Consumer Brands Archives - Page 11 of 19

Amazon Go, a Store with No Checkout and No Customer Engagement

Amazon launched an amazing idea: a retail convenience store with no checkout. No cashier takes your money; you just get your stuff and walk out the door. As of now, you have to be an Amazon employee so you have access to the store, and the sensors know what you bought and charge your account.…

Owning the outdoors – How REI’s brand was redefined by closing on Black Friday

REI’s decision to close on Black Friday this year was a revolutionary and actually anti-retail idea – don’t go shopping the day after Thanksgiving on Black Friday: go outdoors, do something with your friends and family. This move was so dramatic the CEO wasn’t quite sure about it at first. But think about it. What…

Vegan Nuggets: Consumers Like Things Their Way

The world of the customization is moving quickly. It used to be easy enough to satisfy a consumer just by offering a standard brand in a category of food or product they like: you’re a beer drinker or a wine drinker, you eat meat or don’t. Now we can customize, specialize and provide almost exactly what each customer desires. The…

Ask a 10-year-old what your brand is about

I was driving my 10 year old son to school one day when he piped up and said that MacDonalds was a company that sold crappy food that made people unhealthy. I asked him why. He said that’s what everyone at school says—his friends, teachers, everybody. You see, we don’t go to MacDonalds, but he still has…

Customers’ values: the new branding tool

You may be paying more but look at all these cool things Whole Foods is supporting! You get the feeling that the extra amount you may be spending is going to something worthy and good, something that you may be connected to or are committed to and is a part of your local community.

Redefining the Retail Experience

This shopping season I spent time in various insane store environments. It amazed me how some places are just piles of goods, inventory that must move. But when you think about it, these stores are the ones that can’t depend on you coming in to buythat specific Lego Star Wars set. It may not be available.…

Berlin Wall: Now the Center of Shopping

Branding Retail Experience in the City Center Berlin recently opened the Mall of Berlin. It’s virtually in the center of Berlin on the site of what was an enormous department store formerly owned by a leading Jewish retailer who was forced to sell to the…

Consumers and the Changing Face of Retail

Walking into the local coffee house can’t be duplicated online. The desire to experience smells, sounds and the human interaction of a physical place— the desire of customers to “be some place” —is more visceral than the act of acquiring something needed.