Informative and interesting read with good information and points to think about!
If you are interested in sales, what makes people buy one product over the other or just want to get more information about the topic, this is a good book to try!

Ms Lee is an expert on visual merchandizing, that aspect of actor network theory that contends that we are almost helpless to withstand the siren call of meaningful design.

Well, Ms Lee may be an inspirational speaker but she is not a much of a writer, or maybe the fault lies more with the translator Sung Ryu.

Ms Lee seems to have taken her PowerPoint slides and some tapes of her lectures and reconfigured them into this tiny book. I am very interested in visual design and how it affects us but I found myself uninterested in what she has to say.

Someone should have told Ms Lee and her editors that prose style is even more important to readers.

I received a review copy of "Secrets Behind Things That Look Good: How Small Changes in Design Lead to a Big Jump in Sales" by Claire Langju Lee translated by Sung Ryu (Influential Inc.) through NetGalley.com.

Is your business losing customers? Have your customers ignored your merchandise? Does your shop get a lot of traffic, but hardly any sales? Do people scan your store from the entrance and leave?

If that’s you, then keep reading.

According to visual merchandising expert Claire Langju Lee, a small change in color, light or space can boost sales significantly.

In her book Secrets Behind Things that Look Good, Claire Langju presents nine secrets that combine small changes in the retail space with an increase in revenue.

Let’s dive in.

Tip #1
All that looks good is not easily forgotten: Create an image they’ll remember

How to get your customers to remember your brand or product.

Claire Langju expresses “memory is not created by effort, but by a sensory experience.”

Pick and accent color that represents your brand.

Repetition is important, “you must first embed it into their senses. If it isn’t remembered, it won’t be sold either.” To make your accent color memorable “use it in the same space at the same time on at least three spots in clear view.”

Tip #2
The golden ratio of colors: Green only makes up 5% of Starbucks’ colors

In this chapter, Claire Langju explains “accent color best practices, the golden ratio of color coordination, and basic properties of several major colors.”

“Balance looks good. What if there was a formula to creating this balance?”

Claire Langju explains you need three colors:

The dominant color: 70% of a design.
The secondary color: 25% of a design.
The accent color: 5% of a design.
Tip #3
Vision dictates your perception: How you arrange color can boost your sales

This chapter from Secrets Behind Things that Look Good is all about “How to arrange color in order to immediately draw a “that looks good” reaction from customers.”

“If you are worried about a product that isn’t making much of a splash, try leveraging complementary colors.” According to Claire Langju complementary colors help each other to stand out.

For example: Claire Langju noticed red apples on cardboard boxes ignored by customers. She bought a stem with large leaves, and “wrapped a few leaves around every apple for decoration.”

The contrast between red and green, a complementary color, “accentuated their freshness and captured people’s attention.” As a result, “with this simple change, the apples sold out quickly.”

Tip #4
How hot is your lighting? Color temperature can make or break your product image

This chapter presents the “essential role of color temperature in your home or business.”

Claire Langju explains how “specific light conditions make products look their best.”

For example: Claire Langju helped a spa that was losing customers.

The problem: She identified the problem at the powder room mirror; the light corresponded to a color temperature of 5,500k-which resembles daylight at midday. This light magnifies “any acne scars or fine wrinkles that customers might have would be more noticeable than ever.”
The solution: Replaced the light with a “three-wavelength lamps, creating a “subtle yellowish glow,…around 3,500k.”

“The Spa got its old customers back and a 50% membership increase within a week.”
Tip #5
Light is a seductress: Especially when it beckons in the dark

“By tinkering with the intensity of lighting, you can direct customers to a target location, have them spend more time there, and ultimately generate more sales.”

For example:

Claire Langju “piled a hundred bunches of spinach on each of two racks.” She illuminated one pile with a 400lx light and the other pile with a 800 lx light. “The later pile sold twice as much.”
Tip #6
Lighting is an art of creating illusion: Manipulate angle and height

In this chapter, the author considers lighting “not simply an instrument to light up a space. It is your secret weapon to make a space look its best.”

For example: A situation Claire’s client went through:

“I get a lot of traffic in the shop, but hardly anyone ever buys anything.”

The problem: The fitting room that looks like a storage room, with ceiling lights that shine directly overhead, and mirrors that hang outside of each stall. “Nine times out of ten such fitting rooms drive customers away.”
The solution: “Tilt light downward at a 45-degree angle and set its color temperature to 3500 k for maximum effect.” Furthermore, to have a mirror in every cubicle-this has pro and cons for stores with limited space.

Tip #7
Store layouts that motivate shoppers to walk miles: Island displays prolong shopping time

Stores employ tactics to encourage more purchases; the store’s layout is not arrange that way accidentally. “The first six steps into the store are decisive.”

For Example:

The problem: “People scan the store from the entrance and just leave.”
The solution: A treasure island near the entrance. “Try setting one up within six steps of the entrance, packing it with sales items, two-for-one promotions, or anything else shoppers might take an interest in.”

Tip #8
The ergonomics of merchandising: Secrets to spacing

“The key to store displays is to communicate the most meaning with the least amount of information.” Claire explains after you have worked color, light, layout, and still the store doesn’t look good the problem “might be having too many displays and advertisement.”

