The Brand as Experience
When you look at the profound changes occurring in both the retail and
media spaces it's only logical to explore how they are going to impact
each other. The first place to look is the technology that it is
driving much of the change on both fronts. And the key to success in
harnessing technology for marketing or sales is to realize that
technology has to be focused on creating a better experience for the
consumer, not for the retailer.
Audiences have come to expect dynamic environments in everything that
they do. They watch content when they want to. They receive information
when they want it. The have bought into just-in-time marketing. When
they are bored with our content, they make their own. So as you look at
the technologies on the retail horizon, think about how you could use
them to create something more unique for the consumer. Dan Pink,
writing for Yahoo Finance, recently had this to say:
"Today, utility is abundant. We have more products and services than we
can handle, and most function just fine. To stand out in a crowded
marketplace, sellers must make a dramatic leap in utility-or stand out
in some other way. They can try to compete on price, but that usually
ends in a downward death spiral. So the alternative is to compete not
on left-brain attributes like price and functionality, but on
right-brain qualities such as emotion, meaning, and look and feel. Case
in point: Target sells toilet brushes and vegetable scrubbers designed
by superstar architect Michael Graves. Even the most mundane,
utilitarian objects in our lives have been turned into objects of
desire."
At
the Ralph Lauren flagship store in New York, you can actually purchase
items right from the window, using a credit card reader and on-screen
keyboard. If you don't want to purchase right then, you can send the
information to yourself via email and complete the transaction at home.
|
And that applies to technology. Forget trying to just put technology
into everything that you do to make your business run more smoothly.
Consumers want something easier for them and a more unique environment
to shop in. They are very comfortable shopping online, so they need
more then just merchandise to bring them into the retail space. Today,
it's about creating a compelling, authentic and relevant brand
experience.
This is not about wish lists. Some of these technologies and new
marketing strategies are already in use; many others we'll be seeing in
the not-to-distant future. Here's a look at key developments today:
SOCIALIZATION OF RETAIL SPACE & ONLINE SHOPPING
The impact of socialization of the retail space and the impact of
online shopping on retail is growing daily. With the growing impact of
Internet shopping, it's critical that the physical retail space adapts
to this trend. What is the value of real estate for retailers today?
Does a record store really need to exist as it's been for the past
40-plus years? What about banks, grocery stores, fashion retailers? If,
thanks to the Internet, people are much more comfortable getting their
purchases sent to them, rather then getting them right away, do we need
that much space dedicated to merchandise? If we could do away with the
inventory portion of most retail spaces today, what else would you do
with the space? How could you make it a much more social environment,
rather then being a retail environment? After all, this is exactly why
places like Starbuck's or the Apple stores have boomed: they created a
social space, rather than a retail space.
While people look at Starbuck's or the Apple stores and say "Yea,
that's great for them, but it doesn't apply to me," I think that
they're missing a huge opportunity. We think there's a coming trend to
socialize the retail environment instead of just merchandising the real
estate space. One such retailer plans to open this fall, Epicenter,
where not only will you be able to see samples, but purchase using a
"Buypod" and have everything shipped to you. They won't carry a deep
inventory and may even charge you extra if you want to buy the item in
the store. It will be very interesting to see how this concept works.
MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES & RETAIL
We are significantly behind the rest of the world in using our cell
phones for a wider variety of experiences and we are just beginning to
see how they can be used here in the U.S.
Some uses currently deployed include:
Cell Phone Shopping. As described on its web site, SCANBUY Shopper
enables cell phone users to have the best bargain-hunting tool at their
very fingertips. Get the best prices and all the product info you need
to make smart and fun purchases. But it does more then that. Type in
the barcode for a book or movie and find out all of the reviews as
well. Amazon Japan has a similar service that let's you scan the
barcode and search through Amazon for best pricing. You can then
purchase it directly through Amazon, should you want.
