Virtual reality has many retail applications; helping visualise new concepts, showing NPD to a wide audience without the need for physical mock ups and visualising a variety of store environments without the bricks and mortar.

Reckitt Benckiser, the company behind major brands such as Finish, Vanish and Dettol are adding a new use for virtual reality technology by working closely with virtual reality experts Fifth Dimension to create a virtual reality store visit.

Why a virtual store visit? Mark Sidey, Global Sales Director for Reckitt Benckiser, explains:-

“We wanted to create a virtual movie depicting a typical store visit to train our Sales Teams globally in what they need to be looking for in store. It’s not just about our brands and the categories that we operate in, its about understanding the retailers Core Benefit Proposition so we can deliver more targeted in-store activity that is aligned to their strategies.

It’s practically impossible to take live footage in store and even if it was feasible it would be impossible to fully control the environment to show all of the necessary touch points.
What the virtual world does is offer us a completely controllable environment that we can use as a training & development tool where the various touch points are highlighted and explained.

We approached Fifth Dimension because they have worked with us for a number of years and we can be sure of the most realistic imagery and the best service in the industry”.

reckitt-benckiser-virtual-stores-for-real-world-training

As you can see, Reckitt Benckiser are not only innovators when it comes to consumer goods, they are also innovators when it comes to applying virtual reality technology to modern day challenges.

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Recently, a leading brewer was invited to demonstrate how they could re-vitalise the Beers, Wines and Spirits aisle in one of the top 4 UK retailers. Such an invitation is rare these days, so given the opportunity, they executed a thorough review of the BWS category, gaining key insights into the current aisle layout’s performance. These insights led the brewer to recommend several in-store innovations which, when fully implemented, would potentially generate some £105 million of extra revenue for the retailer.

The category was heavily driven by promotion, but the placement of these promotions, on stacks outside of the aisle, meant that footfall down the aisle was limited – with less than 50% of beer shoppers actually purchasing beer in the BWS aisle. The brewer believed that bringing the promotions right into the aisle and also improving the category’s segmentation, would create a big win for the supermarket. But how could they grab the retailer’s attention and prove their strategy?

Well, they came to Fifth Dimension for help! By creating a virtual beer aisle, bespoke to the supermarket, with clear, accurate planograms showing the ‘before’ and ‘after’ segmentation, the brewer was able to visualise their proposed changes in a creative, impactful and innovative way.

improved-beer-aisle-segmentation

The movie formed an integral part of a larger presentation describing their vision for the category. The brewer was delighted with the end result. The movie really pulled together their key messages in a way that traditional PowerPoint just couldn’t achieve.

Suffice to say that, according to the brewer, the retailer was also ‘blown away’ with the results. Seeing the proposed fixture ‘come to life’ in an animated movie really brought home the potential for the store. Persuaded by the successful presentation, the retailer had no hesitation in trialling the category recommendations in a test store.

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Following the huge success of this trial, the retailer’s now rolling out the brewer’s strategy into 300 stores, nationwide. A true testament, not only to the expertise of the brewer’s category management and insights teams, but also proving that high quality visualisations are vital to the successful communication of complex in-store innovations; providing clarity, eliminating ambiguity, maximising understanding and, ultimately, strengthening the relationship between the manufacturer and retailer.

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The 28th September saw the grand unveiling of Sainsbury’s biggest store ever. Tesco and ASDA already have a large number of supersized stores so, with a sense of great excitement, Fifth Dimension went to East London’s Crayford to review the new store and see how Sainsbury’s is shaping up to their competition.

First impression?

WOW, very impressed! Great visual impact and a busy, exciting atmosphere. The feel of the store was typically Sainsbury’s though with their trademark, orange livery spread far and wide. We all know how it feels to walk into an unfamiliar store for the first time – it’s confusing, but the familiar ‘ambience’ immediately helped me feel more comfortable, and very confident that the high quality Sainsbury’s prides itself on was still a major element in this new format.

Parking at the store was a challenge; attendants were on hand to guide willing shoppers into parking spaces but there simply weren’t enough spaces available. The car park was huge, but not quite huge enough to accommodate the number of shoppers keen to “check out” their new store. Despite the difficulty, I’m sure it was a welcome signal to Sainsbury’s that Crayford was going to be very busy.

