All the World’s a Stage: Performance and Storytelling in American Retail

 

 

 

One of the iconic moments in “Mad Men,” a television series about the 1960’s and 70’s and the golden age of advertising, is when Don Draper, an ad agency’s charismatic genius, is doing a client pitch in the company boardroom.

 

The client is Kodak and the product is a slide projector. Draper dims the lights and flips on the machine, which is loaded with slides of  own family. “This device isn’t a spaceship, it’s a time machine. It goes backwards and forwards and takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It’s not called the wheel, it’s called the carousel.”

 

With just one word – carousel — he elevates an ordinary slide projector into an emotionally charged device capable of stopping time. A “carousel” has all the bittersweet sentimentality we associate with our childhood, and Kodak instantly becomes an emotional brand.

 

On AMC’s “Mad Men,” Kodak executives watch a slide show while Don Draper spins a story about the “carousel.”

 

 

A GREAT STORY IS INVISIBLE… BUT YOU KNOW IT’S THERE

 

“Mad Men” is as much a drama about America in the middle of the 20^th century as it is a documentary about branding. A great brand tells a compelling story that resonates with the customer and delivers a seamless experience in how we connect with it.

 

This is the secret power of branding: you feel it but you can’t see it. It is so intrinsic that it seems impossible that it was manufactured.

A compelling brand story not only drives the external consumer strategy, it also drives the internal creative process. New products and services must reflect the ethos and integrity of the brand. The brand story justifies and inspires virtually every aspect of how a company, store, or product expresses itself to the world.

 

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This is the secret power of branding: you feel it but you can’t see it. It is so intrinsic that it seems impossible that it was manufactured.

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A GREAT STORY INSPIRES COMPELLING PRODUCTS

 

The best companies are the ones that strategically determine their brand narrative and make sure it supports what and why they do what they do.

 

Facebook is a brand that was founded as a tool to connect with friends, but it’s really about storytelling.

 

People use it to tell their personal stories, or promote other stories that represent how they feel about themselves and the world they live in. We consume these stories in the same way we consume products, in that we search for the relevant details that connect us to the story – or product, for that matter.

 

The facebook timeline was launched in 2011, and was almost immediately controversial for how it compartmentalized people’s lives, and in some cases, made them far too public. facebook has often referred to the app as “the story of our lives.”

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Facebook is a brand that was founded as a tool to connect with friends, but it’s really about storytelling.

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In 2011, when facebook launched their Timeline feature, it sought to not only upgrade facebook’s search potential but also to bring context and linearity to what they taglined as, “the story of your life.” In short, we too became a brand and our facebook page reflects the product that is our “life.”

 

A GREAT STORY EMPOWERS THE CUSTOMER

 

We crave brands that appear to enable us to become more than we are and connect us with the world in a way that seems deeper and more uniquely personal. Nike pushes us to “Just Do It.” Apple dares us to “Think Different.”

 

Steve Jobs wasn’t so much a product designer as a product marketer, and he revolutionized the role of computer products by making them accessible and personal: “The personal computer. “

Apple’s cult following is as much about its visionary, Steve Jobs, as its products. The brand is still a case study for the ultimate lifestyle brand, one where storytelling is at its center.

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“Your customers dream of a happier and better life,” wrote Steve Jobs. “Don’t move products. Enrich lives.”

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Apple products make us feel modern and creative. They make us believe that by owning one, we are somehow more efficient and savvy.

 

Jobs knew what he was doing: he was creating a lifestyle brand designed to elevate a product beyond its basic function. “Your customers dream of a happier and better life,” wrote Jobs. “Don’t move products. Enrich lives.”

 

A GREAT STORY DELIVERS A SEAMLESS EXPERIENCE

 

When you put a highly branded product in the right setting, you have the ultimate brand experience, what I call “retail theatre.”

 

A store allows you to enrich the product with what is essentially, a “theatrical” performance. From the store’s architecture and design, to the employees, even the smells; all contribute to controlling and enhancing the entire customer experience.

Architecture and design bring the brand narrative to life with lighting, color and material palettes, and displays that make the product experience more tactile and real, a living breathing representation of the brand’s ethos.

 

Apple’s latest retail model in San Francisco is built around the concept of a town square, a place where the products bring people together around the idea of creativity and “thinking differently.”

 

LEARNINGS FROM LUXURY BRANDING

 

Luxury retail in particular, is deeply dependent on very elaborate architecture and storytelling. In fact the lion’s share of what one pays for luxury products is built into the marketing cost of showcasing the brand and its products.

 

Chanel’s rich tapestry of imagery and symbolism is wholly dependent on an assortment of tools designed to deliver an unquestionable sense of integrity and value. Wherever we are, the words CHANEL instantly signify the holy grail of couture, as embodied by Coco Chanel: the Matelassé , the double C’s, the iconic bottle containing Number 5 – all of it plays a crucial role in the brand architecture, and instrumental in immersing the customer in such a profound way that they become immune to the price and instead, focus on the dream those goods represent.

 

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The successful luxury brand convinces us that it’s not the cost that matters, but the seemingly magical transformation that occurs when we come to own the product.

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Case in point, a recent Louis Vuitton video campaign tells us a romantic story of travel, passionate love, and exotic spectacles, with barely the sight of the brand’s distinctive monogram luggage.

 

A series of frames from Louis Vuitton’s 2008 “A Journey” campaign, directed by Bruno Aveillan. The video manages to tell a story with barely any sight of a product.

 

Why? Because in the end, the message is about how (Louis Vuitton) luggage will transport us to so many (emotional) places. At the end of the campaign, the words, “Where will life take you,” appear on the screen. It’s not a question we are meant to answer, because the brand provides it: “Louis Vuitton.”

 

The successful luxury brand convinces us that it’s not the cost that matters, but the seemingly magical transformation that occurs when we come to own the product. Our lives are optimized. The context of our lives becomes more meaningful.

 

MAKING A STORY DELIVER: OUR GOLDEN RULES

 

To a certain extent, one could apply the same rule to even less expensive and more humble products. A compelling story serves to systematically Entice, Attract, Engage, and Connect the target customer with the brand in a way that feels entirely authentic and pure.

 

When a brand is successful, the story impacts each facet of how you do business. Here are our Golden Rules:

• Is it immersive? Does it create an immersive experience through content that is delivered in a visceral, emotional, and (ideally) multi-sensory way;
• Is it interactive? Does it allow us to become a part of the story; does it invites us to engage with the product and feel a sense of understanding it, making it personal;
• Does it connect the dots? Does it ensure that there is coherence across multiple brand touchpoints (offline, online, product assortment, service, and so on) and can we, as the customer, understand the “big picture” or common thread that holds it all together;
• Is it impactful? Does it give us confidence to move into action and embrace it with confidence, and thereby forge a long-term relationship with the brand.
• Can the story be expanded? Does the brand grow in strength allowing new stories to be told, adding to the family with other brands and products.

 

The most successful brands are constantly moving their story forward without sacrificing integrity. When you see a company stumble with the wrong product, chances are they deviated from their narrative.

> This blog is an abridged version of a presentation delivered by Bertrand Pellegrin at “Creative Mornings/LA” on November 9, 2012 at the Herman Miller Showroom in Culver City, California.

 

 

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