Polinchock's Ponderings

How Lloyds Coffee House Became Lloyds of London

Another oldie from my original blog!

The internet is a great learning tool and you can really find some great information out there. I was reading through posts on the Re-Imagine discussion boards and came across one that was posted by a Paul Hanson:

The Economist had a wonderful article on the history of coffee shops a few weeks ago. In the 18th and 19th centuries they were amazing places. Many shops became known for the types of customers who visited. i.e. the subject of discussion was different in each shop. One shop was known for scientific arguments (in one case demonstrating dissections - not sure about health and safety here!) another become so well known for hosting insurance deals that it became Lloyds of London one of the largest insurance organizations in the world. In other words the coffee shops were the information hubs of the day the proprietors often published their own newsletters for customers - they were more than coffee shops. In fact the shop names (brands) were so well known that one newspaper named it's subject headings after the coffee shops that specialized in that subject.

I was completely fascinated by this posting and, as someone who talks about Starbuck's all the time, I hopped online, went to Vivisimo.com and decided to check out his posting. Sure enough, it's true. Lloyd of London really did start in a coffee shop.

I wonder what great businesses are being started in Starbuck's or other coffeehouses today? Are there other places that could become this kind of information hub? In today’s information overload world, think of how powerful it could be! Lloyds of London ne Lloyds Coffee House

Shouldn't We Make Place Special?

Last week, during the NRF Big Show, there was a lot of talk about how to change retail to be successful in today's world. I spent a lot of time with Bob Phibbs and Marge Laney walking the floor and talking about what we were seeing throughout the show.

Dozens of companies were showing mobile apps (to be truthful, they were trying to show mobile apps. Thanks to the incredibly crappy cell service at the Javits, they frequently didn't work.) and it was the hot topic of numerous presentations throughout the program. The emphasis was on putting information into the hands of the people.

And, mobile shopping tools certainly seemed to be a big part of the 2010 holiday season as well. Anecdotally, it seems that the use of cell phone based price-checking tools was on the rise this holiday shopping season. Best Buy reported lower sales and speculation was that people were looking at the items at Best Buy, but buying somewhere else. I know lots of people who do that. Yes, I do it too.

Look at some findings by a recent survey by Motorola:

A majority of retail associates (55%) said that 2010 holiday shoppers, driven by increasing availability of online shopping tools and mobile phone applications, were better connected to consumer information than in-store associates, according to a survey by Motorola Solutions.

The survey found that retailers that aren't investing in technology to stay ahead of increasingly tech-savvy shoppers are hurting their own bottom line. Nearly three in 10 (28%) store visits ended with an average of $132 unspent due to abandoned purchases driven by deal-habituated behavior, out-of-stocks, limited store associate assistance and long check-out processes.

As the Motorola survey confirms, a lot of the conversations and presentations was about how since consumers couldn't get help from the sales people on the floor, just give them the information they need on their cell phone.

There was also a great deal of conversations about making the physical retail store work and act like an online store.

Now, I'm a big of creating Oneline™ brand experiences and have also been speaking for many years about the need to e-tail your retail. So, I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't give your shoppers more information or deliver it through tools like mobile, QR codes, etc.

But, based on many conversations I've been having lately, I'm also starting to think that we're missing a big opportunity to emphasize just what makes place special. As I've said in the past, I continue to think that there's a coming trend to socialize the retail environment instead of just merchandising the real estate space. And the more we try to use the space for our purposes rather then our guests, the more they'll stay away.

Can you afford to have hundreds of thousands (or millions) of square feet of retail space and all of the expenses that go with it, and just have it act like windows for people to do online shopping? And they may not even shop online at your store! Can you continue to support online social media efforts while creating physical spaces that are almost anti-social? Sure, open up your info so that I can get it on my cell phone. But shouldn't you also hire better people and do more to train them? And create better physical spaces?

I think that retailers with physical stores need to spend a little more time looking at what makes place special. Stop trying to compete with the online world by making your places more online-like and start competing by your rules. Use place to your advantage.

