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Unit 14: Experiential Retail

spending hard earned money. You are demonstrating choice from a field of competitors, and in Notes
return you expect the Brand or Company you choose to not only deliver on what they promise,
but to recognise and thank you for your decision and choice. The old adage, ‘the customer is
always right’, or the ‘customer is King/Queen’ is now the unwritten maxim for retailing. However,
so few Brands large or small get this or put this at the centre of their offer or experience. Certain
categories of Branding are better than others at recognising this, and service at its most innovative
is both responsive to customer expectations, but more importantly exceeds expectations. In fact,
the true ‘gold standard’ Brands and retail or service experience leaders are not only consistent in
the level of service they offer but truly shine when there is either a ‘service or product failure’
OR when the shopper/customer believes the promise has not been delivered.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:

19. Service Branding is the often overlooked aspect of what makes a good ........................ brand
an experience.
20. Brands and retail or service experience leaders are not only consistent in the level of
service they offer but truly shine when there is either a service or product ........................



Case Study Retail Brand Experience

The Application
Retailers are constantly looking for new and innovative ways to improve their customers’
retail shopping experience. Positive shopping experiences can have a tremendous impact
on a retailer’s business by increasing customer visit time, repeat visits to the store, and
improving the chance customers will recommend the store to friends and social contacts.
In addition, providing a positive shopping experience can help retailers build and maintain
a positive brand association in the marketplace and keep their stores as a top of mind
retail destination for shoppers.

A leading fashion specialty chain decided to create a unique interactive experience in their
children’s clothing department that both entertained and held the attention of children
while their parents shopped nearby without distraction. Using both physical and digital
elements, this concept called for creating a highly-engaging exhibit that encouraged kids
to create, explore, interact and have fun. Understanding that today’s youth are extremely
tech savvy, the retailer envisioned incorporating several large-format, multi-touch enabled
displays into this interactive exhibit, outfitted with exciting and intuitive multi-user
applications. In doing so, this fashion specialty chain created a playful and memorable
collaborative atmosphere for kids in their stores.
The Problem
When selecting an interactive display, it was imperative that this fashion specialty chain
find an intuitive, easy to use, multi-touch display that could maintain a tablet-like user
experience even with several users interacting on the screen at the same time. The retailer
wanted a large format multi-touch display that would draw the attention and entice
passersby to the exhibit while also comfortably accommodating multiple users. Maintaining
the integrity of the design and aesthetics of the children’s interactive exhibit was also a
Contd...

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