We continue to dissect GURU from MTS - why you need to copy wisely

Hello.

In the first part, we briefly touched on the prerequisites for the emergence of premium retail from MTS (it is necessary

note that attempts are not the first), and alsodismantled several parts of the flagship store. If you missed this text, I recommend that you read it so that you have a complete picture of what is happening.

Premium retail from MTS - GURU. Expensive escape from reality

The first acquaintance with the new flagship store from MTS, we examine the sign, discuss the mixture of languages and what meets us inside.

The GURU approach demonstrates that in MTS, asvacuumed, collected everything possible from the market, and tried to squeeze it into the small space of the store. Here a heap of meanings and tasks has formed, which is not so easy to deal with. Even the name GURU arose by analogy with Apple's Genius, these are employees who allow you to set up equipment, help in training, and further down the list. That is, trained specialists in Apple branded retail.

Create a "guru" in a multi-brand practicallyit is impossible, the same specialization is needed here, one cannot be a generalist in household appliances, chemicals, coffee machines, smart home, tablets and means of personal mobility. The task is initially unsolvable, so any “guru” from MTS obviously loses to the re:Store seller or the same Genius in the Apple Store. The former have universality, the latter have specialization. Yes, the level of the same “genius” is not prohibitively high, but the system itself is built in such a way that there are employees with different depths of knowledge, and if the first line fails, then the task is transferred further. And in the end, she decides. This is a pyramidal structure, which cannot be in GURU by definition, since the variety of goods is too large. It's one thing when you have a single line from Apple, it's quite another when there are more than a few dozen categories of goods. Copying Apple is pointless here, we are witnessing a cargo cult when we borrowed an external manifestation without understanding the essence behind it.

Today, many companies create their own merch, soreceived. It is assumed that the brand is so attractive that the public will purchase a T-shirt or hoodie with the name of the company. Now let's look at the example of Apple, you can only buy branded t-shirts on the company's campus in California, the design is very different from the uniform of the sellers. And this is done on purpose so that people do not look like sellers from the Apple store.

Those who travel frequently to the US should havepay attention that there are many people in the streets in the form of different companies, for example, couriers. But you don't meet salespeople and "geniuses" from the Apple Store in the usual environment, they leave the form at work. And this was done consciously so that the brand is not associated with sellers, so that they do not weaken its perception. Sellers in the Apple Store are quite low-paid staff, they are not the target audience for Apple products. And it's understandable why the company wants to distance itself from them.

Let's get back to the merch from MTS, which weoffer to buy in the store. It's pretty well made, though the price looks overpriced, but that's another story. All sellers are dressed in branded T-shirts, in winter, apparently, hoodies will be added. And exactly the same merch is sold in the store. The question arises: which of the ordinary people wants to be associated with GURU stores, pretend to be an employee of this retailer? For Yandex, for example, this is the main problem with merchandise sales, people outside Yandex treat it with distrust, because they don’t want to be associated with couriers (they don’t have such T-shirts, but who thinks about it?).

It is curious that there was no place for merch instore, stuck on a rack by the exit, T-shirts and hoodies stacked in piles. And this is just a color spot that has nothing to do with the store. The place was simply occupied by merch, but no one thought that it would be sold. I call it filling the space, when you need to fill the space with something, and no one cares about the turnover of goods, there is no task to sell. Just place somewhere and nothing more.

Miscellaneous

Affiliate material

Reality and prospects of the IT professions market

What professions are the most popular and highly paid?

Saturday coffee #212

Pour a cup of invigorating Saturday coffee andcheck out the news of the week. Sales of Poco with a large battery started, super scooters arrived in Russia, OnePlus showed a new flagship, and I got hooked on one game ...

Full tank #14. Lexus ES350 F Sport test

Saturday, which means it's time for our automotive column. Today we will talk about the seventh generation of the Lexus ES business sedan, a roomy, quiet and calm car from the Japanese manufacturer.

Samsung Smart Monitor M7 review

A smart UHD monitor, a wireless work and entertainment center with multiple use cases…

For a long time I tried to understand how to describeassortment of the GURU store. Then he came up with an understandable association. We take the MVideo hypermarket with endless rows of products from different categories, reduce the number of products to 2-3 units in additional categories and try to put all this in a space that is orders of magnitude smaller. A sort of logistical challenge. The know-how of MTS also lies in the fact that goods are displayed according to the margin that this store receives, that is, there is an attempt to maximize profit per unit area. But this is a utopia, because by displaying high-margin products for the store, you sacrifice variety of choice, and also lose focus.

