FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Marshall Field's adds electronic directories to St. Paul store
Bob Geiger
Star Tribune
Published Nov. 23, 2002
Target Corporation's Marshall Field's department store chain is kicking off the holiday shopping season by introducing state-of-the-art touch-screen kiosks to help direct shoppers at the retailer's downtown St. Paul store.
Marshall Fields executives hired New Brighton agency Risdall Advertising 10 months ago for the hush-hush project, whose first electronic store directory is situated near an escalator in the newly remodeled St. Paul store's women's wear petites section.
Robbin Schindele, director of new media for Risdall, said the store will have seven kiosks installed by Wednesday in anticipation of the day-after-Thanksgiving shopping hordes.
The touch-screen directories "really position Marshall Field's as having a 21st century outlook on what the retail experience should be," Schindele said.
That experience will include helping shoppers determine where they are in Marshall Field's, offering 3-D store maps and directions on how to find an item. There will be lists of gift ideas by price category and department, and a slick venue for video, in-house and vendor promotions.
And for customers looking for personal assistance, clicking on a "Field's Express" button summons a staffer to help.
"It takes a bunch of things that are involved in e-tailing and combines them with bricks and mortar," said John Risdall, CEO of Risdall.
The kiosks' installation precedes the planned expansion into the stores in Minneapolis, Detroit and the huge State Street store in Chicago by early next year. The chain expects to roll out an estimated 350 kiosks at its 60 stores by the end of 2003. Risdall and Schindele refused to say how much the system will cost, other than to characterize it as a multimillion-dollar project.
Besides serving customers, the high-tech directories will track the number of people who use the kiosks and what they inquire about. The directories are to be linked by a central software system to enable the swift updating of sale items and other in-house promotions viewable on the kiosks.
The inaugural single-store introduction will provide data to help fine-tune the system-wide rollout next year.
The project represents a major national client for Risdall, an agency known primarily for the 1,000-plus Web sites it has created for clients. It works with many companies in the environmental, industrial, high-tech, medical products and sporting goods industries, providing conventional business-to-business advertising in addition to its Internet and interactive technology work.
For more information, contact:
Bob Geiger
Star Tribune
Published Nov. 23, 2002
Target Corporation's Marshall Field's department store chain is kicking off the holiday shopping season by introducing state-of-the-art touch-screen kiosks to help direct shoppers at the retailer's downtown St. Paul store.
Marshall Fields executives hired New Brighton agency Risdall Advertising 10 months ago for the hush-hush project, whose first electronic store directory is situated near an escalator in the newly remodeled St. Paul store's women's wear petites section.
Robbin Schindele, director of new media for Risdall, said the store will have seven kiosks installed by Wednesday in anticipation of the day-after-Thanksgiving shopping hordes.
The touch-screen directories "really position Marshall Field's as having a 21st century outlook on what the retail experience should be," Schindele said.
That experience will include helping shoppers determine where they are in Marshall Field's, offering 3-D store maps and directions on how to find an item. There will be lists of gift ideas by price category and department, and a slick venue for video, in-house and vendor promotions.
And for customers looking for personal assistance, clicking on a "Field's Express" button summons a staffer to help.
"It takes a bunch of things that are involved in e-tailing and combines them with bricks and mortar," said John Risdall, CEO of Risdall.
The kiosks' installation precedes the planned expansion into the stores in Minneapolis, Detroit and the huge State Street store in Chicago by early next year. The chain expects to roll out an estimated 350 kiosks at its 60 stores by the end of 2003. Risdall and Schindele refused to say how much the system will cost, other than to characterize it as a multimillion-dollar project.
Besides serving customers, the high-tech directories will track the number of people who use the kiosks and what they inquire about. The directories are to be linked by a central software system to enable the swift updating of sale items and other in-house promotions viewable on the kiosks.
The inaugural single-store introduction will provide data to help fine-tune the system-wide rollout next year.
The project represents a major national client for Risdall, an agency known primarily for the 1,000-plus Web sites it has created for clients. It works with many companies in the environmental, industrial, high-tech, medical products and sporting goods industries, providing conventional business-to-business advertising in addition to its Internet and interactive technology work.
For more information, contact:
| John Risdall | or Michelle Vandesteeg |
| Chairman and Chief Executive Officer | Vice President, Account Supervisor |
| Risdall Advertising | 651.631.1098 (tel) 651.631.2561 (fax) |
| 550 Main Street | |
| New Brighton, Minnesota 55112 | www.risdall.com or www.risdall.net (web) |