Experience Creation in Retail Spaces

Don't Give me Something Simple, Give me Something Extraordinary!

Think about People. People just love to be involved in extraordinary and personally meaningful experiences. Well, Organizations should be focused on providing them just that. And while doing so, they might create a win-win-win situation, but let´s talk about

that later. Technological pressures led to profound societal changes, in which a new type of consumer

emerged. Everything has gotten faster with the internet, and because of the persistent acceleration and amplification of information, and to a permanent connectivity this new consumer lusts after the new, after the next big thing.

We have progressed to a Experience Economy, where the New Consumer wants and expects to be dazzled, positively impressed, and therefore increasingly more meticulous in his decision making process. Either it is about which product to buy, or which shopping mall to visit, experiences are the key differentiator, and benefit Brands, Consumers and Shopping Malls, in many different ways.

I believe that staging Targeted Brand Experiences, offer´s the consumer the opportunity to co-create value and satisfy their entertainment plus human contact needs. But the larger benefit of an experiential strategy is the profound emotional connection established between the Consumer and the Brand.

Experiences are a key differentiator and are becoming more and more important, especially in a fast and evolving economy. Think about Retail Spaces. Every day they are filled with consumer´s that go shopping, have their business meetings there, or just window shop. Nevertheless, Retail spaces are able to provide astonishing footfall-in-retail number´s providing the Brands the perfect opportunity to engage directly with their Target audience.

So where´s the win-win-win situation?

Well, by staging experiences in Retail Spaces Brands are able to create a win-win-win situation that benefit´s both the Retail Space, by an increase of footfall-in-retail, as the consumer by attending to their entertainment needs and, last but not least, the Brands, by providing them the perfect setting to engage their target audience and build an emotional connection in a place with high footfall rates.

Experience Creation in retail spaces is today, more than a business strategy. It has become a management philosophy and an opportunity for differentiation and positioning. Let´s do a simple imagination exercise. Put yourself in the role of a consumer. A consumer that is open to spend some money to satisfy his leisure and entertainment needs. What can he experience in your Retail Space? For how long is your offer able to retain and keep him involved? Is it a personally meaningful experience that get´s the most out of word of mouth, does it drives sales an increases footfall-in-retail?

Experience creation in Retail spaces is more important than ever.