Opportunity 3: Beyond Commercial
ELEVATING THE COMMERCIAL EXPERIENCE
We will certainly delve further into this content in future writings — but it’s relevant to the ‘Beyond movement’ to glance (for now) into the potential that experiences hold when it comes to elevating the commercial landscape.
Education
Is an obvious example of this, with brands widening their offering to teach, share knowledge and skills.
While the hustle and bustle of a big city can be mentally taxing, research indicates that certain aspects of urban living can protect mental wellbeing. Increasing the odds of social interactions and augmenting collaboration and collective learning have been proven time and again to help prevent depression.
#todayatapple
Apple has their Today at Apple events. A daily programme of educational happenings of various natures. All with the common aim to inspire and expand the mind. In relation to the Transformation Economy, this is about personal development, and growth of self.
Many others are following suit in this race for Educational Retail…
Sephora: Hosts beauty tip workshops to ‘teach, inspire, and play’.
Minedrip: In Tokyo every customer becomes a barista with this self-serve coffee approach
It’s all the more powerful if that learning experience embeds smart tech or science, in a playful and immersive way.
‘Fleurs des Rêves’ by Bompass & Parr for Perrier-Jouët Champagne
For Valentines Day the Champagne brand hosted an event celebrating beauty and sensuality through learning. ‘Through the Unknown, we’ll find the New’ Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du Mal.
Fleurs des Rêves were ‘workshops with meaning’ where guests participate in making their own stunning Thermochromatic flowers, treated with a liquid crystal dye that changes colour when subject to heat. The experimentation went from testing with the breath to setting the flowers ablaze — all within the context of learning about the meaning of flowers… and of course some indispensable champagne tasting.
Health
Is also a new contender with the need for brands to encourage self-care, carving out space and time for people to focus on themselves — or simply be.
New Springs Installation
Fashion brand COS collaborated with Studio Swine for their Milano Design Week presence. The decision was to opt for pure pleasure and create a highly sensorial, calming experience. The environment was the most instagrammed intervention of the event.
Lululemon
Beyond their famous in-store workouts, Lululemon is offering an in-store Mediation space. The (rather awkwardly) dubbed ‘Mindfulosophy’ is set-up as a destination for visitors to relax and reboot, through meditation and reflection.
Harmonics in Space
Designer Fred Butler is hosting an installation drawing focus on the now. Commenting on our distracted fast-paced life by creating an oasis of shapes, colour, light and sound in which to simply ‘be’.
Culture
An interesting new playing field is the Museumification of Retail.
Brands and spaces are elevating the commercial experience to a cultural one. Giving back in the form of inspiration and fulfilment — a highly appealing take-away. Brands will foreseeably continue to extend retail into the realm of exhibition as curators of their own shows and experiences (more on this in Trait 05: Emotive).
Burberry — ‘Here We Are’
Taking over a romantically derelict London house, Burberry curated ‘Here We Are’, an exhibition (now touring the globe) of British photography — to celebrate the launch of their new collection.
I have long been enchanted by British “social portraiture” — photography that reveals the ways in which we live, work, dream, celebrate and challenge — both individually and collectively. — Lucy Kumara Moore, curator
Nike at Tokyo National Museum
3-days of happenings interweaving technology, fashion, music and sports. Throughout a weekend in March 2017, Nike took over the National Museum in Tokyo, marking the 30th anniversary of the Air Max sneaker. Visitors were invited to the ‘Air Max Revolution Tokyo’, which included an audio-visual running experience, Nike lounges, and multiple art and music installations. Experience concepts were inspired from the DNA of the Airmax, and by integrating elements of Japanese tradition and culture.
Gentle Monster
Gentle Monster keeps smashing predictions around the Future of Retail with their jaw dropping larger than life artistic take-overs. The shop becomes the canvas for changeable installations — updated every 6 weeks. Within the space the consumer is engulfed in the world of the story, leaving the product as a secondary element — sometimes not even present in the store.