Several companies are developing payment systems using your cell phone,
including Paymint, which allows parking meter payments via cell
phone—maybe stores in the future will give people cell phone pay
coupons to pay for parking in the future. Of course, in Japan systems
for items not only in the store, but in vending machines as well.
unlicensed short range radio fre
Bluetooth Technologies. quency. Bluetooth is an industrial
specification for wireless personal area networks (PANs), also known as
IEEE 802.15.1. Bluetooth provides a way to connect and exchange
information between devices like personal digital assistants (PDAs),
mobile phones, laptops, PCs, printers, digital cameras and video game
consoles such as the Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 3 via a secure,
globally unlicensed short range radio frequency.
Several companies are starting to tion for wireless personal area
net-deploy Bluetooth in retail, allowing the consumer to gather
additional information about products. And right now, technologies like
Bluetooth don't have the same privacy issues that are facing RFID,
because they require the consumer to opt-in before anything else can
happen.
Dody Tsiantar, writing in Time about the use of Bluetooth technology
for billboards, had this to say: "Technology, in part, is driving the
medium's rebirth. Consumers can now download music, play video games,
watch movie trailers or cus-tom-design a pair of sneakers and purchase
them-all by interacting with outdoor ads. Signs can send a digital
coupon to our cell phones, and soon they may even start addressing us
by name, as they did in Steven Spielberg's 2002 futuristic film,
Minority Report. "We're almost there," says Stephen Freitas of the
Outdoor Advertising Association of America, an industry trade group.
"Outdoor advertising is evolving to a world of two-way advertising
very, very fast."
Nokia came out with its Coolzone technology in 2005, allowing retailers
to put a base station in the store and bring specific content to
consumers with Bluetooth enabled phones. With CoolZone, retailers like
music stores, phone shops and cinemas, can offer promotional or paid
content, such as mobile games, wallpapers, videos and music, to
consumers in their stores.
"For consumers, CoolZone is a new and easy way to get rich mobile
content and information. Every time the consumer visits a store, which
has CoolZone service, she or he can easily browse, preview and buy the
latest content to his or her phone. When using the service for the
first time, the consumer downloads a retailer branded application to
the phone in the retail location based on instructions provided in the
store. The payment for the downloaded content is done either over the
counter using vouchers or using premium text messages," said Sakari
Kotola, director, Nokia Ventures Organization. "CoolZone is a truly
smooth content download tool for consumers."
U.K. music retailer HMV is attempting to play catch-up in the download
market by launching Txt2Buy from July, a service that directs consumers
from adverts in magazines to a web-site—accessed via their phone,
allowing them buy on the move. The aim is to become a real
multi-channel retailer, according to Gideon Lask, head of internet at
HMV.
PODCASTING
A 2005 Pew Internet study showed that six million consumers have
downloaded podcasts and a visit to the iTunes Music store shows an very
wide range of podcasts available for download. Retailers are just
beginning to explore how podcasts can be used in the store environment
as a marketing tool. Podcasting is the method of distributing
multimedia files, such as audio or video programs, over the Internet
using syndication formats, for playback on mobile devices and personal
computers. (Note: Podcasting does not require the use of an Apple iPod
or any particular playback device. The most common way to listen
to/view a Podcast is with a PC.)
Ad Age recently reported that Vogue has embraced the podcast, and the
first of the magazine's "Fashion on Demand" video podcasts—co-brand-ed
programming that gives advice, often sprinkled with celebrity
interviews, on everything from hair care to fashion—goes behind the
scenes of Gap's new fall campaign in an interview with "Entourage" star
Jeremy Piven. Future podcasts in the Gap series include interviews with
other new Gap faces: actress Lou Doillon, musician Common and actress
Mia Farrow. Old Navy and Redken also have developed Vogue podcasts for
the fall, and other advertisers, such as Lexus and Jeep, plan to do so
down the line.
