Article
Paint kiosk targets female shoppers
Pittsburgh Paints' new device repositions a hardware store tradition.
December 13, 2006
The writer is editor of SelfService.org.
Picture the old paint aisle. Past rows of tools that husbands use to clink away on weekend projects, there they sit: paper-labeled cans of colored chemicals. Now picture a Bath and Body Works. At the intersection of those two marketing philosophies is a new kiosk from Pittsburgh Paints.
"This unit especially was designed to resonate with the female consumer," said Bob Barbacci, brand manager for Pittsburgh Paints. "What we've seen is a continued, growing interest in the female being involved in this decision-making process. They use paint more as a way to express their individual style than men do."
The units themselves are large, lavish wood cabinets filled with a full spectrum of traditional color chips from Pittsburgh Paints' Grand Distinction line of paints. In its center is a touchscreen that depicts eight women dressed for different personality types: adventurous, sophisticated, casual, festive, romantic, traditional, creative and serene.
The user touches the button that best describes her personality, and the kiosk digs through its database of related colors.
"What we believe this display represents is a next step in linking home décor and home expression with fashion. Instead of clothes, it's walls," Barbacci said. "So the role of color has taken on a greater emphasis. That's why if you go into any home center you'll see just a great amount of color being presented to the consumer."
When the customer touches a color she might like, the kiosk shows an elegant photograph of the color on an actual wall, in a Hamptons-like setting.
Barbacci said 210 of the units were rolled out to Menards, in two phases, beginning in March, larger stores first. He said the kiosks, built by Frank Mayer and Associates, took 12 months to design and build. Barbacci said the software development also is two-tiered, the second part being a more typical mix-and-match color visualizer.
Color visualizers are becoming more and more common at in-store kiosks and online. One of the most widespread visualizers can be found on Behr Paint kiosks in Home Depot stores, allowing customers to paint virtual walls in order to preview how a room might look painted in a particular color. Scene7, which built Behr's visualizer, designs online and kiosk-based vizualizers for a variety of national brands, and publishes case studies touting double-digit sales conversion growth for several clients. Still, PPG approached visualization with skepticism.
"We didn't see a lot of differentiation between color visualizers out there in the marketplace," Barbacci said. "So by incorporating the entire story behind Grand Distinction, we felt we could offer the consumer more.""It appeals to women because you see the different styles and varieties that are located on the display," said Frank Mayer marketing coordinator Cheryl Lesniak. "(The kiosk is) a lot nicer than walking up to a normal display with a lot of chip holders lined up with a bunch of colors."
Barbacci and PPG are happy with the kiosks' performance. Retailers' site regulations don't allow the kiosks to plug into networks, and so they have no back-end remote management functionality with which to measure usage. Because of this, Pittsburgh Paints has used more traditional forms of measurement to determine their success: monitoring point of sale activity, and noting the increase in brochures and paint chips that customers take from the display.
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Frank Mayer and Associates
Kiosk Design | Manufacturer
Frank Mayer Kiosks and Displays specializes in large-scale rollouts of custom digital kiosks for enterprise and growth-oriented brands. With a relentless focus on premium design, customization, and end-to-end service, we manufacture self-service customer engagement solutions that expand market reach, boost sales, and enhance brand equity.
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