(Welcome to a Brand Experience Brief — insights and analysis from my audit of a new and interesting retail or restaurant concept.)

Walgreens is trying to “transform from a traditional drugstore to a retail health and daily living destination,” according to Joe Magnacca, the company’s president of daily living products and solutions.  Its flagship stores showcase its new approach.  Check out my audit of the new Walgreens in downtown Chicago:

other brand experience briefs:

• LEGO
• REI’s flagship in SOHO
• Walmart.com

(If you’d like your team to re-think your brand experience, sign up for a Brand Experience Day.  We’ll head out into the field to experience concepts like these, and then regroup to identify and apply the new insights to your business.  Learn more.)

brand as business bit:  A couple of sound bites connected for me recently.

In a recent Bloomberg BusinessWeek piece entitled, “Has CNN’s All-News Strategy Become Old News?,” Alex Sherman writes about the cable networks’ reliance on “the story” to drive its audiences, unlike other networks that balance breaking news with opinions and personalities.  Phil Grffin, president of MSNBC, observed:

“CNN is the place for breaking news.  Unfortunately you become totally dependent upon it.”

Then this week’s announcement about J.C. Penney’s disappointing first quarter results, CEO Ron Johnson, explained “Our No. 1 issue is traffic.” Acknowledging the transition to “Fair and Square” pricing was tougher and taking longer than they had estimated, WSJ/Market Watch’s Andria Cheng reported. Johnson said:

“Coupon is a drug…We got to learn to drive traffic in different ways.”

Both of these laments are commonplace among organizations that rely on a single lever to drive traffic – news in CNN’s case, deals in J.C. Penney’s.  For other companies it’s new products, advertising campaigns, sales incentives, or external factors like school schedules or holidays.

Such reliance is like an addiction, producing high highs (sharp sales spikes) and low lows (deep sales valleys.)  And like addictions, the consequences of such volatility are far reaching, wreaking havoc on supply chain and staffing, and trying shareholder patience.

A strong brand can offset dramatic swings by sustaining consistent purchase consideration levels.  Just look at Apple stores – consumers pack those houses day in and day out.  Certainly lines form and sales jump when a new product is released and stores are more crowded during holiday season, but the company isn’t dependent upon news or any other single lever to drive traffic.  Instead, the brand has formed such a rich bond with customers that they will make a visit just to soak in the brand experience. For companies like Apple, their brand is their drug – it’s one addiction that’s actually desirable (well, that and chocolate!)

For me, Tiffany Shlain is a source of great insight and hope on culture, communication, technology, and life, so I’m pleased to share my recent interview with her:

Honored by Newsweek as one of the “Women Shaping the 21st Century,” Tiffany is a filmmaker, founder of the Webby Awards, and co-founder of The International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences.   Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death & Technology, her feature documentary about the good, bad, hope of connectedness, launched last year.  This year, she is working on a new film series which is paving the way for a new kind of collaborative filmmaking she calls “cloud filmmaking.”

She talks with me about:

• why this is the most exciting time of our lives
• how it’s a human desire to be a part of something
• how companies can join in the participatory revolution

So take a listen.  Also check out Tiffany’s website, Twitter feed, and Facebook and YouTube pages — and be prepared to be challenged and inspired!

other interviews:

• Peter Fader on Customer Centricity
• Martin Lindstrom on Marketing Manipulation
• John Gerzema on Connecting with Today’s Consumer

brand as business bit:  What makes an ad something people want to share with others?  Is there a secret formula for making ads that are most likely to be shared?

The March issue of the Harvard Business Review included a report by Harvard prof Thales Teixeira who tracked viewers’ eye movements and facial expressions while watching ads.  He outlined five ways to get and keep people engaged with ads, including:

“Build an emotional roller coaster. Viewers are most likely to continue watching a video ad if they experience emotional ups and downs.”

The HBR recently published reactions to the report including mine:

These findings overlook two important factors in ad effectiveness:  branded recall and conversion.  If an ad is liked and passed along but the brand is forgotten or no further action is taken by the viewer, the ad may generate buzz but will do little to build the brand or the business.

brand as business bit: 

“A strong concept that has the potential to evolve into a brand”

is among the five criteria for a successful fast casual restaurant concept, according to Don Fox, CEO of Firehouse Subs.  Speaking at an education session at the National Restaurant Show earlier this week, Don shared his insights about growth.

His point resonated with me, as I had just commented to a colleague that many restaurateurs fail to realize that a successful restaurant brand has to be about more than the food.  Having worked in the restaurant business for over 20 years, I find that too often aspiring restaurateurs develop a new food concept and think they have a viable business.  Certainly the food has to be right.  But a brand is also based on all the other elements of the experience – service, presentation and packaging, pricing, facilities, ambiance, culture, personality, etc.  And restaurateurs need to ensure these elements are as differentiated – and well-executed and continuously innovated upon — as the food.

