Emotion management at Girlie Glitter Co. PHILIP HANCOCK and MELISSA TYLER
The Girlie Glitter Co. concept and design Girlie Glitter Co. is a UK-based chain of retail outlets whose products and services are marketed primarily at 3- to 13-year-old girls. The idea was to develop a retail store that stocked not only a range of (largely dressing up and party) clothes, hair-styling products, cosmetics and fashion accessories but also that provided the opportunity for girls to have a ‘make-over’ in store. The aim, as one of the co-founders of the company described it, was to create ‘a girl friendly . . . pleasurable space . . . in which young girls could enjoy shopping together, and . . . mothers could enjoy shopping with their daughters’. In short, as the design team put it, the idea was to develop a retail experience that ‘lets little girls live a dream’. With this in mind, a distinct design was developed – the stores are loud, bright and have a discernible colour and style theme that clearly differentiates them from other retail outlets in the shopping centres in which they are located. Indeed, colour was considered to be a vital component of their aesthetic and the design team decided that everything should be ‘pink . . . and glittery, with lots of hearts’.

This helped to bring to life the idea that the presentation of the products and services on offer should be a ‘magical experience’. Much like other retail outlets and theme parks marketed particularly at children and families, the emphasis was upon the creation of an atmosphere of ‘clean, wholesome, family fun’. The Girlie Glitter Co. experience Customers are enticed into the stores largely through a combination of music, abundant use of glitter, bright lighting and white flooring, combined with distinctive chrome fittings, pink lettering and iconography (hearts and stars), as well as rows of sparkly costumes and make-up. Sales staff performs dance routines at the front of stores at regular intervals throughout the day creating ‘an atmosphere of excitement’, as one store manager put it. This reflects a broader performance ethos throughout the company that, at least in part, differentiates Girlie Glitter Co. from other retail outlets selling similar products. It has important implications for the recruitment, selection, training and monitoring of sales staff. As one of the co-founders of the company put it, ‘staff don’t see themselves as sales assistants but as performers’. In this respect, the marketing team developed a number of other features designed to differentiate the Girlie Glitter brand from other retail ‘experiences’. As the store’s publicity puts it, ‘not only does Girlie Glitter stock all things feminine and girlie, it provides its young customers with the opportunity to be transformed into a fairy princess in store’.

At the front of the stores are located spaces called ‘Princess Studios’. These are hair-styling and make-up areas where customers can have their hair and nails done, as well as a range of themed make-overs. Because of this aspect of their work, sales assistants (or ‘performers’) function not only as dancers but also as hairdressers, make-up artists and nail technicians. Instructed to ‘have fun while thinking sales’, they are also told to just ‘do what comes naturally’. This means that sales assistants ‘need to look right because we are there for the girls [customers] to copy’. In this sense, ‘standard presentation is important because they are like role models, they influence the kids, much like characters in kids’ cartoons or TV programmes, really’, as one area sales manager said. Aware of the potential pitfalls of standardisation and thematic repetition, however, the aim was to ‘customise’ the service provided, and to recruit staff capable of making individual customers feel special. Crucially, as the Girlie Glitter Co. marketing officer put it, ‘this shop was not to be seen as an exploitation of children: it had to represent their dreams, and every girl who visited Girlie Glitter had to feel as though she had walked into a shop that was there just for her’. He goes on to say that this is because customers are no longer willing to accept that the shops they visit are just places to buy goods. They demand drama and deserve to be delighted by the experience. Shops have become destinations in themselves – not only a place to purchase, but as a place to be entertained, inspired and, in the case of Girlie Glitter Co., to have loads of fun. This means that the staff we select to work here, particularly on the shop floor, are absolutely crucial. Recruitment, selection and training at Girlie Glitter Co. Recruitment at Girlie Glitter Co. can be likened to the formation of an all-girl pop group; potential employees are asked to sing and dance. Recruitment sessions are described not as interviews but as auditions. When a number of sales staff are being recruited for a new store, group interviews (or ‘auditions’) are held, followed by individual ones. As the HR officer responsible for recruitment and selection put it, ‘group auditions allow you to see who shines through above the rest . . . and that’s what we’re looking for, people who really shine through’. Applicants, even those with relevant work experience, are often rejected because they do not look, sound or perform right. This is largely because ‘personality is so important to what we do. It is vital for staff to really believe in the concept, so we recruit the personality not just the person.’ There is no specific training as such for sales staff, more an informal process of socialisation that involves, for those not skilled in hair-styling and make-up techniques, learning largely from each other.

