No Turn On Red

One of my local malls, the Monmouth Mall in Eatontown NJ, recently has seen a number of retailers relocate and remodel their stores: Victoria Secret, The Limited, Express, New York and Company, and Hot Topic. Add in the conversion of a Rampage to Forever 21 and new stores being built (Charlotte Russe, Hollister, and Modell’s), the mall is generating excitement with their newness.

The Hot Topic remodel interested me. It’s been 10 years since they opened in their spot that they were in. The new store has better lighting, better merchandise presentation, more excitement, and it is more inviting to shop in.

Not only did they remodel this store, but this is one of the first 10 percent of Hot Topic stores to get the new, reworked layout.

Hot Topic’s dark Goth stores, which were once a huge hit with rebellious teen shoppers, are getting a lighter, brighter makeover as the retailer struggles to pull sales out of a deep hole, the company’s chief financial officer said Wednesday.

“Based on feedback from our customers and changes in the [apparel] industry, we’re changing the look of our stores,” James McGinty told a gathering of analysts at the Piper Jaffray Annual Consumer Conference in New York.

“People were telling us that the stores were too dark, gothic and intimidating to the average customer,” McGinty said.

(More from CNN/Money.)

Over at Lightheavyweight, Finn is talking about talking about how this new layout ties in with lifestyle marketing. To really capture your marketshare, as a lifestyle marketer, you have to evolve with your clients and adapt through the times.

One can create a great shopping experience and display merchandise well, but if it doesn’t connect with the customers, there will be no business. The challenge with lifestyle marketing is not only to create an exciting shopping experience, but to create one that connects. As Finn discusses, I think Hot Topic has done this.

This new layout is a fresh look for the retailer and a needed change. Adapting as the marketplace grows is not only good business, but it is something the retailer needed to do. The last 12 months have not been kind to them:

What I also like is how well their new website design ties in to the new store concept. Brighter colors, better navigation, better presentation of merchandise. Not only does the new site work well and look nice, but it’s a direct reflection of the thoughts that drove the new store layout. This is a great integrated effort to create a cohesive shopping experience across all mediums. This is something that not very many retailers get right and Hot Topic did.

It will take a while to get this concept off of the ground and really reinvigorate the business, but the seeds of growth and change are there for the long run. Watch out for Hot Topic (again).

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