The M&M's store on Times Square

I saw a perfect example of experiential marketing in New York : the M&M’s store on Times Square. In my opinion, this is the most fascinating store on Broadway and it illustrates the art to lure people:
- the central product is a chocolate candy, so this is supposed to be at the beginning a small purchase ; candies are something that we don’t really need, that we buy to have a little treat. This is why it is to me surprising to see a giant store just focused on this candy, the type of product you usually buy in supermarket next to the cash register… but the M&M’s company has been successful building a story around the product.
- there are of course several secondary product, from the pen to the pillow ; all these products are just bought to say “I have been to this amazing M&M’s store and I bought that because I am so addicted to this small chocolate candy that I need to claim it!”
When you see the giant screen showing M&M’s characters in all sorts of situation, it is impossible not to enter the 2-floors store.
This is in my opinion experimental marketing because this store invites customers to act: on a big wall, they can find all the possible colours of candies, from apple green to gold or silver. They are invited to help themselves and to create the most original colourful mix. There is also a kind of “scanner” which looks like a shower. When the customer steps on the circle on the flour, the computer calculates your “mood colour” and describes what you feel and which M&M’s colour suits you.
Of course this has no foundation, and this is why I find it interesting to link that to the Prada Store, which is also in New York. In this store, huge investments were done to in order to give the customer a perfect experience. RFID tags are fixed on each item and give all the necessary information; the changing areas are made of a sort of glass which becomes opaque when the customer enters. All this is amazing and provide a unique shopping experience, but this is also useful, contrary to the “mood shower” of the M&M’s store!
Consequently, I see two different types of experiential marketing: the one which is designed to “help” the customer (and the shop assistants too, like in the Prada case) and the one which is only supposed to entertain, to let him have fun and, above all, to lure him to the store and make him buy a lot.
What is the most “effective” store remains uncertain to me: M&M’s is about fun and Prada is about technology and convenience. These are two different positions but in my opinion they are both successful because they rely on very strong human addictions that are part of the consumer society: fashion and chocolate!

In red, this is the "mood shower"

"Wii" will rock you!

The new Nintendo console, called the "Wii", is to my mind one of the greatest current innovations. In the very creative area of video games and consoles, Nintendo has managed to find a new way to innovate: this is not anymore about launching a console which is even more powerful, realistic (thanks to a better resolution), even more technologically developed.

The Wii brings a new interface, a particularly nice design and in my opinion, a new philosophy. But it is way less powerful than its direct competitors, the consoles from the last generation like the XBox 360. What is so innovative about the Wii is the very intuitive interface. To play, you just need to move your hand holding the one-hand remote (the "wiimote"). Thanks to a new technology which detects the physical gestures and to a system similar to Bluetooth, you can control what is happening on the screen. This idea went probably from the observation a very instinctive habit when playing regular videogames, especially at young children but not only (I sometimes surprise myself to do it!): instead of just pushing the buttons of the remote, you are tempted to move your hands (and sometimes your entire body) in the same direction as the car or character you are controlling. I think this is where the idea came from. The Wii takes this instinct into account and it is no longer ridiculous to move in front of the console, now it is just the right way to play!
This can be linked to an article from the Harvard Business Review: it describes a new technique that companies use to innovate, called “empathic design”. The idea is to observe chosen customers while they are using a product, and see what could be useful to them that they don’t necessarily say (most of the time because they don’t realize this could help). I don’t know if Nintendo used a similar approach to find about the necessity for a lot of players to “follow” the movements that appear on the screen, but it would not be surprising. When people are doing that while playing videogames (and most of the times get laughed at) they just feel stupid and try to stop their “crazy movements”. None of them would say to the videogames companies: “ I want a console which allows me to move and do crazy signs in front of my computer!” That is why observation is the key to these kind of innovations.Aside from this system, the Wii is relatively easy to use in general, and this is why the target market is different than the XBox market: this is not supposed to reach experienced players (essentially men), but a really broader and more feminine market.

Besides, I also think that the Wii looks a little like the Ipod, with its very white and pure design (and like the revolutionary mp3 player, it will soon be available in new colors). This can be also a track to understand how Nintendo came to the conception of this 5th generation console: it is essential while brainstorming to look around, not only to the competitors but also to other segments: this can bring a lot of new ideas. The example of the successful Ipod was impossible to miss. And the choice of the name, “Wii”, is to me similar as a very simple and symbolic word: Wii as for “we” in English (and “oui” means yes in French: this is a very successful name on the French market)

As a conclusion, I find this new revolutionary console (which first name was precisely “Revolution”) a very exciting product. However, after the “new” effect, I am afraid that its success decreases. When it was launched, a lot of videogames players around me told me that they were dreaming to have it. But a few months later, all they were talking about was the Xbox360, because after all, it is much more powerful… That is why the Wii really had to find new customers among videogames neophytes, because in my opinion the regular players will stay loyal to the most powerful console.