What's love got to do with it?

Well, I will tell you if you attend my presentation on Valentines Day (February 14, 2006 - for those who forgot)... Thanks to the Minnesota Chapter of the American Marketing Association for hosting me!

A hint for those who cannot attend - think about why you love certain things, and how that picture frames your daily choices... Don't worry, I will share some of the highlights after the 14th...

...but in the long run we have found, silent films are full of sound, inaudibly free ... slow down everyone, your moving too fast. Frames can't get you when your moving like that...
- Jack Johnson

Be an observer

A great excerpt from A Year in the World, by Frances Mayes - published in the March 2006 Real Simple magazine.

Travel pushes my boundaries. When you travel, you become invisible, if you want. I do want. I like to be the observer. What makes people who they are? Could I feel at home here? No one expects you to have the stack of papers back by Tuesday, or to check messages, or to fertilize the geraniums. When traveling, you have the delectable possibility of not understanding a word of what is said to you. Language becomes simple a musical background for watching bicycles zoom alongside a canal, calling for nothing from you. Travel releases spontaneity. You become a godlike creature full of choice, free to visit the stately pleasure domes, make love in the morning, sketch a bell tower. You open, as in childhood, and - for a time - receive this world. There's the visceral aspect, too - the huntress who is free. Free to go, free to return home bringing memories to lay on the hearth.

Wow! Experience life...

The matrix experience

I've been spending a lot of time, probably more than I should, thinking about what exactly is an experience. Is it real, or is it a story?

Like the Matrix, we live in a world of partial reality - at least experientially. Since our minds have a hard time distinguishing between reality and its version stored locally (the story), we do live in a partially self-developed reality. You see, we collapse our experiences with other experiences stored in our memory banks. The result is an amplified experience that is further removed from reality.

Imagine the possibilities of an un-collapsed experience (one that has not mixed with another experience). Now imagine if a company lived in the moment, and delivered experiences to you unfettered by their past and their possible future. Now imagine you are responsible for staging this said experience. Given it’s a matter of choice, what do you choose? You see the customer plays a role in the experience - a big one, since the experience you stage is blended with the experiences they have stored. You can almost argue that they create the experience, and you have simply created the environment for them to exist.

Ok Nero, time to unplug me from the grid... I think I've gone too deep with this metaphor!

Would you like a latte with your petroleum?

Have you seen the new advertising campaign by SuperAmerica?

If not, it is a variation on their hometown team, and the local manager commercial campaign. However, in this new ad they introduce coffee specialists who will help you with your coffee selection and answer any of your coffee questions.

Interesting idea - I wonder how its working for the company and their customers. A couple questions I have:

1. Are loyal customers seeking this additional information and/or need the additional assistance during their caffeine fill up?

2. Are casual customers pleasantly surprised by the coffee attendant? Or are they just buying a commodity of fuel for their car and brain?

3. Is it what you expect within the context of buying coffee at a gas station? Sorry SA, I still think of you as just that... a gas station.

Most experiences are outcomes of expectations - what I as a regular, first time, or casual customer expect when I interact with a product or service. If I don't need the help, I feel awkward and avoid the interaction. If I'm a first timer, I may be confused.

Expectations are established in an awkward, random, and non-verbal way (typically) between customers and companies - your mind archives the experience, and references it the next time you interact with a specific store or group of stores. Once established these experiences are hard to modify.

Clearly SA is trying to modify the coffee experience within their stores. The question is whether or not it is within the expectation set of its customers. One thing is certain. The first time you are waiting behind big John the lotto-man who is buying, scratching, and cashing in tickets and you glance up to see the coffee specialist waiting for the next coffee triva question, you will have a new experience - guaranteed!

An interesting topic that I would like to pursue further as it is becoming clearer to me the delicate equilibrium that exists between the two elements...

Final score: Stores 68, Online 27

Happy New Year! Unless you are a store retailer...

Interesting numbers posted by the Church:

Nielsen's spending distribution for 2005, with the percentage change from 2002 figures:
Stores: 68% (-10%)
Catalogs: 5% (-1%)
Online: 27% (+11%)

The shift is on... The question is why? I am certain part of it is because of the dismal experiences produced by the retail industry. While they instinctively understand that they are in an experience business, most are still acting like a commodity pitchman... Likely driven by Wal*Mart.

This reminds me of Joe Pine's comments about competition:
1. Dollars are fungible (customers can shift their spending quickly)
2. Time is limited (this is a huge part of the shift)
3. Attention is scarce (lots of noise out there, and the customer is getting good at blocking it out)

A couple questions to think about:
1. When is the last time you were at a store and could quickly find what you are looking for, and within seconds ask an all-knowing, omniscient clerk to search for like products?

2. When was the last time you were presented with some additional products that have been purchased by other customers who have purchased the same product you are purchasing?

3. When was the last time you were greeted by your first name walking into a store?

4. When was the last time you didn't have to listen to a teenager talk about what they wanted to do last night, and couldn't - described in great detail as if you were not present?

Any questions why online sales are increasing now?

The challenge for retailers to accomplish something of similar attraction.