How many times are we left with an empty feeling after leaving a shop feeling that “something else was missing”? We are constantly in search of something to make us feel better, and it is because current living conditions lead us to value meaningful experiences much more highly than material goods per se.
This new behaviour has triggered the need to create value for consumers by offering experiences throughout the entire contact cycle with a brand. When it comes to interactions at the point of sale, there is talk of implementing a new model called “experiential retail”. The latter consists of the design of interactions at a brand’s physical points, the purpose of which is to strengthen a bond with the customer that goes beyond a commercial environment. “By creating an immersive experience, retailers can bring people into their shops and ensure that they leave not only with products but also with memories” (KPMG, 2019).
Living brands
Given the competitive challenges of the market and the new expectations of consumers, the need to establish an emotional connection with them that goes beyond the commercial link is becoming more and more evident. In itself, Experiential Retail influences the perception that users have about a brand with which they are having contact. This implies the generation of a brand-customer relationship whose objective is to strengthen it and thus achieve greater engagement. That is, to meet their expectations or needs and increase brand loyalty, which could generate customer return to the business and increase sales.
This requires brands to take a step back to evaluate their purpose and business model. These are fundamental foundations around which everything will revolve. The implementation of experience design, experiential marketing, market research and other areas that will lead to the consolidation of how users will “live the brand”.
By “Living the brand” we mean all those situations, experiences, actions involved with the brand that generate emotions, points of view, sensations, and therefore memories in the consumer. These interactions can take different forms depending on the channel with which contact is made. It is clear that retail businesses now have more than just a point of sale. There has been a strong extension into the digital world including websites, e-commerce, social media presence and even virtual events in response to consumers’ appetite for new content.
Experiential retail has a focus on consumer interactions at a brand’s physical point of sale. However, it is essential to implement it as part of a system that complements the entire brand experience by unifying all the channels in which it is present.
While the pandemic has accelerated the process of consumers adapting to digital media, there is also “a representative advance in users seeking mixed experiences (analogue and digital)” (Emtelco-Portafolio, 2021), which highlights the importance of thinking about “in-store” experiences that integrate with digital media.
With the above in mind, it is possible to visualise the point of sale as a medium that presents the opportunity to bring brand identity to life through the use of space, communicative artefacts and, above all, interactions. Let’s remember that we are in the era of user-created content, finally making users part of the brand’s story or generating their own stories will strengthen the relationship.
We have constantly trained ourselves as multitaskers and therefore seek greater benefit from what we spend our time on. This in turn has led to a desire to disconnect and to experience situations that take us away from the arduous contexts in which we regularly find ourselves. This demonstrates that consumer expectations relate to practicality and the ability to isolate oneself. Thus, including surprise and delight factors in retail marketing and brand experiences in general will be a good way to go. Here are some of the methods used.
Complementary services: This is about including in the spaces some activities that can be related to the products and to the essence of the brand. For example, Nordstrom included salon-like areas in its facilities.
Conceptual spaces designed for interactions: Experiential retail can provide the possibility to explore a brand and its products from an experience that can be integrated by several activities. An example of this is Macy’s STORY shop, which consists of designing products and spaces around a concept. One of them was “Colour” and under this word, places were set up for users to carry out activities related to colouring or even to create their own palette of shades, allowing users to create their own content.
Personalisation systems: As in the previous example, that a user can get a product as tailored as possible to their needs will make them value the brand even more, even if this personalisation is carried out at the point of sale it can mean that the product is delivered immediately, adding to the expectation of time.
The key factors of these experiences are the emotional value that users can get from them from exploration and discovery, and in turn the time; the longer users stay there the greater the growth of that emotional value that a brand wants to generate.
Proposing an experience
Proposing a retail experience should start, as previously mentioned, from the brand’s purpose. In turn, it can be driven by the implementation of some of the dimensions of interactive design that, although they are designed for digital products, their application still encompasses the physical and emotional dialogue between a product and a user. From a personal point of view, the most relevant dimensions for experiential retail are listed below:
Time: Think about how different elements are “triggered” or participate throughout the experience, keeping in mind that sound and movement (both time-dependent) play a key role in the auditory and visual feedback of the ongoing interaction.
The words: Beyond the textual component to communicate relevant information, the use of the storytelling resource can give a lot of strength to the experience. This makes the user feel identified with what they are perceiving or feel some affinity with it, it is not the same, for example, to see a product in isolation as it is to see it together with the story behind it.
Visual representation: The use of graphic resources that accompany textual messages facilitates communication.
Physical objects and space: In the case of a point of sale, this may be the most obvious dimension. However, it should not be underestimated that it is only about the display of products. It must be in line with the other dimensions, and even the integration of technological elements for interactions with the brand will make the interaction a more dynamic and memorable experience.
Platforms as nodes of the experience
With the leap from a business model driven by the company itself to a business model driven by the consumer, it is necessary to adopt cultures linked to the emotions of consumers. This requires an arduous research process to obtain insights to guide the experience design process. From this it is possible to identify platforms and technologies that are in line with both the context and the skills of the users.
Some of the technologies that have been identified as potential for interactive formats inside and outside retail outlets are augmented reality and virtual reality. These are potential options for creating great emotions. The metaverse: to even simulate an in-store experience, mini-games with interactive packaging and IOT.
Using and assimilating these technologies as articulated nodes between different points of the customer experience can give consistency and continuity to the customer experience, leveraging them to achieve complementary objectives. For example, the user can be entertained through “arcade-style” packaging (emotional touchpoint for some users) that contains access to a virtual reality game whose objective is to educate about the proper use of the product.
Harnessing the immersive and enchanting capabilities of new technologies is a growing trend. However, the clarity with which these formats are chosen for certain audiences is essential, just as it is required that the same tone of voice is maintained in the different channels implemented.
Conclusion
Seeing Experiential Retail as a new media channel can represent the generation of new business models, even opening doors to innovation for brands. It is an opportunity to educate, entertain or amuse consumers, with the aim of bringing them closer to the brand through emotional factors. Integrating this model to experiences in other channels and aligning it with consumer data and insights will allow the development of a holistic experience of “how a brand is lived”.