Every time I go to an Apple or Lululemon store, I wonder why more retailers don't copy their model. They work. They generate great loyalty from their consumers. And they generate great return for their investors. There are plenty of other examples of retailers, big & small, that use place as an integral part of their business success.

If you're putting more effort into turning your stores into a web site, rather then capitalizing on what makes place unique, you might want to start looking for a great real estate broker to help you sell off your stores.

Motorola Survey: Shoppers better connected to information than store associates | Chain Store Age.

Download Sticky Soul - Some Thoughts from a Retail Walkabout

Riddle Me This...

More Thoughts on the Value of Place.

Polinchock's Ponderings: Customer Experience.

Polinchock's Ponderings: Retail News.

Phone-Wielding Shoppers Strike Fear Into Retailers - WSJ.com

For years I've been talking about how new mobile technologies can turn physical retail into nothing more then giant "windows" for online retailers. I know that I price check using my phone and I know that more & more people will do the same.

Yesterdays Wall Street Journal had this article and news out of Best Buy (see Best Buy stung by weaker sales and earnings | Business Tech - CNET News) clearly showing that the tide is turning and that this is becoming a normal part of retail today.

As I've recently discussed during my future of retail presentations with the Retail Advertising & Marketing Association, I believe that retail will be divided into two main categories:

• Commodity shopping. This is shopping almost strictly on price. This could be items like socks, underwear, milk, etc. Those items that we buy frequently and sometimes we're not even aware of the brands we're buying. We're really starting to see this move into categories like consumer electronics, where people may be focusing more on price then the specific brand or technology.
• Experience shopping. These are the items that we pay more for based on the experience we get. This is why we pay more for Apple products or why we use one dry cleaner over another. It's why there are many restaurants of all different price points. Sometimes a dollar burger does the trick, sometimes we want the $20 version.

If all you're offering is product, then all you have to compete on is price. And if all you have to compete on is price, well, then people are going to use their cell phones to see if you have the best price. And price is is where online retailers can excel. But even online retailers understand the role of experience, just ask Zappos.

For physical retailers, there's an even greater challenge. For many of them, it's not like they can just close up their stores and move everything online. Think of what would happen to our economy if even a handful of retailers decided to close up all of their physical stores and lay off a few hundred thousand people. And how would it impact their business anyway? Sure Sharper Image saved a lot of money by closing their stores, but do they even still exist today?

Take a look at your retail experience from top to bottom. Are you offering anything of value other then the product? Are you helping the guests in a way that makes them feel confident in purchasing from you? Are your employees committed and engaged? Do they know your brand story? Online retail still only accounts for about 10% of the total retail industry, but cell-phone price checking tools might help change that for retailers with no other point of differentiation.

Tri Tang, a 25-year-old marketer, walked into a Best Buy Co. store in Sunnyvale, Calif., this past weekend and spotted the perfect gift for his girlfriend.

Last year, he might have just dropped the $184.85 Garmin global positioning system into his cart. This time, he took out his Android phone and typed the model number into an app that instantly compared the Best Buy price to those of other retailers. He found that he could get the same item on Amazon.com Inc.'s website for only $106.75, no shipping, no tax.

"It's so useful," Mr. Tang says of his new shopping companion, a price comparison app called TheFind. He says he relies on it "to make sure I am getting the best price."

Mr. Tang's smartphone reckoning represents a revolution in retailing—what Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Chief Executive Mike Duke has dubbed a "new era of price transparency"—and its arrival is threatening to upend the business models of the biggest store chains in America.

Until recently, retailers could reasonably assume that if they just lured shoppers to stores with enticing specials, the customers could be coaxed into buying more profitable stuff, too. Now, marketers must contend with shoppers who can use their smartphones inside stores to check whether the specials are really so special, and if the rest of the merchandise is reasonably priced.

Phone-Wielding Shoppers Strike Fear Into Retailers - WSJ.com.