P.S. Check out my video recap of the show, including popular products, sound bites, and other highlights.

What makes a store more than a store?  What makes a breakthrough brand experience at retail?

These are questions that companies with brick and mortar assets wrestle with as they continue to lose share to online competitors or to those with mobile capabilities (smart phone-enabled mobile commerce as well as IRL roving mobile units and other non-traditional formats).  I’ve been tackling these questions through the last six months as I’ve audited over a dozen new and interesting retail and restaurant concepts.

I’ve been cataloguing my insights from my audits in a series of Brand Experience Briefs.  As I survey my reports so far, I find that the concepts which create memorable brand experiences in their stores have some things in common.  Here are nine criteria of breakthrough brand experiences:

1. a clear and compelling brand story and/or brand promise that’s brought to life. Stores need to embody the essence of the brand and make their differentiation and value clear and compelling.  The brand history and values are conveyed clearly in the design, signage, and lounge area at Patagonia’s Tin Shed store, while The Habit Burger Grill restaurant fails to express a distinctive brand platform or attributes.

brand mural in Patagonia's Tin Shed store

2. target appropriateness.  We’re all attracted to people who are clear about who they are. We respond naturally to their self-confidence. Brands are no different. Brands with integrity and clarity are attractive because they don’t try to be all things to all people or to be something they’re not.  The 77Kids NYC Style Lab is a great example. Everything about the store is targeted squarely to fun-loving kids.  Subway Café, on the other hand, aspires to offer an upscale coffeehouse ambience but that’s not what its customers want, and it doesn’t execute on the concept very well.

3. brand-right assortment.  Some of the strongest concepts are filled with tens of thousands of SKUs, while others offer very tailored assortments.  There’s no single “right” assortment size or scope – it really depends on the brand strategy.  Central Market aims to be a place for foodies, so it makes sense for the store to feature over 700 types of hand-cut cheeses.  Starbucks’s new concept stores use local wines and beers to convey the personal, intimate attributes that the company desires for its brand.

4. interactivity.  Although emerging technology has enabled websites to become more entertaining and engaging, brick and mortar still has the upper hand on interactivity. And the concepts that breakthrough are those that use interactivity to make the shopping experience unique, exciting, and memorable. The LEGO store stands out with features like its Pick-a-Brick wall for kids to dig their hands into cubby holes filled with LEGOs of all different shapes and colors.  However the Walmart.com store misses important interactive opportunities since many products were not available to try or play with.

Pick-a-Brick wall at the LEGO store

5. overt promotion of product quality.  Retailers should stage experiences and use store signage and displays to promote the quality of their products.  The REI store in SOHO sets the standard for this with its areas that enable customers to try products (like an incline walkway in the hiking boot area); Uniqlo uses eye-catching signage to highlight features of its products; and messages about product freshness are sprinkled throughout the Pie-o-logy location.  Steak n’ Shake Signature could learn from these examples, since they have great burgers and shakes but haven’t figured out how best to merchandise and present them.

6. passionate and well-trained employees. Staff who are disengaged (employees at the Walmart.com store seem more interested in figuring out the products themselves than in interacting with customers) or clueless (an order-taker at Subway Café doesn’t know the menu) detract from the experience and damage any hope of brand integrity.

7. distinctive design and décor.  The most memorable brand experiences use design and décor to create a sense of place.  They take a fresh approach to layout and architecture to create a brand world of sorts, they employ interesting materials for surfaces and fixtures to appeal to all the senses, and they use details and decorations to express the brand personality.  REI integrates the historic features of its unique location (the historic Puck building) with digital signage and other contemporary design elements, while Pie-o-logy created its distinctive environment, including mod furnishings and a wall of fun quotes, from the ground up.

Pie-o-logy's distinctive design and decor

8. attention to detail.  The devil is in the details when it comes to retail brand experiences.  Details like Starbucks’s hand-written welcome message incorporating its wi-fi service communicate volumes – so do the plastic utensils at ihop express and the drab dressing rooms at Uniqlo.  Breakthrough retailers sweat the small stuff.

9. extension beyond the four walls.  Retailers that extend their brand experience outside their store make a bigger impact and create longer-lasting relationships with their customers.  A couple of examples:  REI’s active involvement in its community through service projects provides authenticity and personal engagement; the content in Uniqlo’s magalog connects people to its brand attributes and values.

Uniqlo's matalog

I’d love to hear your feedback.  What other criteria contribute to breakthrough brand experiences?  What new and interesting restaurant and retail concepts should we take a look at?  Comments are open!

