Jeff Burnstein

The Perfect Wrinkle

Commentary from Jeff Burnstein, RIA’s Vice President, Marketing & Public Relations 

Having two daughters with a fashion sense but no driver’s license yet (thankfully!), I find myself in shopping malls quite a bit these days.  Last week I was in a store called Hollister.  While my youngest daughter Eliza shopped, I sat in a comfortable chair in the middle of the store and read a magazine.  That’s when I learned about the “perfect wrinkle.”

There were two mannequins in front of me dressed in beach clothes.  Nothing extraordinary about that, since the store is full of beach clothes to buy. But, then a staff member came by and started adjusting the clothes so they fell just right, the girl’s collar up instead of down, wrinkled exactly the way it might be if she were standing on the beach with a mild breeze buffeting her.

 

How did the staff member know to adjust it this way?  She worked from a book of pictures.  She was meticulous about making sure the mannequins looked exactly like the pictures. When she was done with their clothes, she started adjusting the chairs that surrounded mine, bringing them right to the exact spots they were supposed to be in, according to her guide book provided by store management.

 

It made me wonder:  do all companies put this type of effort into how things look?  Sure, the retail environment is completely different than a factory floor or a supplier’s lab, but when automation products are being demonstrated, do they gleam?  Are they lit properly?  Do they sound the way they should?  Maybe these sensory issues have no impact on how the automation products work, and maybe the customers could care less.  Except in one regard:  if the suppliers are going to the trouble to get everything just right, to create their own version of the “perfect wrinkle,” maybe the customer notices and assumes that they are diligent about every aspect of quality.

 

My daughter bought a shirt, and off we went to the next store (Abercrombie, owned by the same company that owns Hollister). And I was left to ponder how RIA could incorporate the “perfect wrinkle” into its own efforts.