As I entered the store I was greeted with a product tasting station. Nice touch, with many customers sampling the delicious potato and bacon being served in small pots. From this vantage point you can cast your eye over the entire store. Very helpful when you are trying to get your bearings in an unfamiliar store. Traditional groceries to the right, fronted by banks of checkouts, and to the left, Sainsbury’s expanded range of general merchandise. Added to this, there is an impressive mezzanine floor housing the largest TU clothing range I have ever seen!

New Ideas

Where to start? The sheer size of the store presents quite a challenge; is this really a Sainsbury’s? As I walked the store there were several highlights worth noting.

There’s a Take-Away counter positioned right next to the front door. The staff manning the counter were busily serving hot drinks to take away – a great idea for time-challenged Crayford workers looking for their early morning Cappuccino. The counter also works really well for the lunchtime shop, with sandwiches and soft drinks positioned close at hand, making lunch very quick and easy to grab. The left of the store houses the general merchandise department that modern supermarkets are becoming synonymous for. Close by, the travellator takes shoppers upstairs to a mezzanine floor with a massive 20,000 sq ft self contained TU clothes shop.

sainsburys-crayford-pizza-counterThere were a number of interesting additions to the usual grocery offer. The back wall of the store was adorned with an impressive counter display. Particularly interesting was the pizza counter where staff prepare fresh pizzas to order and, for an extra £1, they’ll even cook it for you!

Fresh pizzas were a feature of a number of Sainsbury’s stores 15 years ago and make an appealing return to the new counter offer. What was even more exciting was the fresh ready meals that are prepared in store each day. Customers can watch a small team of staff hand finishing a limited range of meals.

The products may only have a 2 day life, but they do have a real home made look that I’m sure shoppers will love.

Although the store was very busy, checking out was very quick with very short queues. For me that always leaves a great impression.

Innovation brings ‘Green’ Credentials to Crayford

The launch PR from Sainsbury’s highlights some remarkable facts. This store is the first to use technology that heats itself using natural energy. This energy is captured using bore holes buried hundreds of metres beneath the ground. The “geo-exchange” system, exclusive to Sainsbury’s, also captures and stores waste heat from the store, which is used to provide its heating and hot water. Adopting this technology gives the new store the same carbon footprint as the original Crayford one, even though it’s now 2.5 times larger! I think that’s something Sainsbury’s should be very proud of.

Mike Coupe, Sainsbury’s group commercial director, said:
“This is a very exciting time for Sainsbury’s and we are confident that these stores will be a massive hit with customers. With Crayford, we have worked hard to deliver an innovating, exciting store that has a number of new features, several of which are a first to Sainsbury’s”.

Sainsbury’s Crayford Store Takes the Fight to the Competition

I agree that this store will be a massive hit with customers, there’s very little that the store doesn’t offer. The layout is easy to navigate and leaves the shopper wanting for very little. This is the first of many future 100,000 sq ft plus stores, and I for one am looking forward to seeing more stores like Crayford in the Sainsbury’s estate. It’s been a long time coming but it’s certainly going to take the fight to the competition.

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Corporate Sponsorship is the Key

We all like it when someone does us a good turn and likewise we revel in the warm glow when we do a good deed for someone in need of our help. Good deeds are not only within the gift of individuals though since very many large companies feel it’s important to do charitable work or to raise funds to support good causes.

For example, major manufacturers in the retail world have done their part for the greater good by supporting the Sport Relief charity in 2010.  The money raised by Sport Relief helps fund the charitable work done by Comic Relief to help disadvantaged people, both at home in the UK and also in the world’s poorest countries, wherever the need is greatest.

eddie-izzard-running-for-sports-reliefWhilst high profile celebrities like David Walliams cycling the length and breadth of the country or Eddie Izzard running 43 marathons in 51 days will raise a considerable amount of money in well publicised, one-off events, there is always a need for a constant and consistent flow of funds to help those less fortunate than ourselves.

This is where corporate sponsorship is key. And more importantly, this is where a major UK retailer and one of its global supplier partners become central to the fund raising effort. The retailer in question has been supporting Comic Relief since 1999, and has raised a staggering £43M to date and are the headline sponsor for the Sport Relief Mile.

