Although branding by manufacturers is common in most types of retail, a spinner rack is often the closest that booksellers come to promoting a publisher's line of books in a single space. Last June DK and Store of Knowledge, the six-year-old PBS-affiliated retailer with 91 stores specializing in educational toys, games and books, changed all that when they created the first non-character—based store-within-a-store in a book environment.
The idea of installing DK "booktiques," as Bob Bassett, v-p of merchandising, marketing and e-commerce, calls them, emerged after last year's Toy Fair, when Store of Knowledge challenged the publisher to double its business with the retailer. In addition to a wide selection of DK products, the booktiques feature a kiosk with a personal computer that is hooked up to both the Store of Knowledge and DK Web sites, to enable shoppers to purchase from DK's entire line. Although Store of Knowledge's request may have been a tall order, so far, according to DK v-p of sales Gary Gentel, it has been "an unmitigated success. We essentially own real estate in their stores."
Donna Coffey, divisional merchandise manager of books, gifts, videos and audios at Store of Knowledge, concurred. "The first six months outperformed expectations," she said, adding that over the first year "our business will improve four times." In addition, she noted, "we took a product category that was weak in the DK mix—their software—and co-branded it. It has become our most successful software line."
DK has continued to tweak its title mix, which now includes more preschool board books, children's products, and foreign language phrase books than originally allotted. Overall, Gentel has been pleased with the way the sections have performed, from plan-o-gram to store level. "It's been a great partnership," said Gentel. "They, like a lot of retailers, struggled in the fourth quarter. But the book category grew." As he sees it, the biggest challenge in the months ahead is to "keep them fresh."
Thanks to the booktiques, "DK's Touch and Feel and My First series are constantly on our bestsellers list," said Coffey. More important, by putting all the DK titles together instead of shelving them by subject, she has found a lot of crossover. "People choosing a juvenile book are also likely to purchase an adult book, and vice versa," she commented. "In effect, this becomes an add-on business."
If there is a downside, at least from DK's perspective, it is the low volume of online sales. "The computer has worked okay, in that consumers can look up anything online," said Gentel. "What we really wanted to accomplish, however, was ordering DK products online through the computers [in the stores]. That is what has been ahead of its time. Neither company was really ready for this."
For his part, Bassett has no regrets and is committed to making Store of Knowledge a bricks-and-clicks retailer. "I'm very pleased with it," he commented. "First of all, our Web site was very successful this year. The kiosk is here to stay. This was its [the Web site's] second year of operation. You can't just measure it by the books ordered online. It also sells, and it educates our staff and our customers."
If anything, Bassett intends to improve the kiosks so that customers, who already have the ability to shop online and pick up their orders in a store or return or exchange their online orders instore, can get more information. "We're going to add scanners, which will allow a customer to bring a product up online in the store," said Bassett, "The computer will prompt, Do you want to learn more about the product? or, Do you want to add this to your wish list?"
Moving into More Retailers
In mid-February, DK rolled out its second large-scale set of store-within-a-store sections at more than 160 of the 188 Zany Brainy multimedia stores. Although these areas are on a much smaller scale than those in Store of Knowledge and reside in a four-foot section in the board book area, DK's My First Bookshop Section, as they are known, has started off strong. "It's just now hitting stores and we're actually selling a lot," said Zany Brainy buyer Jim Tomaszewski, who views the partnership as "an opportunity to do something with a great-looking line. It's a great way to provide customer service. It's made it easy to shop."
For Tomaszewski, DK is one of the few book publishers to have a brand image, which also makes the partnership attractive. "That's another plus for us," he said. "Having a brand like this creates a link between DK and Zany Brainy in the minds of the customer." To further the connection, Zany Brainy will feature the DK area in its major advertising piece for Easter, "Zany Zones," which will be inserted into local newspapers, mailed to customers and will be available in stores.
In addition, DK will have its first branded area in a baby store later this month when FAO Schwarz opens its first FAO Baby boutique, in its New York City store. It also plans to convert its entire Chestnut Hill Mall store in Chestnut Hill, Mass., into an FAO Baby store in May or June. According to Lauryce Graves, executive v-p of catalog and product development, FAO Schwarz will devote 10,000 square feet next to its Madison Avenue entrance to infant and preschool items that will all be segmented by brand. "Many people buy by brand," Graves explained. "We really tried to think of the shopper—the parent and the gift giver—and the children. What we've been able to do is to show the product in a much better light."
FAO Baby will have wide aisles to accommodate single and double strollers. Although it will have the store's signature "Welcome to Our World" music, the whole environment is intended to be more calming for babies and their parents. While the area will still be very much hands-on, staff has been specially recruited from teachers, librarians and education students who are interested in child development. The store plans to have seminars on parenting as well as story times with costumed characters.
Grace notes that there will be some books connected with dolls like Raggedy Ann and Paddington Bear in FAO Baby, but DK will be the only book publisher represented alongside other children's brands. "DK has been a partner with FAO for a while," she said. "The books we're putting in are a lot of My Firsts, which are great for teaching a child about first things."
DK has one additional booktique at the gift shop of the Museum of Natural History in New York City. Its wall of Eyewitness Books, which was installed last October, has already increased sales three times, according to Gentel, who would like to add even more booktiques to museum stores, bookstores and other book retailers over the coming year. "My mission is to do these in the types of stores where it makes sense, i.e., specialty stores," Gentel said. "It's fun and exciting, and there are bits and pieces of this boutique idea that would make sense in just about any store in the country."
How the booktique concept will fare over time is anyone's guess. Like all marriages, as Store of Knowledge's Bassett refers to his company's relationship with DK, it requires a commitment from both parties to make it work. Store-within-a-store may not be a new idea, but by using it with books, DK is hoping to form a lasting relationship with its customers.
