Day 19: Shopper keeper

Retail is where, for most companies, the brand rubber hits the customer experience road. Today I had my first Chinese brand experience (if you don’t count all the proxy Li & Fung brands) at Globetrotter and was reminded of the different strategies retailers and brands have for understanding their cash voting constituencies.
Decathlon have for years lived their business intimately. All administrative, product design and development functions are based in, or on their shop premises. Every employee is constantly reminded of the till stubs that turn into their pay checks.  A couple of years ago I even got to experience first hand how, by building a store in Biarritz, the swimwear, surfing and diving team had both the sales and product usage moments in front of their noses (joking that the salt water ocean was in front of the store and the sweet water harbor behind it).
This approach has clearly paid off, with merchandisers and isle managers able to prototype new constellations and get feedback in real time. The space becomes an evolving organism, tuned to the real time tally of transactions that promotes growth in one direction, and kills off unprofitable lines in another. As a brand marketing director, I had never had such tough merchandising discussions.

Globetrotter uses a different strategy. The retail space is more about expectations than transactions. There is a giant pool in which to try out kayaks. An installation with tents and desert sand, reporting on travels to the Sahara. The shopper can sit and watch videos or vicariously follow along with a community of contemporary explorers. You don’t get the feeling that you are being channeled into a selling system and the sales isles are not the focussed tubes and tunnels that Decathelon’s model has so sharply refined. None of this is new. Ever since Paco Underhill reported that Homebase could reach new customers by selling stories and solutions, the battle in retail has been between function (volume) and fantasy (margin).

What inspired me about Globetrotter though is how this experience is drawn through into product development. They have invested heavily in testing and development facilities in Costa Rica. Replanting thousands of acres of rain forrest, which will not only serve as a testing ground for outdoor kit, it will also offset the carbon footprint of the supply chain. This feels like the beginnings of the “values proposition” I am looking to define. A holistic expression of business behavior, symbiotically evolving from an intimate dialogue between its stakeholders. Collect insights where they will be experienced, not just in the shop front. Build and sustain the communities, not just the myths, that makes the real world environment your R&D lab.

Capitalism grew by building the consumer base that fed it. For a long time the car and white goods industries were supplying the middle class that bought the products they themselves were producing. Understanding, caring for and sustaining the meaning (in other words the values, not just the value) of this relationship seems more important than ever before as Walmart, Trader Joes and others have discovered. They have moved beyond the cellophane wrapped carousel of consumption to become slightly more benevolent keepers of their shoppers.

Addendum: Sven tells me that the Globetrotter in Berlin also offers an immunization station. This means you can be completely prepared for your trip and get engaged in local health issues on the spot. With all of the charity and donations work they do it really adds another dimension to building the communities that are their real world R&D lab