In this particular case, the retailer is raising money by selling Sport Relief branded merchandise, scratch cards and also encouraging donations from suppliers for selected products sold in their stores. They are joined in this fund raising effort by a number of their manufacturer, supplier partners, but it happened on this occasion that Fifth Dimension also became involved.

The manufacturer in question planned to raise £936,000 for this worthy cause by donating 5p per item from the sale of a number of brands in their product portfolio, and, in addition to that, donating 10p from their high profile, market leading brands.

Virtual Store developed to Visualise In-Store Campaign Materials

Pledging and planning to raise money is, of course, just the beginning of the program. To maximise donations both parties needed to work together to maximise the sales of the nominated products. They needed to drive purchase decisions in store by drawing shoppers’ attention to the campaign and encouraging them to support the initiative. With this in mind, the manufacturer created a comprehensive store implementation package of floor stickers, barker cards, shelf fins and channel stripping to help promote Sport Relief and make shoppers aware of how much money was donated to the charity whenever they purchased a nominated product.

The next step was to make sure the in-store implementation of these materials was second to none. The manufacturer wanted to use their field agency to ensure the highest standard of compliance in-store but they also wanted the individual store managers excited about the amount of support that they were giving. It was at this point that the manufacturer turned to Fifth Dimension.

virtual-store-sports-relief-campaign-in-store-graphics

The image above shows a frame from the Virtual Store animation, created by Fifth Dimension, which was used to communicate the in-store implementation of the promotional materials.

Fifth Dimension has a long history working closely with the manufacturer and was therefore well placed to help bring the campaign to life. It was decided that an explanatory movie was required showing what the manufacturer was planning and how it was to be implemented in store to achieve the best possible success. The movie would also show how much money was raised and where the money was going.

Perfect In-Store Execution Assures Success

The movie was given to the McCurrach team on Sport Relief and the manufacturer also provided branded memory sticks carrying the movie so that it could be reviewed by each of the retailer’s 400 plus store managers. This helped the store managers understand how important good in-store implementation was to the success of the campaign and also exactly what ‘good implementation’ should look like at the point of purchase.

sports-relief-in-store-point-of-sale-campaign-materials

The image above shows the final in-store implementation of the promotional point of sale materials in a typical store aisle layout. In-store promotions were not the only thing the manufacturer contributed to raise money and awareness for the campaign. They also increased on-line Grocery site signage and added campaign specific branding on 1 million Scratch Cards. They also sponsored the Colleague Pack and branding 160,000 colleague fund-raising leaflets and kits.

An Example to Us All

All in all, that’s a huge amount of support for a very worthy cause. Everything came together on the 21st March in a successful and worthy campaign result. The retailer and manufacturer concerned should be very proud of what they’ve achieved and by the huge number of people whose lives will have been immeasurably improved by their altruistic efforts. An example to us all.

Of course, this kind of collaboration is not unique to the project described here. Other retailers and manufacturers collaborate on a wide variety of campaigns. Here is another example, ‘Walmart Goes Pink with Mills, Purina‘, just published, which illustrates the success of such teamwork and the benefits it can bring to the needy or suffering.

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Next Generation Retail Summit – San Fransciso

Retail Communications

Earlier this year Fifth Dimension had the opportunity to co-sponsor the Next Generation Retail summit in California. It was an excellent opportunity to network with retail colleagues and understand what challenges they’re facing, especially in the current climate. Among the many one to one meetings and workshops we engaged in, the standout for me was the ‘behind the scenes’ discussion on the first evening between the CIOs and CTOs who attended. I had the opportunity to be involved and the theme that emerged was quite surprising. Almost every delegate in that discussion was concerned with the impact the the internet, [...]

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Insights In Retail – Back Online

Retail Communications

Well, it’s been some time since I last settled into writing the first series of articles on this blog. Since then I, and our whole team, have been involved in many new and exciting retail initiatives, encompassing macro and micro space planning optimisation, assortment planning, virtual store research, aisle management and many innovative shopper insights projects all around the world, all of which have added enormously to our experience and breadth of retail knowledge here at Fifth Dimension. Our software development teams have also been busily building new generations of our advanced software for release this coming year, and so [...]

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Virtual Shelf – Advances Visual Merchandising?

