Sound Curation, a Key Element in Retail-as-a-Service
The Store as a Showroom is the Future of Stationary Retail
Though the retail industry is welcoming multi-brand concepts or pop-up stores vouching for novel and interactive approaches, the conviction that bricks-and-mortars are intended for quantity over quality is still widespread: stores generally present a vast range and number of products while maximising sales.
But love brands are not born from tiring eyes and emptying pockets. Rather, from inspiring and engaging people beyond imagining. Experience has become the most powerful tool to win and retain customers. With the emergence of store-pioneers disrupting stationary retail with new business models — such as Retail as a Service (RaaS) — it is clearer than ever that crucial will be the ability to offer an experience which stays exciting and relevant to shifting customer behaviour and market trends.
The store will take the shape of a showroom hosting exhibitions at the intersection of the physical and the digital. HearDis! comprehensive approach to turn brands into the audible dimension together with the latest endeavours in the field of AI, make its innovative in-store music solution a frontrunner in the RaaS constellation as brands seize the experiential retail of the future.
Experience, Emotion and Connection over Sales
What RaaS innovations in Berlin, the greater Germany and internationally have in common is the prime ambition to connect with customers on a human level and make them feel something. The credo chooses an interaction with visitors that is more meaningful and less transactional. Here, the retail chain expects revenue to be secondary, where customer service, product presentation, and technology all focus on experience instead of sales.
With stores turning into a stage for immersive brand experience, sensations and discoveries are the highlight: customers are exposed to creative and eye-catching product display, powerful retail storytelling and staff that serve more as experience actors than assistants. These elements, together with the interactive and inviting hang-out areas, offer customers an entertaining way to familiarise products while enjoying an atmosphere that feels authentic and personal.
Over the years, HearDis! has been a fierce advocate of the Point of Experience, promoting a brand-fit and multi-sensory approach in our work for retailers. Today we curate music content that suits retailers’ corporate identity, audience and space while at the same time perfectly blending with stimuli from sight, touch, smell and taste present on-site.
Our recent work for the flagship store of Swiss furniture manufacturer Vitra gives a great example: the new VitraHaus operates as an innovative showroom letting visitors explore the space and try out collections as they experience a sensorial spectacle in fine resonance with nature, architecture, light and sound. In the context of stationary retail, HearDis! in-store music solution is a powerful asset to emotionalise a brand, this way turning customers into fans.
Innovation and Agility keep Brands Competitive
Success in the retail industry comes with ceaseless innovation to create enhanced customer experiences at the same pace customers imagine novel forms of interaction with brands. The ability to embrace digital ecosystems, promptly design and deliver immersive experiences has therefore become a crucial competitive strategy.
This applies to every aspect of brand communication implemented in the store, including the sound atmosphere. For this reason, in-store providers that fell into the price-dumping spiral and fail to present smart and dynamic music solutions are already obsolete. On the contrary, HearDis! positioning at the forefront of disruptive technologies allows us to confidently compete in the future of retail.
We have developed a software capable of generating in real time the music curation best suited to the brand, audience, space and contextual data. We constantly look at target groups and customer behaviour, local and seasonal features to optimise KPIs such as footfall, dwell time, capture rate, loyalty amongst others. Our smart solution swiftly adapts the music curation to new input so that content is always relevant and on point.
That is what we do for Mercedes-Benz, at the newly opened Studio Odeonsplatz. The Munich-based brand experience stands out for its interdisciplinary and agile nature: the space merges physical and digital content creation and communication conceived for a main theme that changes every few weeks. The aim is to keep the installation interactively exciting and so appeal to a modern target audience while, at the same time, bringing loyal customers even closer to the brand.
Studio Odeonsplatz is the first Programmatic BrandExperience Space in Munich and was launched as part of a long-term cooperation by Mercedes-Benz and LIGANOVA. The new format integrates top-notch designers, creatives and technologies to fulfil the quality and pace needed for the changing narratives on-site. In charge of the sound, we enrich Studio Odeonsplatz with old-timers, rugged tools, blues and guitars. The soundtrack fits the vintage vibe of the first theme “Silver Garage”, the core of the brand, the relaxed atmosphere of the space as well as local aspects of the Bavarian capital.
A New Outlook to become Future-fit
People are looking for experiential engagement that transcends channels and seamlessly fulfils their shifting expectations and digital savviness. The early success of ventures applying RaaS offers hope that the novel business model could present the lifeline that brands can hinge on to reshape their enterprise and so preserve their relevance and appeal.
In the search for innovation and creative possibilities — such as next level music curation — brands can turn to HearDis! as the right partner to help them redefine the future of stationary retail and so unleash experiences that conquer the hearts of their audience.
