I thought something was different the last time I ate at a Submarina sandwich shop. It seemed brighter and cleaner, with improved traffic flow from the order station to the cash register. It was obvious the place had been redesigned, and for the better.

But the story behind the makeover is something every retailer should read. It shows how important and powerful branding can be. From the logo to the wall menu to the sandwich wrappers, the design firm Submarina hired analyzed every aspect of the chain. It also used focus groups, learning that passersby often thought the old logo indicated a seafood joint or marine-supply store. Read the before-and-after to learn what changed and why.

The impetus for the makeover was the fact that many potential investors wouldn’t finance Submarina’s plans to go national. Why? Because they thought the shops “suffered from bland décor and a confusing menu.” Fortunately, the guy in charge finally realized he needed help, which is why he hired the design firm. It cost $250,000 but it lead to 24 percent annual sales growth for the renovated shops, up from 7 percent before the renovation. And commitments for new franchisees are way, way up.

A retail makeover doesn’t have to cost a quarter-million bucks. I’ve seem done for about 2 percent of that, or $10,000. Even the simple act of moving the cash wrap from the front of the store to the rear can make a huge difference in customers’ browsing behavior. Take a look at our Store Planning Primer for some ideas. Think long and hard about how a simple redesign can help you retain customers. Unlike Submarina, you don’t need to spend a lot of bread.

I remember my dad telling me about the Meier & Frank department store in downtown Portland, Oregon. He used to sell store fixtures to the 13-story landmark. It was the kind of place that was going out of style, he said. Customers didn’t like using so many escalators and elevators, he said, and the place was showing its age.

I visited the store once in the late ’70s and shared his sentiments, although I was impressed to see what a downtown department store looked like vs. the suburban ones I grew up with. Even though Meier & Frank was outdated, it still had its loyal customers. And the classic building it was in really left an impression on me.

Macy’s acquired Meier & Frank and its downtown landmark last year, according to The Oregonian. I did a double-take when reading that Macy’s spent more than $100 million on renovations, with the first-phase reopening scheduled for this Friday. But that’s what Macy’s and other developers are spending to make the building a downtown destination. There’ll be a hotel on the upper floors, a rooftop lounge, a restaurant—all the things that are drawing younger, more urbane shoppers to other downtowns such as San Diego, Boston and Chicago.

The revamped department store will have just five floors of sales space, each with a layout that makes it seem roomier. Macy’s designers must have done their research, because that’s the kind of style today’s retail shoppers appreciate in a department store.

“Modern nostalgia” is the style of the new hotel, its owner says. I like that description. I think it could apply to the entire building as well. I wish Macy’s all the best. The next time I’m in Portland, I’ll be checking the building out for great design ideas.

An email from Doris Anderson of the Golden Pear gift shop on Main Street in Kelseyville, California:

“Loved the article ‘Sense of Smell.’ This is something that has been overlooked for too long in business. I use this marketing device all the time, as well as music to get people to come into my store (I piped music outside of the store). It’s incredible how well it works. I would suggest that small businesses, in particular, just try it!

“I also have a cat (real) in my store, loves to lay in the window; you would think by the response that people had ever seen a cat before. Sasha, my little black and white cat, is my best salesperson. I have rescued and adopted out three cats. They are great company on those slow rainy days, and on top of all this, a great way to save a little life.”

Quite a combination–scents, music and a cat. Animals are something I hadn’t thought about as merchandising tool. But I have seen quite a few shops of all kinds that have a talking parrot inside or out. That never fails to bring in the customers.

Sounds like Doris did what I recommend: Experiment with all the senses. Scents, sounds, pets–any kind of unexpected sensory stimulation might do the trick. Just don’t put Sasha and Polly in the same window. At least until they learn to tolerate each other.

By now, everyone in the Oakland area must know that Whole Foods recently opened its first store in that city across the bay from San Francisco. That’s because the “natural and organic supermarket” chain is making sure it tailors its merchandising to virtually all segments of the community, from foodies to nonprofits. Countertops are made of recycled soda bottles, among other things–just one of the “green touches” sure to be a hit with the Bay Area crowd.

