NBA has a new (store) player
Arthur Andersen's retail consulting arm was the NBA's hands-on coach for store design, merchandising and operations
By Vilma Barr (National Contributing Editor)
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NBA has a new (store) playerArthur Andersen's retail consulting arm was the NBA's hands-on coach for store design, merchandising and operationsBy Vilma Barr (National Contributing Editor) |
Typically, the services of consultants to retailing organizations stop at the reflecting quantities of crunched numbers and multitudinous charts and graphs are presented. For the new National Basketball Association store in new York City, the line-up of Arthur Andersen Consulting's Senn-Delany retail arm applied their seasonal team of former retailers to implement their written recommendations on everything from store design to product assortment.
Led by project manager Seth Fink, the Senn-Delany team worked closely with NBA's management, merchandisers, display directors and operating personnel, along with store design specialist, Los Angeles-based Richard Altuna, to develop the concept for the new 35,5000-sq.-ft. sotre at 666 Fifth Avenue. Its 31 foot-high, all glass storefront along Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street offers a traffic stopping view of the bi-level selling floors and it's seven-foot-wide, 170-foot-long maple ramp that winds from the main floor down to the lower level. By meeting it's scheduled fourth-quarter opening date last November, the plan inadvertently ran afoul of the NBA players strike, quashing a full-court promotional launch for the high profile store. Now that the disruptive strike is history, the store has begun to hit it's stride. Visitors and paying customers range from tourists to businesspeople from nearby office buildings congregating for a quick lunchtime game on the store's central court to school and neighborhood teams form the city and suburbs.
According to Fink, Senn-Dleany often acts as a communication bridge between client and designer. "It's part our role to probe how design elements relate to the retailer's conceptualized strategy," Fink explains. For the NBA store, Altuna's idea for the ramp was evaluated from such advantage points as finance, space requirements, image, store layout and merchandise enhancement. "We traded off the square footage assigned to the ramp to support the conceptual statement and the image developed with the NBA for the store, their first major retail effort," Fink says.
The team applied the same criteria to projected capacity, materials, locations of product areas and placement of fixtures and cash wrap stations. Each department's design was critiqued against the defined benchmarks, from concept to the merchandise plan. Fink reports that the excellent three-point working relationship between the consulting group, Altuna and the NBA kept the planning process moving forward. "The essence of the Senn-Delany/Arthur Andersen participation is to make a better job," Fink notes. "We challenge ideas is a positive way so that the final decision works for everyone, and isn't just a compromise. The client is more comfortable with the choices because they had more knowledge about the ramifications of the options and solutions. They feel they are buying into the final result, rather than being sold to, "he says.
Fink called on the resources of other Arthur Andersen consulting groups to advise on in-store technology, labor management, operations and industrial engineering, and financial management. The NBA store presents an expanded range of merchandise targeting a consumer base expanded to encompass higher-income professionals. "NBA" as a consumer product brand insignia was created and applied to a new line of merchandise identified with the organizations's logo. Products carrying the individual and team identifications are also sold at stadium shops and sporting goods stores. Bestsellers at the New York store include outerwear, polo shirts and leather items such as briefcases.
Above the main selling floors is the third housing a VIP room, offices and employee lockers. Fixtures and street level are cherry; on the lower level, bleachers, fixtures and court flooring are maple. Store walls and display fixtures incorporate metal detailing resembling a playground's chain-link fence.
NBA personnel including Bill Daughtery, vice president of business development; Chris Russo, director of retail construction; Bill Marshall, general merchandise manager; Jeff Fisher, director of visual merchandising. The Phillips Group (New York) were project architects, Lehr Construction served as construction manager.