ADDITIONAL READING

Polinchock's Ponderings: Retail News.

Download Sticky Soul: Retail Trends

Download Future of Retail

World Premiere Cafe

Ever have one of those ideas that you love and you know that one day, you'll find a way to make it happen? Well, the World Premiere Cafe is one of those ideas with me. Working with Greg Beck, I originally came up with the idea in late 1999, when we were working with a number of companies who were exploring themed restaurants. They all wanted a restaurant, the problem was that most of them didn't want to be in the restaurant business.

As I looked at what was happening in the space, I thought about the road theaters that I knew, places where road companies brought in the entire show into a basically empty theater. The core tools where there for them, like lighting, rigging, etc., but they would bring in all of the sets, etc., rather then have them made there.

So the World Premiere Cafe was designed as like a road house for themed restaurants. As described in the original deck created in 2000:

These locations will act as a “road house” for our ‘eatertainment’ sponsors, allowing them to have a complete themed restaurant and entertainment complex without the costs and expense of owning a permanent facility.

The big idea was that sponsors would sign on for specific time lengths (generally one calendar quarter) and we'd recreate the entire experience for them. For example, we'd:

• Re-theme the interior designs for the sponsor product.
• Rename menu items for the sponsor and create several key menu items based on the brand needs.
• Re-theme all staff wardrobe based on brand identity.
• Run promotional programs in conjunction with sponsors.

I saw the World Premiere Cafe as a 350 seat, full service restaurant with a 45 seat lounge, with a balcony area and VIP seating and a stage for performances and/or demonstrations. It would use lots of interactive technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, and others, to create unique guest experience. Table-mounted touch screens allow for ordering food & merchandise and playing interactive games, both with guests inside and outside the restaurants.

It's one of my favorite concepts and given my stand on how importance place is, I'm confident that one day, I'll see it come to fruition!

Base experience

The Sydney Games were happening, so I added them to the concept

AMC Theatres | Dine-In Theatre

Had a chance to quickly look at the new AMC Theater concept called Dine-In Theater and hope to be back to do a more in-depth review sometime over the next week or so. I've wondered for quite a long time why movie theaters didn't do more with their food, after all, it's almost always dinner & a movie. When I lived in Orlando in the early 80's, there was a cinema chain there that was more like a bar with movies being shown, but they were never first run movies.

So now AMC is opening up this new concept and I have to say, at first blush, it looks pretty good. There are two pricing tiers, $20 or $25 per ticket. Of that, ten dollars goes to the movie ticket and the rest goes to a food credit. I've included a sample menu below (the menu and the pictures come from the AMC web site), so you can see the prices aren't too bad, there's nothing on the menu over $11.99. Don't know anything about how good the food is yet, but given what the prices were for food before this change, that's really no too bad.

In addition to the physical change of the space, the biggest change is that the fact the people under 18 aren't allowed in to the theater at all unless they're accompanied by an adult. And they're not allowed into the Cinema Suite at all, with or without an adult. That alone will make this a very different movie going experience.

I've reached out to get a more official tour and I'll try to go to the theater to have the experience and I'll report back on what happens. The big question is whether or not people will pay $20 for a movie ticket and dinner at the theater.

Fork & Screen

Cinema Suites

See a sample menu

Download a piece I wrote some time ago about the cinema experience.

AMC Theatres | Dine-In Theatre.

No Pictures Please

I was reminded of this issue by C.B. Whittemore's post on our recent retail walkabout at Levi's Customer Retail Experience. During our visit to the Levi's store, C.B. asked about taking a picture of their new Curves display and we were told that we couldn't take photos in the store.

More recently, on a retail walkabout with a group of students from Austria, we went into the new AllSaints Spitalfields store in Soho, where several of the students wanted to send pictures of the merchandise back to friends at home and we were also told that pictures were not permitted. They wanted to introduce their friends to a brand that isn't in Austria yet because they thought their friends might want to shop them, and they were told no.

