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Mark’s Inc., Langley, B. C., Canada, began its mission of ‘providing extraordinary clothing and footwear to Canadians’ in 1977 with one store, now expanded to more than 380 locations. Mark’s wanted smart stores that educated and excited customers about the technology built into its products, and enlisted Eventscape Inc., Toronto, Ont., Canada, to incorporate the new branding strategy into the design of the company’s flagship store, Mark’s Workwear Warehouse. Eventscape’s store-within-a-store concept to sell weatherproof clothing, “Rain World,” garnered two 2012 Chain Store Age Retail Design awards—and lots of attention from customers.
Rain World takes up 2,000 square feet, anchored by three Rain Tree displays that harness visual, auditory and olfactory media to create a theatrical rain event at pre-programmed times. The magic begins when 18 integrated monitors flooding the area with video of a sunny day suddenly shift to images of a storm, accompanied by sounds of thunder, lightning and rain. The damp scent of fresh-mown grass wafts around customers standing under overhead leaf canopies with clear crystal “rain drops” suspended at staggered heights from the leaves. Integrated holes, posts and platforms provide options for displaying merchandise on the rain trees.
The re-branding effort spurred other creative concepts from the Eventscape team, including a curved technology display tower that engages the customer in touch-screen technology, dynamic learning and active product testing. The chassis of the technology towers formed part of the Big Ideas Fixture, which incorporates touch screens and articulating tables with tiered shelves and bars for flexibility in product display and product information at a glance.