You can't squeeze an electronics hypermarket into a couplehundreds of square meters. No matter how hard you try, nothing will fit into them. I was led around the store, and with every step I was amazed more and more - here are tablets, here are smart watches, smartphones, a personal mobility zone on the wall, since there is no space on the shelves. Appliances. Smart House. Household chemicals, in particular, shampoos. And other categories of goods that are pointless to list, since they make no sense. The selection was not around the idea, but around the fact that the goods would bring the maximum amount of money to MTS.

This approach has the right to life, but creatingpremium stores probably need to think about what problem you are solving for your customer. That is, what he will receive upon purchase and why he needs to buy in your store, what service will be there. What can he see and how will you attract him, why should he pay you more than anywhere else. I don't have answers to this question.

Bakeries can sell shampoo after allall people eat and also wash. Bingo, the best combination of goods! But for some reason there are no shampoos in bakeries. Just do not remember supermarkets with a different size of space, there is a different approach and a bet on versatility. Here, in a limited area, we see an attempt to squeeze in everything that is possible. And this is a sad picture, because it makes no sense. It turned out another MTS store, where they simply expanded the range of goods and disguised MTS.

It reminded me a little of the last daysthe existence of MediaMarkt in Russia, when new product categories appeared in stores - Coca-Cola, men's socks, sweets and washing powder. The choice then followed exactly the same principle - a high margin for the seller. But this approach looked ugly and caused chuckles from visitors.

Mobile-review.com Sofa analytics #40. Socks and boots as the future product of electronics chains?

Why boots appeared in online storefronts, and MediaMarkt sells washing powder and sweets what is happening with retail chains

GURU initially focused on bad practice. And here the question arises: in what specific stores are GURU specialists? In electronics? In household chemicals?

Operators

Vladimir Nimin

Operator news: new Tele2 tariff

It seems that the new tariff from Tele2 looks like a great reason to throw a gamepad into your backpack so that you always have it at hand.

Review of the smartphone Samsung Galaxy A22s 5G (SM A226B/DSN)

A niche smartphone with 5G support for minimal money - it is not even on the Samsung website, but it is sold in Russia. Compare with Galaxy A22 - is it worth the money?

Comparison: POCO M3 Pro vs Tecno Camon 18

The difference is 5 thousand rubles: you can’t save money. Where to put a comma?

Doogee S98 Pro review: a flagship smartphone with a thermal imager

An "alien" smartphone, fully protected, with a night vision camera and a thermal imager ...

We will return to the idea of choosing goods, now let's focus on the design of the store, we will open it together.

The height of the ceilings made it possible to make a second floor, the designers created not just a staircase, but an amphitheater, high steps on which, in theory, you can sit. And they put small stools here.

Good design element, but spaceempty and unoccupied. On an impromptu tour, I heard that there was a fight going on to add outlets on the stairs so people could sit there and recharge their devices. Initially, they did not think about it, but sockets do not save the situation at all.

A large number of different stores have areas whereyou can sit and relax. Often they are used for consultations, setting up equipment in comfortable conditions. The amphitheater is also a familiar solution, but with one caveat: it has a direct purpose, that is, you are sitting looking somewhere. It can be a screen, a beautiful view from the window. That is, functionality also plays a role here.

It is impossible to sit on stools in GURU, becausethe height of the rows is such that there is a serious chance of falling, there is not too much legroom. So, you will have to sit sideways. What makes the eye rest on the stairs. But even if you sit facing the entrance, you won't see too much - shelving below, a piece of a window, and nothing else. The picture does not look very interesting.

Now let's think about why in retail they createplaces to sit. A partial answer to this question has already been given above: so that people can get advice. But let's look at the issue more broadly, buyers do not always come to the store in splendid isolation, they are often with their families, and their relatives need to be occupied while the selection of goods is in progress so that people do not crowd around the windows together or three with the seller. For such cases, a zone is needed where people can wait for their relatives and friends, charge their phones, and so on. The zone should be comfortable, perhaps offer some kind of entertainment. But this is not the case of a specific GURU store, it is simply inconvenient here. Moreover, people instantly become the center of attraction for views.

It seems that among those who designed the amphitheater,there was not a single girl. Steep steps, stools facing the street. Few people dare to sit down in a mid-length skirt facing the street, there will be what the boys call the “northern lights”. Although, on the other hand, if this is exactly what they wanted, then there are no questions. But as I see it, just no one thought about it.

The amphitheater is another ill-conceived, foreignelement in the store space. It was created to take a place, but they did not initially think what purpose it would serve. Attempts to find a use for it after the fact are commendable, but this approach is not approved - first we create a problem, and then we start to deal with it.

The merit of the GURU store is at least thatYou can consider different techniques that retail uses. And there is something else to discuss - transparent price tags, an endless showcase, payment by QR code and other techniques that have been brought to life. So we will return to the discussion of the store in the next part of the material.