With a huge generation of millennials now reaching their prime working and thus spending years and a whole new generation Z on its way. We'll soon be reaching the experience economy prime time.
Happiness isn't built on possession, it's built on living a unique, meaningful and happy life and creating magical moments through experiences. Sharing those experiences with their (social) networks what it's all about.
A survey on eventbrite.com says that since 1987 consumer spending on live experiences and events relative to total U.S. consumer spending went up by 70%.
Smart retailers are now turning products into experiences. The best execution of this practice was found at the Levi's Regent Street Flagship store where they've launched two extremely cool concepts. Lot n°1 Jeans and the Denim Jacket Print Bar.
LOT N°1: YOUR UNIQUE JEANS
Lot n°1 is essentially a bespoke jeans. In the back of the store there's a workshop where a master tailor works about 16 to 24 hours on your unique made to measure jeans.
There's a beautiful big book containing samples with all fabrics, patches, cuts, buttons, colours of stitches,... Levi's ever produced, all for you to choose from.
There are two catches, a price tag of + £500 and a waiting list of several weeks, and if a celebrity like Robbie Williams or Liam Gallagher is spotted in a Lot.1 jeans, waiting times go up. Brilliant stuff and since Levi's basically invented the jeans, there's a lot of authenticity to it. Authenticity + uniqueness = millennial magnet. Job well done Levi's.
The Denim jacket printing bar is more affordable but less customizable. You get to choose from several unique designs which have been created specifically for Levi’s and this project by world renowned tattoo artists. Those designs can then be printend upon your denim jacket. No more then 50 imprints are made making it a pretty exclusive collector item.
GET THE BASICS RIGHT
A custom made unique pair of jeans is off course stretching the limits of the personalization concept. However, personalization can be pretty straightforward too. Unfortunately we noticed all too many stores that weren’t able to get the basis principles right.
For example , a lot of stores had digital screens in-store. A lof of those stores played the same content on each and every screen. A missed opportunity, you see, as a male customer shopping in the men’s department, I’m probably not interested in your 2+1 promotion for women’s underwear. Furthermore, the opportunity to see is totally different at the cash desk screen as it is in the shop window. Waiting in line at the cash desk you have several minutes to communicate your message where as in the window just mere second. As a retailer you should adapt you content loop accordingly.
COULD IT BE ANY CRAZIER?
The future is waiting at our doorstep, today we as DOBIT manage to have the content auto adapt to the demopgrahics of the viewer (age and/or sex).
I expect a near future where you as customer can give an approval to your preferred retailers, so that they use your biometrics to tailor their message and products to your needs. But we can go even further, even the choice of music in store, the intensity & color of the in-store lighting might be auto adapted to your preferences due to connections with services like Spotify of Philips Hue.
Before you now it we will link the retailer with our digital assistant like Alexa, Siri or Cortana who will help to personalize the experience drastically as they will know all about you and know exactly what data you’re willing to share (and what not).
So, in order to remain relevant in the highly competitive field of tomorrow, it ’s time to start experimentations,… now.
