{"id":2363,"date":"2018-10-25T21:01:56","date_gmt":"2018-10-25T21:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cohnmarketistg.wpengine.com\/?post_type=perspectives&p=2363"},"modified":"2024-03-09T00:11:27","modified_gmt":"2024-03-09T07:11:27","slug":"brand-experiential-retail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohnmarketing.com\/brand-experiential-retail\/","title":{"rendered":"Brand Strategy Enables Experiential Retail"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brand Strategy Enables Experiential Retail<\/h2>\n

By Jeff Cohn<\/a><\/h3>\n

In a few weeks, nearly 40,000 deal-making real estate professionals will flood the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center at the world\u2019s largest retail real estate convention: RECon 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a caffeine-powered marathon of meetings, dinners, lectures, coffee dates, and miles of convention hall steps on your Fitbit.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been going to RECon for over 20 years, and the industry has changed immensely during that time.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve watched the giant malls of the 1980s slowly transition to open-air lifestyle centers. I\u2019ve seen grocery-anchored centers adapt and become more diversified than ever. And I\u2019ve experienced (pun intended) firsthand the shift in the way retail centers and retailers talk about the shopper experience.<\/p>\n

In 2018, it\u2019s all about \u201cexperiential retail.\u201d<\/p>\n

And as I prepare myself for dozens (possibly hundreds) of conversations about the power and importance of \u201cexperiential retail\u201d at this year\u2019s RECon, it occurred to me that experiential retail can\u2019t really flourish without brand first. Here’s what I mean.<\/p>\n

How Brand Enables Experiences<\/h3>\n

I\u2019ve dedicated most of my career to two things: retail real estate<\/a> and brand development<\/a>. I founded COHN in 2000<\/a> to marry those two ideas, and our agency has thrived for the last 18 years by helping companies (probably just like yours) find their brand distinction and develop marketing strategies<\/a> to bring that brand to life through activation and customer experience.<\/p>\n

This applies to consumer brand experiences and corporate (B2B) brand experiences from a leasing and management perspective.<\/p>\n

It strikes me that now, almost two decades after launching our brand-driven agency<\/a>, the industry has finally embraced the power of the customer experience. We, in the retail world, must create and enable a customer experience that\u2019s worth coming back to. It can\u2019t only be about the product. It has to be about the feeling you evoke during those customer interactions.<\/p>\n

And, of course, every interaction matters.<\/p>\n

Experiential Retail Requires Brand<\/h3>\n

So before you get started on creating \u201cexperiential retail\u201d at your shopping center or retail storefront (or any destination, really), it would behoove you to first think about what experience you want them to have.<\/p>\n