Also if you and your team need to re-think your brand experience, sign up for a Brand Experience Day.  We’ll head out into the field to experience concepts like these, and then regroup to identify and apply the new insights to your business.  Learn more.

related posts:

• would you like a coffee with that wi-fi
• 12 truths to guide retailing in 2012
• six best practices in retail

brand as business bit:  I got a response to my last “brand as business brief“, Value and Values, that I just have to share with you.  It’s from Kevin Knight, who along with his wife Heather, run Anjou Bakery, a “a thriving incubator of good taste in food” in Cashmere, WA (about 2 hours East of Seattle.)  Kevin writes:

“I am currently re-reading “Setting the Table” by Danny Meyer and at the end of the introduction he says ‘Business, like life, is all about how you make people feel. It’s that simple, and it’s that hard.’  He defines Great Service as delivering on your promise, steps 1 – x, a monologue, what your company sets out to do, etc. Great Hospitality on the other hand is a human dialog that makes people feel good. It’s thoughtful and creative, customized and intelligent.

To achieve all you can be (in life and business) you must be good at both…In our business I try to tell everyone to think of each customer as if they were their grandmother. A bit corny perhaps, but for me that idea sets the stage for a positive interaction.”

It’s because of retailers like Kevin and the hundreds of thousands of others out there who “get it,” that I believe retail is far from dead.  Long live retail!

P.S. (My next “brand as business brief” on brand experiences is coming out next week — don’t miss out — subscribe here.)

brand as business bit:  Last month we lost a great political thinker, James Q. Wilson.  In a tribute to “the pre-eminent political scientist of the last 50 years,” The New York Times described Wilson’s groundbreaking analyses of political behavior.

His work on how organizations offer incentives for people to join and support them seemed an interesting way to think about how brands attract customers:

“He distinguished three types of incentives — solidary (that is, incentives that promote solidarity), material and purposive — and he theorized that the specific type of incentive distributed by a particular group both shapes and constrains its behavior and effectiveness.

Thus, the Junior League provides solidary incentives by emphasizing the social status of and personal interactions among its members, while companies provide material incentives — i.e., money and other economic value — which buy them more tactical flexibility.

In contrast, the Sierra Club’s incentives are purposive, attracting members through its programmatic and visionary ideals. But such incentives also constrain purposive groups, which may lose support if they compromise those ideals by being too pragmatic.” [emphasis] mine

Brands attract people either through social status and community (solidary), value (material), or shared values (purposive) – perhaps the strongest brands use all three incentives?!

brand as business bit:  “Do well by doing good” has become the ultimate rallying cry for corporate social responsibility (CSR) – and case studies from Walmart to Nike to Timberland prove it is possible to benefit society and the bottomline. What’s more, CSR programs can make companies more innovative:

According to research featured in April’s Harvard Business Review, “CSR engagement broadens a company’s access to outside knowledge, market preferences, and new technologies.”  And that in turn helps firms come up with dramatic innovations.  Out of 128 firms studied, companies in the top third in terms of CSR activities brought out, on average, 47 new products a year, while companies in the bottom third brought out only 12.

Glad to see further confirmation of the integral link between values and business growth.

BurgerKing, Volvo, Coke, LEGO, and ShoeDazzle were some of the brands in my recent conversations.  Peruse this recap of my content this month to see what you might have missed:

brand-building:

• What a Strong Brand Does for a Small Business — my OPEN Forum column on why small businesses should invest in brand-building from the start
• Has ShoeDazzle Lost Its Dazzle?  — a POV on ShoeDazzle’s move away from its subscription model
• Basketball Teams and Brands – a bit on what brand-builders can learn from Josh Harris’s moves to rejuvenate the 76ers

business and innovation:

• Once Upon a Company – a guest post of mine on the upMover blog about the internal power of storytelling
• Storytelling Strategies – a follow-up bit on storytelling best practices
• Could ‘Pink Slime’ Be Rebranded? – a comment from me on what “slimed” companies should do
• From Values to Action – a post relaying what I learned about values-based leadership from Kellogg professor Harry Kreamer
• Hip Help – a bit about how Help Remedies is turning drug marketing on its head
• Mary-Ann Somers on Coca-Cola’s New Ventures  — an interview about the work of Coke’s Venturing and Emerging Brands business unit

brand communications:

• Burger King Enlists Celebs to Call Attention To New Menu That McD’s Already Has — a quote of mine about how Burger King seems to be copying others, instead of leapfrogging them
• McCabe on Advertising – a bit about how Ed McCabe used an iconoclastic approach to etch into our brains Volvo’s brand identity

restaurants and retail:

• Make Your Ethnic Concept a Familiar Favorite – my latest QSR Magazine column about introducing an unfamiliar concept
• Five P’s to a Priceless CE Retail Experience – a guest post on CEA’s Digital Dialogue about how to combat the showrooming effect
• Fast Food Line-Up – a bit comparing brand perceptions and tagline recall for Burger King, Wendy’s, and Taco Bell
• Brand Experience Briefs:  video briefings of my insights and analysis of a Chipotle-inspired pizza concept, Pie-ology, and the LEGO store

Now…onward to May!