Brand Stores

“Flagship”, “lighthouse”, “high street store”, “community store”, “full price store”, “future store”, “factory outlet”, “concession store”, “outlets”, “brand experience shop”, “neighbourhood store … and many more creative terms exist in the brand lifestyle industry to describe one and the same location: A brand showcase to create a brand experience and generate sales and profits.

We saw far 1.000+ stores from inside, analysed financials of 10.000+ in close to 50 countries of all continents. And we learned over time, there are huge differences about good, bad, profitable or just huge expenses. At the end it all comes down to one important question: How much brand experience do you want to create, and how commercial you want it to be?

In this section, we share a little from our long journey in brand retail, and what differentiates successful stores from the others. Feel free to reach out and share your favourite brand store, your review or where you want us to take a look. We promise, if our travel passes that way, we take a careful look and share our observations.

Tom’s – A Brand Future Store in London

Brand Retail, ,

California footwear brand TOMS launched its first London store, well balanced in brand and commercial needs. We assess the store and its specific features.

Brand store concepts are as old as electric cash registers. Whenever store technologies evolve, store processes and consumer experiences change ­and marketing hype is created for a new generation of ‘future store’. Possibly the first store that deserves the label is a hypermarket launched by Metro Group Germany in Rheinberg. The store was piloting a number of advanced technologies such as self checkout and RFID. (more…)