I get that years ago, when brand managers might shop their competitors and try to sneak in a few photos of a display or something, that retailers might've asked people not to take pictures. Of course, that was also long before cell phones with cameras were everywhere. And long before the internet and Google. Just look at the number of images of the Allsaints Soho store at all saints soho - Google Search.

But today, I don't get it. We in the ad industry talk about things like WOM and that the consumers in control and the brand isn't, yet go into your favorite store and try to take a picture. You'll find that 9 times out of 10, you're not in control.

So, we want the consumer to co-create, to help spread the word. Yet in many instances, we only want them to share things that we give them, on our terms. Why is it that when they walk into one of the key buying locations, we ask them not to share. We talk about the future of social shopping, yet stop it from practically happening today.

As C.B. said in her piece, Why not let me take photos? The Curves Contraption is talk-worthy and I would have loved to share with you a photo of myself being 'measured'. It's not as if it's a state secret; it's readily available online.

If the consumer really is in control, let them share their experience with your brand. Of course, as I've said in Stop Listening to the BS - You Do Control the Message!, in this new world, you need to create an experience worthy of positive WOM. If you're afraid you can't deliver that, well, you're clearly in the wrong business.

jez paxman: Interview with David Polinchock

Jez Paxman, writing at jez paxman, has a nice, quick overview of my podcast from The New Storytellers. I'm going to see if I can get Michael Margolis to join me one day on a walking tour of Soho and continue the discussion on the importance of place.

Small businesses tend to be at the beginning and that makes framing a story and a passion easier, larger business have often forgotten what their story is (Emphasis mine).

Stories allow brands to frame barriers in positive ways.

A great story is best told through a face-to-face experience that is why location branding is so important for businesses.

Brands can benefit hugely from translating online experiences, such as being a Facebook fan, into real world community happenings.

Retailers should think of stores as social media spaces. If your store is only a space to buy product then you aren't really offering anything because you can do that lots of places. (Emphasis mine) David tells of a clothing store that wheels its display rails to one side and uses the store space for yoga classes.

jez paxman: Interview with David Polinchock.

Another Reason to Think Oneline&trade

Yahoo is out with a new study about the internet and WOM and here's the lead stat:

Most WOM is positive, and it still happens the old-fashioned way. Although some advertisers may fear negative WOM, research shows that 66% of brand references in WOM conversations are positive and only 8% are negative.

So where do these conversations take place? Despite the explosion of social media online, 76% of WOM conversations still take place face-to-face (Emphasis mine).

So, if 76% of WOM takes place face-to-face, then why is so much of our social media effort directed online? While putting efforts into creating fan pages and getting people to follow them on Twitter are important things, many brands ignore their physical locations? Remember the chart below that I posted from Paul Mcenany a while back?

If you're not looking at how the conversation is starting at the point of interaction with your brand, you're missing the boat. You can't create good WOM program if your experience isn't worth it. Now, more then ever, brands need to think Oneline&trade.

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ADDITIONAL READING

Polinchock's Ponderings: Social Media.

Polinchock's Ponderings: Socialization of Place.

Podcast: Brand Experience Design with David Polinchock on 6/22/10 | Get Storied: articles, tips, and resources for the business of storytelling

My podcast with Michael Margolis is up, so click on the link below and enjoy the conversation between Michael & I about what makes a great experience, the socialization of place and how businesses can use experience as a point of differentiation. It was a fun program and I'm looking forward to doing it again in the future.

What exactly makes for a memorable brand experience? And how is technology changing the context for mastering this equation? Join us for the next episode of The New Storytellers, when we’ll talking with David Polinchock, a pioneer in the field of brand experience design and technology application. David has been an innovation catalyst for over two decades, exploring the socialization of place and the narratives dimensions of branding. David is equally passionate about the merging of our “offline” and “online” selves, and the implications this holds for a brand’s continuum of experiences.

Podcast: Brand Experience Design with David Polinchock on 6/22/10 | Get Storied: articles, tips, and resources for the business of storytelling.

