Cultural Differences in Visual Marketing and Displays

Have you ever returned to a place you used to frequent, found everything just as it used to be, but still had a sense that something was off? Maybe it’s visiting the coffee shop you used to study in during college—the menu is the same, but someone has rearranged the chairs slightly. Or you’re visiting your childhood home and discovered that your parents reorganized the books on the shelf. Something has changed, even if you can’t put your finger on it.

I experienced this yesterday when I walked around the Marais and ran into an old acquaintance: the American retailer Anthropologie. I worked for Anthropologie at one of their largest stories in New York City for over three years—and while I left the company a long time ago, I am still very well versed in the brand and its marketing techniques.

If you’ve ever visited an Anthropologie store in the U.S., you probably were drawn in by the beautifully decorated store windows, or its boho-chic store layout and design. Depending on the seasonal concept, you might feel like you’re in glamorous city apartment, or a cozy rustic cabin. And merchandise—whether it be clothes, home goods, or accessories—is available in every nook and cranny imaginable.

This is all by design—Anthropologie does not spend money on traditional advertising and spends most of its marketing budget into the store experience. Each store has its own visual display team that interprets creative concepts from headquarters as they see fit, so no two stores are the same. This is also why visiting an Anthropologie is an experience like no other brand—every store is unique.

When I walked into the Anthropologie in the Marais, something felt off to me. The clothes looked like the ones in the United States, I recognized many of the kitchenware and candles that were sold in Paris, and yet…I couldn't put my finger on it, but there was something uncanny about the experience to me.

There is so much space! The store has a much more minimalistic, clean, and subtle feel than it does in the United States. There are no elaborate set pieces, no carefully arranged clutter. Even the clothes racks felt empty to me!

Marketing isn’t just about selling a product. It’s about selling the story of the product, how the customer should feel when they’re using it. And that begins before the customer has even bought the product—in the store, where the atmosphere and experience dictate what a brand represents. To me, it is very clear that even though an American customer and a French customer may buy the same dress from Anthropologie, they’re attaching a very different story to their dress. I would argue that the American customer is more whimsical and playful than her French counterpart, who may be tidier and more elegant.

However, I did feel at times during my visit to the Marais location that I could have been in any brand’s store. The store experience is what makes the brand stand out in the States—I cannot tell you how many times a customer would tell me how much they loved shopping at Anthropologie because of the atmosphere, and how they felt in the store.

I saw tons of window displays and perused dozens of stores yesterday in addition to my walk down memory lane. Based on what I saw, it is apparent to me that visual merchandising and display trends in Paris value space: they like to let the product breathe. In the U.S., visual merchandising and displays value abundance, and stores will often have large piles of merchandise on tables or clothing racks filled to the brim.

The Anthropologie in Paris is fairly new—it opened in September 2019—so there are a number of reasons for why the visual display is different. I could believe that this was a deliberate decision by the American executive team, or if it was just a unconscious cultural change. Either way, I will be interested to see what the store looks like the next time I visit Paris.