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"