Top Trajectory: Let Your Retail Flagship Fly!
My proprietary Retail Trajectories are coordinates that I constantly create, curate and track across categories, business models, borders and touch points. They drive the strategies I develop for my clients and underpin the presentations I give around the world. Here I showcase one of my hottest Retail Trajectories, along with my between-the-eyes takes on what it all means to you, regardless of the role you play in this exploding world of retail.
LET YOUR FLAGSHIP FLY!
BACKSTORY
Small format stores are still all the rage but not all retailers are downsizing. Those big ol’ space-eating mega-stores are back on the scene, in greater numbers, and for different reasons than in the past.
WHY?
Flagship=Laboratory. Your neighborhood flagship store is teeming with experiments that retailers can deconstruct and parlay any number of ways.
Digital Scale. Flagships drive brand awareness. Digital takes over from there.
Full Disclosure. Wholesale and E-commerce don't tell a total brand story.
Sticky Services. Solutions and connections drive differentiation (and come to life in flagships).
Diversification Driver. Flagships augment and anchor wholesale, E-commerce, and small format strategies.
Great Escape. Malls can be seas of meh. Flagships make a statement.
WHO?
Lululemon’s making an experiential push and flagships are a big part of the plan. In July, a 25,000-square-foot mega-store will bow in Chicago that will house yoga studios, meditation spaces, and community event zones. Foot Locker’s Power Stores snare sneakerheads with product customization, gaming zones and DJ-spinning event spaces. If all goes according to plan, 200 stores Power Stores will be unlocked by 2023, reducing Foot Locker’s mall exposure to less than 70 percent. Nike’s six-floor showcase in Manhattan integrates with the its smartphone app. All the better to grab data as folks play on Nike’s platform.
TRAJECTORY TAKEAWAYS
Brand Marketers: Seek placement in retailers’ flagship locations. Retailers are watching them like hawks, using them to test and learn like crazy, and these locations get attention. Maybe it's time to let your flagship fly?
Retailers: How are you tracking your flagship trials? What are the mechanisms to test, learn and deploy?
Solution Providers: How do your solutions make retailers’ flagships fly higher?
Want to bring a Retail Trajectories presentation to your conference, confab, offsite or training? Leave your deets and I’ll get back to you pronto.
Check out another top trajectory: Retail’s Private Brand Palooza