Farther south in Pasadena, the chain has opened its largest store in the Western United States, a two-story behemoth with a wine lounge and organic garden center. Not so much community involvement in upscale Pasadena, though, which shows they must know their customer demographics pretty well.

I’ve always enjoyed the products Whole Foods offers, but I haven’t seen much innovative merchandising except for the deli/takeout area. The food is attractively displayed behind glass or on the sales floor, with cheese and other samples generously offered. The Oakland store intrigues me with its “Market Hall” design inspired by “several international market halls from around the globe including ones in Berlin, Granville Island, Vancouver, and Portland, Maine.” The Pasadena store’s dining and tasting options will likely make it a retail destination.

Even if you don’t have (or want) a massive selection like Whole Foods, you can learn a lot from their interior layouts. They keep the customer moving, curious to discover what’s just around the next aisle, ready to plop some great new find into the shopping cart. If you can build the same kind of excitement into your retail space, there’s no reason it can’t become a destination in its own right.

Kind of ironic that Bloomington, Minnesota, home of America’s largest shopping mall, is looking at developing a “…destination for people who want to gather, walk and wander, with restaurants, housing, places to shop and perhaps amenities such as doctors’ offices and a park.”

An article on StarTribune.com reveals plans for the Penn American District, which encourages shoppers to use public transit so they can get out and walk. This is the kind of area that’s just ripe for smaller retailers to move in to, whether opening for the first time or expanding.

As the article points out, Penn American will be a “new-urbanist haven,” a blossoming community that uses smart development to grow slowly. The implication is that the young and hip will flock there. But there are plenty of boomers like me who are attracted to a lifestyle that discourages vehicles in what feels like a real neighborhood of old. The kind of place where everyone knows the barber and butcher.

In Bloomington, I suspect many empty-nesters would be happy to skip the humongous Mall of America to go live in Penn American. The small retailers who are there to greet them will be in a great position to secure their own futures.

Opportunities like this are popping up all over the country, as I’ve mentioned in previous blogs. It’s not hard to find them. Watch the real estate and business sections of the newspapers, and check online. If you want to be a retail trendsetter, neighborhoods like this could be your chance to shine.

If you’re committed to retail, you’re committed to location. I always urge my clients to think about expanding or relocating to neighborhoods that have exciting potential—not just for your store but for the growth of the community.

For example, if I lived in Daytona Beach, Florida, I’d love to take a look at the 60-year-old Greyhound bus station. It’s for sale, it’s 10,000 square feet of Streamline Moderne style and it’s listed at $950,000.

I don’t know about where you live, but it sounds like a steal compared to the retail rates where I live. The building is about to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places, which probably means tax breaks for the new owners if they keep it maintained.

In South Boston, development is just getting started on Fan Pier, a 21-acre, $3 billion mixed-use development. What a fantastic location for a single- or chain-store retailer. Waterfront properties like this don’t come along very often. Fan Pier has the potential to be like Seaport Village in San Diego and Pier 39 in San Francisco, both very successful if overly touristy. But hey, if you can get in on the ground floor, I say go for it.

I hadn’t heard the term “interaction design” before. But I think most retailers and store designers strive to practice it.

Another excellent article in India’s Economic Times defines it as “exploring new ways of enhancing the experience of interacting with other individuals, with products and with the environment by blending traditional design techniques, an understanding of human behaviour and modern technology.”

In India, several firms are devoted to nothing but interaction design. They’re using large wall graphics, practically eliminating the cash wrap, getting the sales staff more involved with customers, experimenting with store layout–anything to “create unique experiences that connect with customers on a deeper, emotional level.”

The Interaction Design Institute Ivrea in Italy goes to great lengths to dissect the buying process. They found that in high-end watch stores, customers get tired of trying on timepieces and eventually left. Their interaction design consultant came up with eye-catching wall graphics that educate customers about the concept of time and keep them in the store longer.

Most small retailers don’t have the budget for those kinds of studies. So I say conduct that research yourself, right in the store. Watch for the clues. What items do your customers seem to pass by? What merchandise do they linger around? If you can’t figure it out, ask them. Maybe even set up an online survey at SurveyMonkey.com with a discount coupon as the incentive.