Disney Stores: New look to be unveiled in Montebello - latimes.com

The LA Times has an article (thanks to @joepine for the tip!) about the newly redesigned Disney store that just opened in California. Disney retail stores have always faced a very interesting challenge in my opinion. You see, most people by a t-shirt or hat or whatever as an artifact of their visit to a Disney theme park. Remember, that I worked in 2 of WDW's largest stores and have a pretty good, first-hand experience of this need to bring something home to commemorate the Disney visit.

So, I think they had a challenge when these stores first opened in that they didn't commemorate anything other then the fact that you went shopping. Several years ago, I went online to buy an Olympic hat and I don't like to wear it as much because people always asked if I had gone to the Olympics and then I have to say no and I feel it creates a negative experience.

And I think the Disney stores had a similar challenge. Since your purchase at the stores doesn't relate to an actual Disney experience, it needs to stand for something other then just a retail experience. Maybe adding levels of experience will help it do that. They should also be rethinking the merchandise at the store and maybe using that as a point of differentiation.

Another thing that retail has always battled is the desire to create a more rich experience vs. getting people in & out. I can't tell you how many projects I've had turned down over the years because it would create too much "lingering." Retailers didn't really want to have people in their stores unless they were actually purchasing. Doing different activities weren't of interest to them.

So now maybe retailers are starting to learn about the importance of creating a reason to visit the physical space. And Disney, which creates such magical experiences everywhere else, had a pretty lame retail experience going on.

I don't know what else they're planning on doing, but they should be hosting birthday parties and special events just for kids. They should be doing real screenings of Disney classics. They should let kids create something, like Build-A-Bear does. And the employees should always be playing with things, just like I've seen them do at Hamley's in London. And they should be thinking about ways to connect the in-store experience with an at-home experience. And, it should be a social experience, a third place for kids to gather and explore together. I came up with some ideas for Mattel a few years back that would be great for their new stores if anyone wants to call me.

Whatever they do, it should be a destination for kids, not just another store.

Walt Disney Co. plans to unveil a new look for its Disney Stores on Tuesday in Montebello, and this time, instead of pixie dust, the company is relying on a heavy sprinkling of interactive technology.

"We felt that we needed to reinvent Disney retail and create an environment that really gave children the best 30 minutes of their day," said Jim Fielding, president of Disney Stores Worldwide.

That half hour, to be rolled out to Disney Stores worldwide, features a castle with a "magic" mirror in which a princess appears to tell a story whenever a child stands in front of it wearing a crown or holding a wand.

Customers can also use a touch screen to play music videos, movie trailers and other film shorts on a 12-foot screen in a gazebo-like theater enclosure.

Disney could use some retail magic. Analysts said the company needed to energize its chain, which it introduced in 1987 and sold to Children's Place Retail Stores Inc. in 2004 in what was viewed as a face-saving move. Like Warner Bros., Disney had opened too many mall stores and failed to change them often enough to preserve novelty, analysts said.

Disney bought back about 220 of its North American stores in March 2008, leaving more than 100 to close.

This year, the company plans to refurbish more than 20 of its stores in the United States and Europe, with the rest following in the next five to seven years. Other redesigned stores opening this year in the U.S. are in San Diego, Chicago, Dallas and Freehold, N.J.

Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates Inc., a retail consulting firm, said the interactive elements are a lure to increase the time families spend in the store — and hopefully, the amount of money they spend too.

"If you speak to any retailer, they'll tell you there is a direct relationship between sales and how long a customer stays in the store," Davidowitz said.

Although he lauded Disney for its "bold new store design," it remains to be seen whether the company can change the merchandise frequently enough to keep families coming back.

Fielding said the stores will introduce new products weekly. The vast majority of the items will be unique to Disney Stores, he said. Exceptions include music CDs and Disney movie and television DVDs

Disney Stores: New look to be unveiled in Montebello - latimes.com.