NEW DISPLAY EXPERIENCES
From IBM's Everywhere Display to Jestertek's Holopoint, companies are
looking to new technologies to create new visual tools to engage the
consumer. Unilever recently launched an in-mall program for the launch
of Sunsilk from Unilever. Using directional sound speakers, we were
able to create a "sonic blanket" to bring a new dimension into the
traditional mall advertising. Sex and the City co-star Mario Cantone,
who played the sassy, raspy-voiced "gay friend" Anthony, is the voice
of the effort. "The audio and the tone of the campaign is very
distinctive, and we looked for a way to incorporate that audio into the
media in ways that had never been done before," said Susan Noble, group
marketing director at Unilever agency Mindshare. "We've also tested the
speakers on billboards six stories up and we've been able to hit the
street with a clear audio signal."
Ralph Lauren has received a great deal of press for a new interactive
window installation at the compa-ny's flagship store in New York. One
very unique aspect is that you can actually purchase items right from
the window. They have a credit card reader and on-screen keyboard to
handle that. And, if you don't want to purchase right then, you can
send the information to yourself via e-mail and complete the
transaction at home.
Lexus used a holographic projection system in Times Square to promote
its new IS car. According to an article in MediaPost, Robin Pisz,
national interactive and relationship marketing manager for Lexus,
describes a busy target demographic that demanded a new approach. "This
is an audience that is always on," she says, referring to Gen Xers who
live on the grid with iPods, cell phones, BlackBerries and more. "They
are multitaskers [who] have completely bought into the reality of media
fragmentation. They understand that they can get and consume content in
multiple platforms at almost any time of day."
Wowing the shoppers of Berlin, MediaZest, together with German media
group Axel Springer brought the famous Kurfurstendamm to a virtual
standstill with its brilliant holographic displays at C&A's
flagship store, promoting a new range of lingerie. In the shop window
of the Berlin C&A store in Kurfurstendamm a life size holographic
image of a woman modeling the new "Seite 1 Girl" lingerie dances,
gesticulates and appears to interact with passersby. MediaZest has used
its display technology to create this holographic image and its
Whispering Window devices to project sound outside of the store.
Working with Jung Von Matt a website has also been set up to accompany
the window display. The model, the lingerie and the reactions of
passersby can be viewed on the website and one can vote from a list of
30 options for what the model should do next— options include "blow a
kiss," "play the air guitar" and "strip." The web-site periodically
aggregates the votes and the model will then act according to the
favorite request. The website allows the audience to influence the
advertisement and the retailer to gauge interest and reactions in real
time.
WHAT'S AHEAD
Multi-touch user interface systems are being developed at a number of
research facilities. Microsoft demonstrated a system last year and
this year, work being done at NYU has really moved the technology
forward. As NYU describes its system:
While touch sensing is commonplace for single points of contact,
multi-touch sensing enables a user to interact with a system with more
than one finger at a time, as in chording and bi-manual operations.
Such sensing devices are inherently also able to accommodate multiple
users simultaneously, which is especially useful for larger interaction
scenarios such as interactive walls and tabletops.
The opportunity to have multiple people engaging the system, rather
then the one-on-one systems that are currently deployed, will greatly
change the way touch screens will be used in the future. They can be
larger and more interactive and will bring the technology of Minority
Report to retail in the next few years.
We've also seen demonstrations of a "virtual dressing room," projectors
that can project on any surface, fog screens and many other
technologies that will help create a very different visual landscape.
After all, now that you can buy a plasma TV at Wal-Mart, they're not
much of an attraction in the store.
One of the most interesting things happening right now is the combining
of the real world with the virtual world. Online environments like
Second Life have seen a variety of companies create virtual copies of
their businesses online. Studies have shown that people are spending
approximately $5 million/ month in real dollars buying virtual items.
According to Activision CEO Bobby Kotick in an analyst call reported by
Seeking Alpha, "We look at the amount of hours that are consumed by
consumers and let's take 18- to 35-year-old males in the U.S. in front
of a video game screen. So last year that was roughly 30 billion hours.
