Flooring The Consumer on Simple Marketing Now

Please visit Flooring The Consumer's new home on SimpleMarketingNow.com where you can subscribe to receive updates to blog articles in real time!

Monday, December 07, 2009

The Apple Retail Experience And Your Store

Apple Store, 5th Avenue, NYC

How does the Apple - aka the New Nordstrom - retail experience affect your store?


If the Apple Store redefines the retail experience to such an extent that it has become the new Nordstrom, what does that mean for your store?

It's an interesting question to consider.

Here's my starting point: an article titled "Apple is no longer the Nordstrom of Tech , they're the New Nordstrom." It makes several interesting observations about the Apple consumer retail experience.

1. Apple stores are less about retail stores and more about community gathering place for those Apple-interested customers.

2. Apple stores and devices enable activities that people pursue: music, web-browsing, etc. And Apple has simplified many of those activities through both the retail store experience and the products.

3. Apple's customer service and retail experience have turned Apple customers into passionate fans who rave about their experiences.

[Perhaps you've read that Microsoft has decided to launch a retail presence. You can read an initial reaction in First look: Inside the Microsoft Store. I'll be interested to observe how their retail experiment and experience evolves... Can they successfully overcome the brand identity crisis that the author notes?]

Given Apple's success in selling products as means to experiences [and doing so via a memorable experience] for a wide range of consumers - not just Boomers [definitely read through Sell Experiences Not Products which, although about Boomers, applies to any selling situation. Note the reference to taking the time to listen to customers and not rush into pushing products before understanding what they want.], how would you translate that into equally successful retail experience models for other product categories?


Other Apple related posts from Flooring The Consumer...


Technorati Tags: Del.icio.us Tags:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Reminder: Please, no self-promotional or SPAM comments. Don't bother if you're simply trying to build inauthentic link juice. Finally, don't be anonymous: it's too hard to have a conversation. Thanks, CB

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...