Most people make lists of the items they’re shopping for, but not the brand.  Tea may be on the list but not necessarily Lipton Tea.  Salad dressing, but I’m open to Wishbone if it catches my attention, especially if there is a coordinating low-cost meal option presented with it.  This is where shopper marketing adds value to the shopper experience.  Chris Hoyt, of In-store Marketing Institute, drives the point. “Proper in-store marketing isn’t just about pushing things in their path — it’s about shopper marketing, communicating, making it easier to shop, discover, buy.”

“We are in the midst of a great transformation…that will create a very different economy.  And no industry is going to be more affected than retail,” said Carl Steidtmann, chief economist of consumer business for Deloitte Research.

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Although old-fashioned, Georgetown has a hip inventory of retailers — Ralph Lauren, Bebe and Urban Outfitters to name a few. It’s a direct hit on Apple’s demographic. The problem is that Apple’s signature retail style does not fit in the Georgetown scene.  According to the Bloomberg article, this isn’t the first time Apple has encountered that sort of backlash. A store proposed for a Boston neighborhood was rejected on the basis that the design “didn’t have a sense of place.” Apple redesigned the store and it opened last year.

This begs the question, what is the relationship between retail design and the community ?  How much should you customize a store design to match a location? How do you preserve the brand in the process?

In October we wrote about a unique Target store that was designed to coordinate with it’s Bloomfield, Michigan neighborhood. Target even has a “unique stores” team that designs stores with the community in mind.  Right now retailers are looking for ways to build deeper relationships with the consumer –beyond price.  Integrating the spirit of the community surrounding a retail location into the design could be an avenue.

Martin Lindstrom puts forth the “smash your brand” theory which postulates that some brand elements are so strongly identified with a product that, presented on their own, the customer can still make a connection with the product. For instance, the Coca-Cola contour bottle, Tide orange or Carolina blue are unmistakeably linked to their brands. Consider this idea at retail.  Smashing your brand at retail could create the freedom to build unique spaces that connect with whole communities on an emotional level while maintaining brand elements that are undeniably yours.

Trendwatching.com just released, “Half a Dozen Consumer Trends for 2009.” Number 3 on the list is “Feedback 3.0″ which is all about companies getting fully involved in and even initiating online conversations in an effort to better manage their brands. The idea of Feedback 3.0 is that transparency is going to another level. Companies can’t hide anything, so if they can’t beat ‘em, they’ll have to join ‘em.

Considering this trend consumer goods companies should go beyond just sharing information to making it part and parcel of their marketing campaigns. For instance, reveries.com reported that General Mills is working very hard to find all sorts of ways to cut costs and save margins without affecting the quality of their product. Wouldn’t consumers appreciate knowing that? They’re calling it “holistic margin management.” They shrank the size of cereal boxes while keeping the same serving size. They got rid of multicolored yogurt lids and consolidated purchasing of ingredients. Their efforts saved a reported $12 million a year. At a time when consumers are searching for ways to save money, incorporating this type of information into shopper communications makes a brand feel more human. Consumers will feel like General Mills understands what they’re going through and connect with them on an emotional level. Not to mention the ecological benefits of smaller cardboard cereal boxes or using fewer dyes in producing yogurt lids. These are the types of initiatives that, properly communicated, can engender consumer loyalty to a brand…and it’s not like they won’t find out anyway.

A quick highlight of the weekend stats:

• Shoppers spent 7 percent more this year than last
• Sales increased 3 percent compared with last year
• Foot traffic was up almost 2 percent (although a separate report said that foot traffic was down 11 percent)

Despite these seemingly encouraging statistics, many retailers did not report their weekend sales as usual and will instead roll them in with the monthly reports. J.C. Penny went so far as to say that, “in light of the challenging and volatile economic climate, and shifts in this year’s retail calendar, we don’t believe that reporting sales data for any one day (or weekend), including Black Friday, would provide a meaningful barometer of our business.” Interesting.

Unfortunately, Black Friday may not have changed the color of retail financials because the discounts, savings and sales cut so deep that the moderate increases reported haven’t changed anything.  You heard it here first. We warned just a couple of weeks ago that retailers should be careful of using lower prices rather than innovative marketing to lure shoppers (BusinessWeek Reports the Beginning of Holiday Price Wars). Now that they’ve done it for Black Friday, shoppers expect even greater price decreases leading up to the holiday and plan on holding their collective breath until they get it. This marketing tactic in this climate may be the ultimate bridge to nowhere.