The Age of the Cookie-Cutter is Over!

As more and more consumers look for tailored products and services, so the need to move away from the cookie-cutter approach for branding becomes necessary. In response to this the large chains and supermarkets are moving away from ‘generic’ and ‘corporate’ and taking into account their surroundings and locations in a new way and identifying that they need to serve different communities with different tastes and needs and the ‘one-size-fits-all’ mentality is a thing of the past.

The essential thread of branding remains as strong as ever through styles of products and service culture but the way a shop fits into its immediate surroundings and reflects its local community combined with the different formats that make the shopping experience more exciting is changing significantly.

Coffee shops, hotels and even ‘dining experiences’, previously known as pop-up diners, are embracing this new mindset with increasing vigour. Kofler & Kompanie, the international food company established in 2004, tours European countries partly funded by brand sponsors who get involved with each bespoke event. Brands get woven into the overall experience by taking elements from their visual identity and implementing them into the event design. The result is a dining experience that combines elements such as food, art, design and entertainment and communicates both off and online. This is a stunning way of creating tailored experiences and at the same time spreading the costs of the events whilst reaching a broader target group. It has also spearheaded the growth of nomadic branding.

So how can we apply this to our own high streets and established local shopping areas? At The Plum Consultancy we believe that creating different events by collaboration with local businesses can re-energise interest in products and services, giving businesses the opportunity to tweet out jointly about something which is unique to them and offers the element of surprise that people are looking for. For example, take a local wedding gown shop that invites a local florist and local chauffeur company to jointly host an event on its premises. You have three businesses able to share the minimal costs of the event and three businesses advertising when and where the event will be happening with follow up invites. There is no conflict of interest but workable collaboration.

In saturated markets where competition is rife, this approach is even more necessary for brand stand out and as online shopping becomes easier so it becomes increasingly important to grab the imagination of the shopper and get them through your doors. Having free Wi-Fi available and encouraging people to download apps in-store with instant vouchers for immediate use will provide spontaneous results but giving people a great shopping experience with a calendar of new and interesting events with ‘count-downs’ to the next experience will intrigue people and get you talked about long term.

For more information about these and other ideas about experiential marketing contact info@theplumconsultancy.com

Sources: Marketing Week, Mindi Chahal