Released August 31, 2009
Visual merchandising is the number two sales tool after personal sales. Visual merchandising is more than just making it pretty; it’s a silent salesperson. Displays have four objectives: to attract, to interest, to create desire and to promote people to take action, said Glenn Muske, home-based and micro-business specialist at Oklahoma State University.
Muske will host a free one-hour Web seminar (webinar) Thursday, Sept. 10. He will focus on visual merchandising as a marketing tool. The session will cover how to use displays and product arrangements to draw in customers.
Participants will learn about basic principles and design elements plus see examples of how small business owners have used them in practice. Muske also will talk about how visual merchandising can be done at a low cost.
The free educational webinar is from the Entrepreneurs and Their Communities section of eXtension (pronounced E-extension). For more information about eXtension resources for small businesses, see http://www.extension.org/entrepreneurship. The site has free learning lessons, answers for frequently-asked questions, news and a way to ask individual questions on ‘Ask an Expert.’
Webinar host Glenn Muske is a professor of design, housing and merchandizing at Oklahoma State University. His research interests include entrepreneurship and family- and micro-businesses.
The Sept. 10 session begins at 2 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The webinar meeting room opens 15 minutes before the start time. Go to http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/ecop/ to view.
Entrepreneurs and Their Communities is an information resource developed by more than 300 experts from land-grant universities, agencies and other organizations. The university faculty and staff are part of the national eXtension resource customized with links to local Cooperative Extension Web sites.
eXtension, www.extension.org, is an educational partnership helping Americans improve their lives with access to timely, objective, research-based information and educational opportunities. Land-grant universities were founded on the ideals that higher education should be accessible to all, that colleges should teach liberal and practical subjects and share knowledge with people throughout their states.
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Sources: Mary Peabody, University of Vermont, (802) 223-2389, mary.peabody@uvm.edu
Glen Muske, Oklahoma State University, glenn.muske@okstate.edu
Writer: Lynette Spicer, Iowa State University, (515) 294-1327, lynette.spicer@extension.org
