The IKEA experience: Making it memorable
August 4, 2011
Driving home down Speer last week I narrowly escaped a potential multi-car pile up. Just in front of Denver Country Club an unusual sight had cars stopping mid-traffic: a glass truck lit up from the inside revealing a fully furnished and artfully decorated living room, complete with funky pendant lights gently swaying as the truck changed lanes. Although it was clearly not a real living room, I pulled up next to it, half expecting to see a hip couple in tight-fitting jeans sipping soy lattes and surfing on their ipads.
Before this experience I'd read about the Ikea grand opening with a certain sense of condescension. The opening of a furniture store the biggest thing to happen in Denver since the Democratic convention? Really? I felt nothing but a keen sense of embarrassment for our poor little city. But the Ikea glass truck blasted my skepticism out the window.
As I drove by, I marveled at the marketing genius behind the concept and the creative use of space. I wondered how many more trucks were out there and if they featured a different room or design. I pondered how late Ikea might be open and whether they had that cool pendant lamp in blue. That's when I realized it had happened: I had just had a memorable consumer experience.
What do Ikea, Apple, Disney, and Lady Gaga have in common? They're all successful enterprises that have moved beyond simply selling furniture, technology, movies, and music into creating an experience for the consumer. In 1990 two Harvard MBA's wrote a best-selling book called The Experience Economy: predicting that in the economy of the future it would not be enough to simply provide competitive products, services or pricing.
Customers and audiences alike would start to expect more for their money in an increasingly competitive landscape. Successful companies would need to create memorable buying experiences. "Selling, whether pitching automobiles or bottles of perfume, is theater," authors Pine and Gilmore asserted. I doubt they envisioned the Ikea glass truck, but I am quite certain it would have made their list of notable examples.
The truck was theatrical and dramatic, both of which offer great lessons for salespeople and businesses. Theater can engage, inspire and move people. Really good theater can demand premium prices and create strong word-of-mouth. Drama cuts through our rational mind and gets right at our emotions. The definition of drama itself: a situation that produces a vivid, emotional or intense response and is of striking interest is reason enough to consider its application in sales. Aren't these words: emotional, vivid, of striking interest, words you'd love to have associated with you or your product or service?
"Drama," Alfred Hitchcock said, "is life with the dull bits cut out." Audiences and consumers alike are bombarded with sales messages: "buy me, we're the best," etc. To stand out from the crowd and be heard over the din, like Ikea, we need to move beyond simply informing and start creating memorable buying experiences. In other words, cut the dull bits out.
Sure, I'd seen an Ikea catalogue, heard the buzz and the ads, but it was the stunning visual dramatization so brilliantly placed into a truck cab that actually changed my opinion. So what are the takeaways from Ikea and The Experience Economy on using theater to stand out and be of "striking interest?"
Consider the following:
1. Are you engaging buyers' emotions? Practical benefits provided by our product or service are important, but don't overlook intangible emotional benefits which often produce stronger reactions. As salespeople, we often make the mistake of thinking buying decisions are completely rational -- especially in b2b sales --until we lose a buy for a seemingly irrational reason.
2. When you give a presentation, are you primarily informing? Consider how you might instead enlighten, persuade or dramatize. Our intentions effect how we deliver a presentation or pitch and greatly influence our client's perception. Think of how many different ways you can present the same information with a unique flair.
3. When you demonstrate your product, are you simply showing it? Try revealing, unveiling or introducing it. Even subtle shifts in the way in which we handle our product informs the customer of its value. If you have to dig it out of your briefcase and dust it off before handing it over to your customer, what does that say about it? If you handle it like a precious metal, you will impart it with that same quality.
In a shout out to Shakespeare, The Experience Economy concludes: "Work is theater and every business a stage." If true, ask yourself this: would customers purchase a ticket to your show?
In the mean time, I still haven't gotten to Ikea, but I'm planning on it. I'm going to wait until the crowds die down. Perhaps by Christmas.
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Press Archive
2011
December 5, 2011
Beyond Traditional Launches First Mobile Food Truck for Jack in the Box®
October 14, 2011
Food Trucks as a New Revenue Stream?
September 12, 2011
Cheesy In Chicago: Qdoba's Queso Quest
September 8, 2011
Comedian Joey Dundale Travels the Windy City in a Food Truck full of Qdoba’s Que
August 30, 2011
Qdoba's Queso Quest rolls out in Chicago
August 30, 2011
Qdoba Mexican Grill® Sets Out to Prove to Chicagoans That Everything is Tastier With Queso
August 4, 2011
The IKEA experience: Making it memorable
August 9, 2011
Hey chain restaurants, stay off of my streets!! Leave Food Trucks Alone!
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