Review: January in New York

Bevan Bloemendaal, senior director of global creative services for The Timberland Co. (Stratham, N.H.) – an original member of the VMSD Editorial Advisory Board and consistent winner of IRDC’s Iron Merchant competition – was installed in the Legion of Honor by the Retail Design Institute at its 42nd annual gala.

Bloemendaal was part of the Legion of Honor’s 2013 class of two. The other honoree was Marc Gobe, ceo and founder of Emotional Branding LLC (New York).

Another long-time VMSD Editorial Board member – Sharon Lessard, group vp, brand store design and experience, at SuperValu Inc. (Eden Prairie, Minn.) – was honored as Trade Member of the Year, along with Ed Krehl, account manager at Stylmark Inc. (Minneapolis).

The gala, which centers around RDI’s annual International Store Design Awards, was held in New York in January, concurrent with the 102nd NRF Convention and Expo.

On the NRF trade show floor at the Javits Center, several new technologies and products demonstrated abilities to advance the “conversation,” including Tensator’s Virtual Assistant. The unit features a silhouette and technology housing located behind it and can project messaging, wayfinding or queuing information to customers.

Attendees looking for the next-generation dressing room could test-drive FaceCake’s Swivel exhibit inside the Microsoft booth. The digital system enables users to create a curated list of apparel and accessories from all over the store, in addition to offering real-time product recommendations and detailed consumer metrics.

Intel’s booth demonstrated several retail case studies, including a digital experience created for McCormick World of Flavors, which engages consumers in a “Guess That Spice” game and “FlavorPrint” program that creates a spice profile based on answers to cooking questions. Looking to transform the checkout experience, a Datalogic automatic scanner system speeds up the checkout process with image-recognition, volume measurements and under-the-cart cameras.

On the visual front, Prism Skylabs has introduced an app that assists retailers in remote visual merchandising using existing in-store cameras to gather real-time data. Among the benefits is the ability to heat map products on shelves to see how consumers interact with brands and new products.

Photography: Mark Steele Photography, Columbus, Ohio; Courtesy of FaceCake Marketing Technologies, Calabasas, Calif.; Darrel Zorn, Bay Shore, N.Y.; Laszlo Regos Photography, Berkley, Mich.; Courtesy of Intel, Santa Clara, Calif.