If you’ve walked into a Deseret Industries store lately, you may have noticed the new seasonal merchandising posters displayed throughout the clothing section. These posters are more than just a typical retail campaign—they are an essential part of valuable training for our associates. As a bonus, they give us the opportunity to highlight the DI community who are a part of helping accomplish the DI mission.   

Each story on the posters reflects DI’s mission to help individuals build better lives for themselves, which includes providing hands-on job training.

DI associates learn all about seasonal settings, color coordination, product grouping, and cross merchandising. In traditional retail stores, merchandising materials like posters are displayed as part of specific campaigns around holidays, back-to-school season, new clothing lines, and seasonal changes. 

Rosie Hansen, an assistant store manager at DI, shared the experiences of the associates with the new merchandising posters:  

“[These posters] are going to impact them in a positive way because they're going to see people on the posters and read their stories and think, ‘Hey, I started like them too.’ It gives them an end goal of ‘I can be there one day—I can be representing DI because of the things that they've done for me,’ whether it's learning English, trying to be a better employee, or trying to gain a certification.”

Highlighting the DI Community 

The new merchandising posters are also an opportunity to highlight all of the people that make the stores a successful training facility. The people featured on the posters are individuals who contribute to the mission of Deseret Industries. They highlight associates, former associates, store staff, and customers.

When we put out the call for models, we focused on finding individuals with a unique tie to DI and were thrilled with the response. Each model has a unique DI story, whether they are former associates, store staff, or enthusiastic shoppers. Here are just a few of the wonderful individuals who volunteered:  

Capturing the Images 

The collaborative effort of styling, photographing, and getting to know the model’s unique ties to DI all took place at the DI location at Welfare Square in Salt Lake City, where our volunteer models and team spent four days capturing images that reflect the personalities of each model and highlight the types of clothing items that fill the clothing racks.  

The team included a stylist, a hair and makeup artist, and a photographer, all working together to capture DI’s mission through these posters. Most of the clothing and accessories worn by the models were purchased from DI. Each model was photographed wearing multiple outfits. The stylist shopped for each model specifically, searching for clothing items that would be highlighted on the poster.