman, owner of Park + Vine, the earth-friendly store on the corner of Central Parkway and Vine, which is basically the entrance to the Gateway Quarter. Korman said he has used his wide bank of windows for themed displays since opening in June.
At Metronation, the winter window features three ornamental trees, all dead and spray-painted white, against a background of white silky fabric and below low-hanging branches. All are adorned with five dozen brightly colored butterflies. On display: sets of colorful frosted glass dishware. The theme: “The Warmth of Color.”
Crawford plans to change the display every five to six weeks. The next, for spring, will display umbrellas upon a yet-to-be revealed stage.
“Yes, the sales are up. To me that’s not the big success of the move,” he said. “But having the sense of the neighborhood that we’re helping create here, that’s been the best part of the move.”
