There is no topic that makes us feel as uncomfortably contrarian as the topic of Apple’s retail stores.
Everyone, it seems, loves them—has loved them—for years. Apple, too, has loved them: Angela Ahrendts, the former Burberry CEO responsible for Apple’s brick-and-mortar reinvention, was the company’s highest-paid executive at one point.
And yet when we think about them we’re paralyzed. It’s always felt like an infuriating game of “spot the blue shirt” amidst a sea of eager consumers. Like some sort of real-life, retail Quidditch match. Not fun.
But here’s the thing: we know we’re wrong.
Ahrendts revolutionized a brand and reinvigorated retail. And she didn’t only do it at Apple.
While at Burberry in 2012, Ahrendts opened a flagship store in London with a rain shower and smart mirrors. A little taste of that made it to every store: the brand bought 10,000 iPads and distributed them to their stores.
“Everyone thought that was so revolutionary,” Ahrendts told Vogue Business in 2018 shortly before leaving Apple. “For us it really wasn’t rocket science, we had targeted the millennial consumer and we knew that was the best way to talk to them.”
What Ahrendts is referring to here is something called atmospherics.
Coined in 1973 by Philip Kotler, atmospherics is the practice of designing a buying experience to elicit an emotional response. Kotler’s paper on the topic is one of those rare reads that holds up 50 years later—incredibly, perhaps, even as it relates to social, DTC and ecommerce more broadly.
We spent time rereading much of it yesterday after catching this tweet:
It’s often said that Instagram is a “digital mall.” But that’s not exactly right.
The internet is a mall, and places like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok are more akin to a retailer or department store. They are Nordstrom’s and Macy’s and… well… what would the historical comparison for TikTok be? (We’re stumped there.)
The point, though, is that each channel has its own atmospherics. And that has implications on how much or in what ways a brand needs to prompt its customers.
From Kotler:
“In some cases, the place, more specifically the atmosphere of the place, is more influential than the product itself in the purchase decision. In some cases, the atmosphere is the primary product.”
For many CPG brands selling DTC, this is not something that’s considered. We’d argue it should be, and think Kotler would agree.
In his paper, he submitted that atmospherics are of greatest importance:
where the seller has design options
when “the number of competitive outlets increase”
In “industries where product and/or price difference is small”
when product entries are aimed at distinct social classes or lifestyle buyer groups
Sound familiar?
While we all know a good retail experience when we see one, this feels more complicated online.
Part of it has to do with our reliance on other channels, where that atmosphere is established by someone(s) else. Part of it has to do with the fact we can’t use all the senses.
But it can be done.
Perhaps this is why so many of us responded so positively to Poolside FM’s launch of Vacation, Inc., a sunscreen brand. The vibe—sight, sound, nostalgia—not only came first, but, when the product followed, it did so by leaning further into the atmosphere that it created.
This is, we think, why Web Smith’s Linear Commerce is such a fundamental element for brands today: it allows brands to control atmospherics in a digital environment.
The challenge is doing that in a way that aligns your brand and your customer.
Apple and Ahrendts are instructive here.
Ahrendts tapped a desire to experience luxury and catapulted that to the masses. Atmospherics extended the brand, differentiated the offering, and gave most people a shopping experience they couldn’t afford elsewhere.
That framework is worth borrowing and adapting for DTC. Start, perhaps, by reading Kotler’s paper.
Get that stuff right and it sure seems like the rest will get a lot easier.