Then you compare that to television watching which was to the same
demographic roughly 30 billion hours."
According to the stats at Second Life today, there are 573,729 total
residents and 257,850 of them have been on line in the last 60 days.
More importantly, they've spent $358,699 online in the last 24 hours.
One of the first companies to move into Second Life was Wells Fargo,
which opened its Stagecoach Island last fall in Second Life. According
to the press release disseminated by Wells Fargo:
"Wells Fargo today introduced Stagecoach Island, a free, multi-player,
online role-playing game developed to teach young adults important
lessons in financial literacy. Wells Fargo is the first financial
institution to use an online game of this kind for both financial
education and entertainment purposes. Young adults in San Diego and
Austin, TX, are the first to experience the Stagecoach Island game in a
pilot program that kicked off Labor Day weekend this year and will end
in mid-November."
The Stagecoach Island game allows players to select a virtual character
and participate in an "island adventure." Participants can choose to
explore the virtual islandlush parks, hip cafes, dance clubs, trendy
shops, amusement parks, hair salons and more. They can also interact in
dozens of virtual, social situations—like skydiving, riding jets-skis
or playing games like paintball with other participants. Many
activities on the island are "free," but participants gain access to
other experiences, such as dancing in a club or purchasing new clothes,
by spending, saving and earning virtual money. Players can earn money
by visiting the Virtual Learning Lounge and answering trivia questions
about banking basics such as budgeting, saving and managing money. The
Learning Lounge content is derived from Wells Fargo's signature
financial literacy program, Hands on Banking®.
The popularity of online role-playing games is staggering-there are
millions of people participating in roleplaying games worldwide and the
typical college student spends nearly as much time playing video games
(10,000 hours by graduation) as they do in class," said Dr. Rodney
Riegle of Illinois State University, developer and teacher of the
world's first online Role-Playing Course. "I think that young people
who've grown up on computers and video games will embrace the
Stagecoach Island experience, which is similar to a video game but
actually provides a better opportunity to learn, explore and socialize
in an immersive and interactive environment."
British band Duran Duran is creating a virtual island within online
game Second Life, on which the musicians will perform actual live
concerts. The band is the first major group to announce a virtual world
presence in the game. "Since we opened in May, we've sold over 2,000
items to people outfitting their avatars," Raz At the Ralph Lauren
flagship store in New York, you can actually purchase items right from
the window, using a credit card reader and on-screen keyboard. If you
don't want to purchase right then, you can send the information to
yourself via e-mail and complete the transaction at home.
Schionning, director of web services for American Apparel, was quoted
as saying in a recent article in Ad Age about this phenomenon. In
addition, shoppers who buy virtual clothes get 15 percent off the same
items in real life. We've barely scratched the surface about what's
happening in the retail space. There's more to come.
I'll close with this: There's a big difference between the advertising
model and the experience model in terms of making an authentic
connection with your audience. It's relatively simple to get people to
talk about you; it's much harder to get them to buy you.
Where does "create a better experience" fall on your list of reasons to
create your processes and procedures? Remember, your audience is
accustomed to using technology in their daily lives. To speak to them
in their digital language, to delight them and engage them, you must
find relevant new technology that helps tell your brand story more
effectively.
David Polinchock (david@brandexperiencelab.org)
is chief experience officer, Brand Experience Lab. Polinchock has a
degree in theater with a specialization in children’s theatre and his
first job was as a Disney character and performer at Disney World in
Orlando. In 1990, he was introduced to virtual reality and his inner
geek was unleashed. He worked on almost all of the early VR events and
won awards for his Immersive Animation Theatre and the Cutty Sark
Virtual Voyage. Today, he continues to work with a variety of emerging
technologies, in partnership with leading university research labs
including the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon
University, the Media Convergence Lab at the University of Central
Florida and others, exploring new technologies to help companies more
effectively tell their story.
