New formats of existing retail brands seem to be popping up all over the place.  Best Buy Mobile was introduced a couple of years ago as a store-within-a-store concept — the company then launched standalone Best Buy Mobiles and recently announced plans to open 40 more this year. 

Petco just launched Unleashed (with more personalized service and “hipper attitude” than the original format) and Baskin-Robbins has been testing Cafe BR (featuring a make-your-own-sundae bar and higher-end desserts such as fondue) and BR Express (a smaller store focusing on soft-serve ice cream.)

These new formats seem to be a great way for retailers to appeal to more shopper need-states.  A need-state is defined by a group of consumers who seek similar product benefits and attributes in a particular usage occasion.  Need-state segmentation overlays usage occasions onto attitudinal classifications.

For example, in the snack foods category, there might be some consumers who are looking for a snack to tie them over between meals, while others are looking for something to eat post-workout (two different usage occasions) — but they share a desire for healthy alternative (same attitude).   Unlike attitudinal or demographic segmentation approaches which classify consumers into discrete groups, with need-state targeting, a single consumer can experience different need states over time — and thus be reached in multiple ways.

Typically need-states have been used by manufacturers to drive product development.  By understanding different purchase drivers, manufacturers develop different product variations and brand extensions — e.g., a healthy snack food that’s packaged in portable packaging might fulfill one need-state while a more traditional pack lends itself to another.

What’s interesting is that more retailers are getting in to the game.  Best Buy Mobile is targeted specifically to people shopping for cell phones and services.  These consumers may be the same ones who browse the aisles of the big box retailers’ regular stores in search of the latest gadget, but when they are specifically looking for a mobile solution, Best Buy wants Best Buy Mobile to be their go-to store.

Likewise, Petco’s Unleashed boasts a smaller format, is located in high-traffic locations, and emphasizes community — perfect for the pet parent who is already passing by the store and needs to drop in for a quick purchase or some friendly advice.  Baskin-Robbins’ Cafe BR concept seems more like a destination (a great post-movie date place), while BR Express’s name makes its target need-state clear.

With these new formats, these brands expand their appeal, giving existing customers more options and reaching new customers who previously hadn’t found the brand relevant or convenient.

New formats also provides other benefits:

• emphasizes select brand attributes — Best Buy Mobile is described as having “one of the largest selections of carriers, handsets and accessories available anywhere, as well as a highly-trained staff to help customers make the most of their mobile phones…Employees undergo at least 80 hours of intensive training, as well as continuing education on mobile phone technology and trends.“  As such, the new concept shores up Best Buy’s credentials in wide selection and knowledgeable staff.
• reinvigorates the brand image — Unleashed has a more urban contemporary feel than its master Petco brand.  By embodying these attributes, Unleashed helps update and improve Petco’s brand image.
• opens the brand to new opportunities — Jimmy Fitzgerald, VP of concept innovations for Baskin Robins’ parent company explains the chain’s new formats by saying: “This allows us to open doors and go into places we really don’t fit — upper-scale malls and downtown locations.“

So it seems these new retail formats hold a lot of potential for their parent brands.  It will be interesting to see how well they do — and who else jumps on the new retail format bandwagon.

My birthday was last week (I turned 21 again!  )  Included in the birthday greetings I received were messages from four brands.  Of all the brands that know when my birthday is (or could easily find out), why would so few take the opportunity to send me a birthday wish?!  How disappointing!

Don’t worry — this post isn’t some pathetic woe-is-me gripe about not feeling special on my birthday.  Rather, it’s a suggestion to companies that are looking for ways to develop stronger relationships between their brand and their customers:  reach out to your customers to acknowledge their birthdays. You don’t send an elaborate greeting, nor do you have to include a special offer (although one is always nice); simply sending a birthday wish is enough.

To explain, I received snail-mailed greetings from Nike and White House/Black Market (a chain of boutiques featuring ladies’ apparel in black and white and shades thereof.)

Also Baskin-Robbins and Pizza Hut emailed their birthday messages.

My comments are primarily in response to the first 2, because receiving the greeting in the mail seemed more personal — which is a good segue to the first reason why I recommend companies send birthday greetings.

1. birthdays are a personal celebration — by engaging with your customers to acknowledge their birthdays, you are engaging with them on a personal, emotional level.  For me, even though I knew the greetings were automatically generated by a CRM program and automatically sent by a mail house, the mere fact that the messages were about my birthday made me feel as if the companies cared about me as a person.
2. remembering a special occasion in turns makes you memorable — marketers are always looking for ways to imprint their brands on their customers’ brains and hearts — what better way than to associate your brand with a special occasion?!  whether at the conscious or sub-concious level, the association makes your brand more memorable.
3. a birthday is a customer-specific touchpoint — birthdays are a connection that’s unique to the customer.  These days, every holiday (including Groundhog Day and National Yoga Day) seems a reason for companies to send me promotional messages.  Those mailings seem generic, a dime a dozen — a birthday greeting seems more special.
4. it’s a way to breakthrough — a birthday program seems a fairly untapped way to participate in the trend of increasingly targeted messages.  From my experience, it seems only a few companies employ birthday programs — so sending a birthday greeting is an opportunity to demonstrate some creativity and stand out from the crowd.

Now I don’t mean to overstate the importance of a birthday greeting.  It’s only one arrow in what should be a quiver full of ways to connect with your customers — and it should be part of a comprehensive customer relationship development program.

Come to think of it, it’s really no surprise that Nike and White House/Black Market would send me birthday wishes.  Both are at the top of a very short list of brands that I feel a real emotional connection to.  Of course, my feelings are not solely a result of the birthday greetings — but rather, the mailings seemed a natural outgrowth of the personal relationship the brands have already established with me through all the other ways they serve and connect with me.