The makeovers are taught and practised much like ‘painting by numbers’, according to colour-coded charts and a pre-determined make-up palette. Dance routines are taught by store managers who act as choreographers, and are practised by staff mainly before and after store opening hours. All staff is encouraged to socialise together and it is routine practice for staff at new stores or new staff at established ones to be taken out to a local bar by the store or area manager on group social events. The sales and marketing director at Girlie Glitter Co. likens her role to that of a theatre director or a stage manager: ‘responsible for managing the performers who work together like a cast’. She also suggested that she sees herself very much as a scriptwriter involved in the production of Girlie Glitter Co. as a performance. This theatre metaphor carried through into other aspects of the format – store managers were likened to floor or ‘front of house’ managers, whose primary role is to stage manage those aspects of the store that are visible to the ‘audience’ [customers], and the storerooms were described as ‘backstage’. The opening of the store each day was called ‘curtain call’, and sales staff reported feeling ‘stage fright’ before the store opened and the ‘performance’ became subject to public scrutiny. Emotional labour at Girlie Glitter Co. Despite their nerves, staff were told it was ‘more important to smile, and to look happy, than to be step perfect’ in the dance routines. For many staff, this meant either faking it or as one described it, ‘going into robot’: Sometimes I just look in the mirror, smile, and remind myself to hold that position during the day. At other times, when we’ve got the music on and we’re dancing, I start thinking about messing around with my mates the night before and then I start to smile anyway. So I daydream quite a lot. It looks like I am really enjoying myself there and then, and the customers don’t know any different, so there’s no harm done really. At other times you don’t really have to try, because it is such good fun. You see these really cute little girls come in and do their hair and make-up and they look so pretty, really cute and it’s just great. I think how much I would’ve loved that when I was their age, all the dressing up and stuff. Some days I really love it here. Other days, if we’re busy, or there are kids that are playing up, or older girls are in here just messing about and being a pain then it’s not so great and you have to just put it on because that’s what we’re being paid for . . . that’s what we’re selling, big smiles and loads of fun. Some sales assistants coped with the embarrassment or ‘stage fright’ of the dance routines by relying on each other, and by ‘having a laugh’: ‘It is scary when you’re out there and it’s a really busy day and you maybe see someone you know going by, or people are pointing and laughing and you just look at each other and giggle.

I couldn’t do it out there on my own, but at least together we can have a bit of a laugh, and I mean, to be dancing about with your mates and getting paid for it, you can’t really complain can you?’ Many of the staff are conscious that they are role models for their young customers, and realise the extent to which their uniform appearance (all shop floor staff wear fitted pink T-shirts with the Girlie Glitter logo on them – for sale in children’s sizes in store, and black trousers) helped them to identify together as a group. The uniform appearance of staff is thought to be particularly important by the Girlie Glitter management team. Music is also particularly important to the management of Girlie Glitter Co., especially in terms of fostering employee and customer identification. Particular types of music (mainly by all-girl pop groups) or even specific songs come to be associated with the store, and these tend to provide a continuous soundtrack to the ‘front stage’ areas and, of course, to the dance routines performed at the store entrances.

One particular store manager summed up the general effect of this when she said: ‘Every time I hear one of the songs we play, I am immediately reminded of the company, wherever I am or whatever I’m doing.’ Some sales assistants had experienced really rude or aggressive customers – either children playing up, or their parents shouting and being abusive. When this happens You just think, ‘Oh well, they’re paying for it I suppose.’ It’s their kid’s birthday or whatever, or maybe they’re divorced Dads and this is their only day with the children and so you think, ‘Just let them get on with it.’ But it can be hard, sometimes. Some days when I’ve finished work all I can hear is the same music over and over in my head, and screaming, whining children saying ‘I want this . . .’ I don’t think I’ll ever have kids of my own, thanks very much. I’ve seen enough tantrums to last me a lifetime!
Questions
1 In what ways is gender relevant to the performance and management of emotional labour at Girlie Glitter Co.?
2 How might the concepts of ‘surface acting’ and ‘deep acting’ (Hochschild, 1983) be applied to the experiences of sales assistants?
3 What HRM techniques have the management team devised to encourage sales assistants to perform emotional labour?
4 What coping strategies do staff members adopt to alleviate the negative consequences of the emotional labour aspects of their work?
5 Draft a recruitment advertisement for sales assistants at Girlie Glitter Co. What key issues might you need to consider in recruiting, selecting and training new staff?