Go for it: Consider murals, educational displays, historical posters–anything that shows customers you want their shopping experience to be richer in your store. And keep reading about retailing in India. They seem to have a lot of retail gurus.

How important is the sense of smell in retail environments? The jury is still out. But when you learn that Westin Hotels has developed a “signature scent” that is only sprayed in their properties around the world, it makes you wonder. Matching the right scent to the right product is a $100 million-a-year industry, and it’s growing quickly. The Scent Marketing Institute says 85% of marketing is visual and that “…scent marketing is the last frontier.”

Some businesses are obvious candidates for pushing the scent of their products inside or outside their shops: bakeries, steakhouses and pizza parlors (love that garlic) are good examples. Have you ever walked by a Mrs. Fields outlet where the smell of freshly baked cookies hasn’t enticed your nose?

But non-food retailers are getting into the act. Verizon Wireless used the aroma of chocolate in certain stores when it introduced its new cell phone of the same name. Exxon used the scent of its new coffees to pull customers in by the nose in its convenience stores.

Scent, of course, is just one factor in a customer’s decision to buy or not buy. But it could be the one factor that pushes the customer over edge and results in a sale.

As a storeowner, you’re in the best position to know which aromas best complement your merchandise. Some obvious examples:

• Baby powder-scented room spray in a toddlers’ clothing store
• Saltwater taffy in a surf shop
• Perfume or cologne in women’s or men’s clothing shops
• Burning incense in an exotic-foods market

Some research suggests that we associate certain scents with pleasant and unpleasant events in our life. If you had lots of fun as a pitcher in Little League, the smell of resin might bring back great memories. If you were a lousy pitcher in Little League, the smell of resin may turn you off. So you roll the dice when you introduce scents into your retail space.

But you can use your best instincts to determine the scents your customer might respond to. Experiment with readily available scents such as room deodorizers–and not just the odor killers you find in the supermarket. Places like Restoration Hardware and Pier 1 Imports sell long-lasting scents that are more like fragrances. Citrus and lemon are just a few of the offerings.

Do be wary of customer allergies. If you’re spraying pine scent around a plastic Christmas tree, remember that some people are allergic to pine. But if you come up with the right combination, you’re the one who’ll end up smelling like a rose.

I never heard the saying above, but it certainly makes sense. Growing up in suburbia in the late ’60s and through the ’70s, I witnessed a retail cycle this story discusses. I watched as the small old main streets in the San Fernando Valley were killed off by shopping malls. Now, three decades later, many of those main streets are bouncing back thanks to ample free parking and how easy they make it for shoppers to drop in for the few things they need.

There’s a swing back to preserving main streets, and even building new ones. People want to shop near where they live. So many new-home builders are including retail centers in their new developments. Here in San Diego County, the city of Chula Vista has a thriving old downtown that’s constantly being renovated, and new “town center” shopping centers in the housing developments that have sprung up on the city’s outskirts. So whichever side of town you live on, there are plenty of shopping choices.

I mention all of this because I meet so many retailers who are so focused on their product offerings, they fail to choose the best location for their store. I know a small art gallery owner who has a fantastic selection of contemporary oils and watercolors. He got a great deal on a store in the suburbs, but sales have always been sluggish. I suggested he move closer to downtown San Diego, with its thriving nightlife and stores that stay open late to draw in the foot traffic. He would find many more potential customers there. But he’s afraid of high rents downtown and the hassle of moving. So, he struggles to get by in the suburbs, where he lives.

I think every retailer should examine the importance of location before the next lease renewal. Check out your competitors in a neighborhood you’d like to move into. Visit the area at all hours of the day and night.

I’m doing that myself, as a matter of fact. I’m in a location I love, but I know I’ll save a bundle on rent by moving about 10 miles away. And I’ll draw in more potential customers as well. Yes, moving is a hassle. I’m not exactly “following the roofs,” but I tell my retail clients that’s what they should do if they want to stay in the retail game for good.