Visual Merchandising

Visual Merchandisers Need New Planogramming Software This past two years we’ve seen traditional planogramming systems come under heavy scrutiny. These older systems were originally marketed, in the main, by data companies. This background, coupled with pressure from particularly influential clients, led to applications which were primarily optimised for analytics and overburdened with extensive but little used functionality. The net effect was software which was hard to learn and difficult to use. Today, clients have new requirements, which these older systems have difficulty in fulfilling. In our detailed surveys of both manufacturers and retailers, it emerged that they want a new [...]

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Marks and Spencer Goes Mobile

Category Management

Last week saw the expansion of Marks and Spencer’s Mobile ‘Food To Go’ service in Milton Keynes. It seems that the ‘new’ service has been run in pilot mode for some time in Milton Keynes and in Swindon with two mobile units in each town. According to our local man there are to be two more units regularly servicing MK offices and another sixty across the country by the end of this year. Our two M&S associates say that the service has been an ‘instant’ hit. The most popular purchase being fruit. They also carry more exotic items such as sushi, which is also very popular. What a great idea! It brings the all the convenience and quality of their packaged lunch foods right to the doorstep of your offices.

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Wilkinson’s Animated Store Briefing Packs

Retail Communications

Earlier this year Wilkinson commissioned Fifth Dimension to help them with the launch of their new Home Living range, which they had re-branded with a more modern design. To implement the new range they had also developed new display equipment that included a bed, curtain displays, carpet plinths etc., all of which would be new to the store staff.


To ensure a successful roll-out to the stores, Wilkinson asked Fifth Dimension to create highly visual Store Briefing Packs to show the store staff how to implement the new range most effectively. The goal was to achieve the highest standards of compliance with the guidelines and so create the best possible presentation of the new range, consistently, in all stores.


We first created a Virtual Store from which we then created detailed animations showing how to implement the new equipment, how to “dress” the product on each type of fixture and how to maintain the display each day. [... ]

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New Future for In-Store Marketing’s $500Bn Spend?

In-Store Marketing

Trade Promotion – the King is dead; long live the King!? Or so some would have you believe. Trade Promotion or In-Store Marketing – The King of Prising Open the Retailers’ Iron Grip on Shelf Space – is perhaps still well and truly alive and kickin’; even in the depths of the deepest recession we’ve seen in decades. But, what if Joe Mandese’s prediction had been right in his article ‘Fast Forward: Is Mass Marketing History About To Repeat Itself?’, just over two years and a bold, ‘booming’ economy ago? Who knows what would be happening now in trade spending? [...]

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The Use of Virtual Store Simulations in Marketing Research and Beyond

Virtual Stores

The In-Store Marketing Institute recently published a comprehensive White Paper on Virtual Store simulation in marketing research. Thorough, but necessarily brief, it left out important examples of the earliest research and commercial work in this field. We summarise the White Paper’s introduction.

Then, in an attempt to fill in the gaps about the beginnings of Virtual Store based shopper behavior studies, we review Morton Heilig’s fantastic 1957 Sensorama machine, Ivan Sutherland’s ‘Ultimate Display’ and the first laboratory based ‘Virtual Shopping Simulation’, by Burke in 1992.

Finally, we look at the late 1990′s commercial research work done for PepsiCo and Procter and Gamble by Fifth Dimension, a pioneer in simulation since 1995. [...]

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The Perfect Store? – Co-op and Unilever use Virtual Stores to Design the ‘Perfect’ Neighbourhood Store

Shopper Marketing

Through 2003 to 2005 Unilever and United Co-op Stores collaborated on designing, testing and implementing a ‘Perfect Store’ layout. Research was commissioned in response to a realization that important Shopper Missions were poorly supported by the layout of typical convenience stores.

We look at Unilever’s’ initial findings and the Virtual Store tests we conducted to understand local shoppers’ reactions to the layout changes. We discuss the insights gained, the new store layout principles developed for refurbishing the format and their subsequent implementation in the pilot store .

The pilot validated the research and proved that, after an initial sales surge, average weekly sales stabilized 8.9% up overall; average spend per customer rose by 9% and the pilot store’s gross profits increased by 9.7%. These improvements were then rolled out to more convenience stores in the Co-op portfolio with similar success. [...]

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