The Product Development Adventure
Over the past 70 years we’ve had the privilege of working closely with many key Heritage Organisations. Through this journey, we have gained invaluable insights by listening to and engaging with our customers. These experiences have highlighted some essential principles and ideas that can be used as a guide for the Product Development Adventure.
To help set the stage for success, I’ve created a brief guide that I love sharing with both new and long-standing customers at the start of every project. It’s a great way to kick off the process, spark imagination and align everyone's goals from the outset.
A lot can be gained from reflection and looking at what you already have at your disposal, as well as listening to peers, suppliers and other key influential people in our sector. The points below are not exhaustive and I like to add to them as things change or if I find something else useful that would be good to share.
Successful Products should Engage Everyone:
They should engage you
They should engage your team
They should engage your visitors
They should engage your suppliers
Bespoke and unique products will cause excitement and engagement for everyone involved from the development stage right through to the purchase by end user and many years down the line when they see the memento in their home.
What should a bespoke Product Do For you (the Retail Buyer)?
Increase retail revenue
Energise your retail offering
Deliver multiple sales across all platforms
Ignite or reignite the passion you have for your role and the attraction where you work
Make your job unique, interesting and exciting
Get you away from run of the mill products with just another logo on that you can find anywhere in your locality
Enable you to engage with your retail team and others within your organisation
Raise your own profile and gain recognition for your work within your organisation and peers within the sector
What should a product do for the Visitor buyer?
Be evocative and engaging - the product should have connections to a particular part or item in your attraction. When they see a memento of the item in your retail space their buying decision feels less about buying and more about preserving a moment or memory.
Make them Feel good – that they have helped support your attraction and the good work that you do
The product should be unique and exclusive - something special that they can't get anywhere else other than from you. Stimulating a buying response or even fear of missing out if they don't buy the item there and then
Continue to tell story and serve as a reminder of their time with you, maybe even encourage them to return, or serve as a talking point with their friends who may then in turn visit you
The starting Point -Inspiring questions to ask yourself and your team:
Look to your retail team, front of house team, historians and volunteers if you have them – engage with the whole attraction staff – they may have ideas that you had never thought of.
What currently sells well?
Do you have any historic sales figures that point to best sellers that could be further exploited?
What do visitors find emotive? Is there any particular thing that stirs their emotions the most – making them reflect, laugh or even cry?
What is the most photographed thing?
Is there a print or card that you sell lots of?
Do you have any Characters at your venue (staff/actors/blog or podcast stars) that you could make merchandise of?
Do you have a print library that could be utilised?
What are the key search words people look for on google when finding your attraction?
What website pages receive the most hits? Look at both your retail side, your website in general and particularly if you have an online catalogue/register of your artefacts.
Were there any events of historical significance at your attraction?
Have any speeches ever been made at your attraction or remarks made by someone famous that you could take parts of or slogans from?
Has your attraction ever been used for a filming?
Throw all of this down into some kind of notes. Better still have a brainstorming session with everyone. After your session share the notes and ask people to have a think for a few days and feedback any more ideas they have. Everyone you involve will feel empowered, energised and valued.
Consider The Product Mix
Consider a blend of quality unique items with designs that go across categories and price points. It's also worth blending unique products from local suppliers and bespoke ones from national suppliers to give you a great product offering. Local suppliers will give you something specific to your area whilst national suppliers will give you some products that you can't get manufactured locally in the quantities or price points that you need.
Product Categories To Consider:
Mementos
Sustainable items
Fair trade
Food & beverage
Stationery
Clothing
Jewellery
Pocket money/novelty generic products (pencils etc)
The Value Mix of Inspirational and Aspirational Products – think like Chanel
In 2023 Chanel's total revenue was $19.7 billion. The high-end aspirational products such as their clothing accounted for 15-20% of their revenue whilst hand bags and shoes were 20-30%. These products help to build the brand/offering and it's status to a point where everyone recognises it and would like to own or have a bit of Chanel in their lives.
By far their highest revenue was from Fragrance and Beauty, estimated to be 40% of the company’s total sales –that’s $7.88 billion. Fragrance and Beauty items are more widely accessible and have a bigger market than the high-end items.
Chanel wouldn't be where it is today if it wasn't for the high end, attention grabbing, aspirational products. It certainly wouldn't be such a successful brand if it wasn't for the accessible products that generate their most income. The product mix is perfect - a mutually beneficial, symbiotic product range, one would not do so well without the other.
When considering this and applying it in the heritage retail, make sure that you have a good mix of high end aspirational products and complimentary inspirational products. The inspirational products at accessible price points will sell in bigger volumes and be more likely generate more revenue.
What would this mix look like? Think fine art framed prints or pieces of Jewellery inspired from some artwork at the higher end with miniature high quality fridge magnets, keyrings or pin badges of the same artwork at the other end of the spectrum. A complimentary range of products at different price points with greater levels of visitor accessibility the further you go down the scale in terms of price. The inspirational products can also be complimentary add on purchases at the online or physical checkout.
Finding The Right Supplier Partner is Key:
They should align with your values
You should like them as people and enjoy working with them
They should make your life easier with added value services, not just the product itself.
You should get a sense that they are as invested as you are in your attraction and the products you are developing together
Engaging with each other as partners, not the traditional hard supplier – retailer relationship will reap rewards. A supplier will go the extra mile for you, pulling things through production quicker or even stocking items for you to call off and pay for as you go – a mutually beneficial partnership.
Finding the right partner will ultimately give you more free time to focus on other aspects whilst you trust them with their specialist knowledge to get on with things and revert back to you at key points of the project
Share, Share and Share Again
Once you have found the right supplier partners share, share and share again. Build up a good relationship so it’s easy to get in touch with them share your thoughts and ideas, bounce ideas off them and test out theory's or design ideas and gain their expert feedback. By working together in collaboration and partnership we all win. Also share and feedback your progress with your retail and wider attraction Team, they may have more useful feedback that you can incorporate. Sharing your progress, particularly as you involved them in the early stages of the product development adventure creates a product buy in and ownership from everyone. Your team will be naturally enthusiastic about the products and will engage with visitors about them and help to drive sales.
Whilst this is not an exhaustive guide it's one that I am constantly adding to so would always welcome feedback from everyone.