Marcel Jansen helps companies to create inspiration

Marcel Jansen is a marketing consultant with a passion for retail and horticulture. He knows how to transform a shop containing individual products into a space filled with feeling and context. This makes him a source of inspiration and a trends expert who is consulted by many companies.

Marcel operates the company Strøm Creative Marketing in Amsterdam and has a background in both retail and horticulture. In the garden industry he helps suppliers to create inspirational concepts targeted at flower shops, florists, garden centres etc. For Marcel it’s about moving from selling products to adding value and learning how to inspire people.

During Elmia Garden he presented a number of examples of companies, both within and outside the garden industry, that sell an experience rather than just products. He calls this approach “storyselling”.

“Take Nike as an example,” he says. “Their focus is not on selling goods. They focus on creating an experience and a lifestyle. They want to get people to run and live a healthy life. That’s a lifestyle and Nike is part of it.”

For the garden industry the approach also involves allowing the green plants find their natural place in the room. Giving them a context, making them accessible to the customer and letting them be an inspiration.

“Both the home furnishing chains of Ikea and Muji are clear examples of this,” he explains. “They bring green plants into their stores and let the total in-store experience inspire the customer. When you leave the store you should feel that you’ve bought something more than just a plant. What you take home with you is a feeling and a context.”

He says more and more companies are mixing their sales channels, giving themselves new opportunities in how they present their products.

“You can stand in the physical store but complete your purchase in the same company’s webshop via your smartphone. This means that the physical store doesn’t have to focus so much on the products but more on creating a feeling and atmosphere,” he says.