04 Retail/Marketing/Business Applications

04.1 Visual Merchandising

Pegler, M.M. (1991). Visual Merchandising and display. (2nd ed.).
New York: Fairchild. ISBN 87005-734-0, 321 pages, $35.00.

Reviewed by Karen J. Nemeth, Jacksonville State University

Pegler's second edition of Visual Merchandising and display continues to be a standard for the visual merchandising student. Pegler's writing style brings out his sincere interest in the visual merchandising field. Beginning with the preface, he impresses upon the reader the importance of display. This excitement is continuous throughout the text but is especially evident in chapter 18 when he discusses attention-getting devices and prods the student with "remember, the possibilities are limitless. The only real limitation is lack of initiative, creativity and imagination" (Pegler, p. 185).
Pegler progresses "physically" from the front of the store with chapter 2, and the interior of the store (chapter 4). After this technical beginning he changes to the creative aspects of color, texture, light, and lighting in the subsequent chapters. Since the elements and principles of design are all necessary parts of any design including a display, it would be beneficial to include a complete review of these as a unit in the text. As an instructor of a visual merchandising course, I have found that my students bring with them a variety of backgrounds. A review of design elements and principles brings them to common ground. Although Pegler has some of this review in individual chapters, some rearrangement might be beneficial. For example, the chapter on line and composition might be placed before color and texture.
One unique feature of Visual Merchandising and Display is the use of chapters, which deal with very specific topics. This is a positive arrangement-allowing the reader interested in a specific topic to easily find a separate chapter for that topic. However, this causes some chapters to be very brief. The exception to this use of specific and separate chapters is chapter 5, Color and Texture. It seems that following the layout of the rest of the book, these should be separated into two chapters.
As with the previous edition, one of the drawbacks to the textbook is the use of black and white photographs. Color is such an important aspect of visual merchandising it would be desirable to have color photographs. However, color photographs throughout the text would probably make the cost of production prohibitive. The color plates that were added in the second edition are welcome, although they could be more useful if they were referenced throughout the text. However, since most instructors develop or collect their own slides or photographs, the addition of color plates may not be necessary.
As a general visual merchandising text, Pegler presents both the creative and technical aspects of an exciting area of merchandising. His presentation of information is applicable to all areas of merchandising-whether fashion merchandising in retail or for trade shows. For a diverse field Pegler has brought together the major technical topics while conveying the enthusiasm he shares for the field.