For example:

The situation: A Claire’s client—a ceramic shop—“was packed full of products, some of which were grouped by color and some by function. Some were displayed vertically and others horizontally.”
The solution: Claire advised “vertical merchandising by color…,and spacing between each column, which is one way to practice the philosophy of emptiness.”
“The result? Without undergoing any major layout change, the shop managed to double its sales.”

Tip #9
A brand’s philosophy changes the lifestyle of customers

Why do businesses need a philosophy?

“Today’s consumers consider a lot more factors that they used to when purchasing a product.” For example: Ethical consumption. Brands generate profits and also serve a good cause.

For example: “Patagonia’s brand philosophy is…environmental and social responsibility.”

Their ad campaign 2011 was “Don’t buy this jacket.” Even though their strategy to boost sales seemed counterproductive, it worked, “many consumers who were in the market for a Jacket chose Patagonia, thinking they would rather buy from a company that makes the least impact on the environment.”

“Understanding the pain and discomfort of others is the basis of a good retail display.”

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Sweat the small stuff and, where necessary, make small but motivated changes to a product or service’s design and prepare for a boost in sales. This is the key takeaway from this interesting, thought-provoking book. Of course, sales may not be the only thing you can save on, as you will soon discover.

It is not always the case that big changes are the best, as often what may appear to be a minor change in focus can be the most yielding. It boils down to visual attraction that triggers the rational human being to make a purchase decision. When faced with effectively two identical products, something must trigger the buyer and it is not always price! This book takes the reader through the ‘laws of visual attraction’ to inspire them and help them implement this within their own businesses. The author has been doing visual merchandising consultancy for many top brands over the past 23 years, so clearly knows her stuff.

It is great that this book did not demand prior knowledge, although of course those with a background in merchandising will benefit even more from this. It can be a book for beginner, expert, the curious and even those working in unrelated areas – it is more than just making your store or product box look nice. The text is accessible, suits different audiences and delivers quality, informative advice freely and generously. Overall, a comprehensive mix of advice is given that can lead to informed transformation that might not be necessarily noticed by all (unless it is a ‘big bang’ approach). It may be visible to the company’s financial bottom-line.

One interesting take-out was that the right use of colour can even save on your energy bills! The author noted how a company painted its blue cafeteria walls orange, and managed to save a lot on air conditioning energy bills as it could reduce the temperature from 24C to 20C since everyone complained ‘how warm the building was’. Maybe I need to paint my house walls orange and see if this fools my wife and daughter!

This is a book you should consider!

Secrets Behind Things That Look Good, written by Claire Langju Lee and published by Influential. ISBN 9791186560112. YYYYY

Just like clothes make the man, a product's visual presentation is crucial. In Laws of Visual Attraction: Creating Displays That Sell, consultant Claire Langju Lee shares her lessons learned in colors, lightning, and shelf positioning. You'll read more on a brand image and logo, its primary and accent colors, but also on light temperature (Kelvin) and intensity (Lumen) and their effects on how people perceive themselves and the products they're looking at.

Store layout, the choice of tables, and other furniture in restaurants are addressed. Lifestyle, experience, and the art of illusion collide in the powerful principles across this book. Yes, it's short but inspirational to rethink your product placement and company branding. Cases from e.g. Starbucks, McDonald's, Walmart, Nike, and a bunch of clothing shops, and restaurants are included.

If you take for granted that selling products, or at least choice among products, has little to do with conscious thought, you then turn to the things that do matter: mostly what the store etc. look like, though smell and sound can also matter. This is Lee’s specialty, and she mixes some research with rules of thumb to explain her philosophy of store design. She’s big on accent color as the most important—she says that green only accounts for 5% of Starbucks’ color scheme (taking into account the rest of the store, the full awnings, etc.) while the rest is more neutral dark brown and warm ivory. I also learned the disgusting neologism “kidults” to describe a particular category of consumers; yellow appeals to them. Coffee tastes stronger from a dark brown can than from a yellow one, though.

Lee also spends a lot of time talking about lighting: the right warmth of lighting, from the right distance, can make products inviting (and the wrong can make them look terrible and unflattering). But, Lee says, part of this is cultural, and South Koreans prefer brighter lights than Europeans and Americans. Backlighting, she thinks, doesn’t work in most commercial spaces; it “creates an air of mystery and authority by highlighting the edges of a subject, which is why it is often used in religious settings.”

Of particular interest to me, vision interacts with other senses: “shelving dark-colored products on top can create the illusion that they might topple over,” making some shoppers anxious. Other uses of color and heaviness include the use of black or other dark colors to package small, expensive products so they seem heftier. One company reportedly saved a lot of money in heating costs by painting blue cafeteria walls orange, making the place feel so warm that people routinely complained even when the temperature was lowered from 24 degrees C to 20.

Overall, people looking for new ideas for store design—and some no-nos—could probably nab useful tidbits from the book.

This is a pretty basic book that approaches color mixing and how it should be used for marketing. It also felt like someone's thesis at times. I found it to be a bit eh for the most part. Not really interesting for anyone who is already familiar with the subject.