The power of Visual Merchandising.

"Visual merchandising is the activity of promoting the sale of goods, especially by their presentation in retail outlets" New Oxford Dictionary of English, 1999, Oxford University Press

I did a bed display yesterday with the Cath Kidston Bouquet duvet cover on and when I looked at it on the John Lewis website I was admiring how lovely the promotional image is of it.

Being a Visual Merchandiser myself I can appreciate the layers of a beautifully dressed bed: sheet, duvet, bedspread, pillows and cushions, but this image particularly caught my eye as it not only incorporated the duvet cover I'd used on the shop floor display, but also the Sherbet stripe range as a contrasting layer - which I currently have on my own bed. The photo made my thought process go as follows:

"That Cath Kidston bed looks so nice"
"I love that duvet cover"
"It goes really well with that Sherbet stripe sheet"
"I've got the Sherbet stripe duvet cover and pillowcases"
"Maybe I should buy the Bouquet range as well so I can contrast and mix and match Cath Kidston ranges too"
"That would end up costing quite a bit of money and do I really need another duvet cover?!"
"You always need duvet covers though and it does look really nice"
"Maybe I could just buy the bedspread I put on the bed today instead as a compromise. I could take my spare duvet off the top of my bed then and it would keep me nice and warm.."

You get the gist.

Before I knew it I was having a battle with my own mind seeing if I could justify buying another duvet cover, or a sheet, or even a bedspread - all because I'd seen a photo online and I'd dressed the shop floor bed so invitingly. The point is that I dress the beds for other people to buy the stuff that's on them, not me.

I then realised how ridiculous it was; I was a sucker for not only other people's Visual Merchandising but also my own. Then I had it re-enlightened to me again that actually, that's the whole point of mine and other Visual Merchandiser's across the world: make things look beautiful to sell them and make money. This was just confirmation that even though I didn't part with my hard earned cash this time, somewhere out there a Visual Merchandiser out there was doing a very good job. And I wasn't doing too bad either..