Monday, June 22nd, 2009
The remnants of the industrial economy often surround the downtowns of major cities and form a large part of the fabric of what many would consider to be insignificant neighborhoods. These combined semi-industrial and residential zones typically form barriers between first ring gentrified neighborhoods and the city core, producing in-between waste lands, lost economies and failed communities. Ironically, while the focus often is directed to the showcase block of the downtown and hip new restaurants in the historic suburban neighborhood, it is the in between zone that actually has the most potential for true economic development.
In recent years many of these quasi industrial and residential zones have been absorbed by hospital and university expansions as well as new arenas, stadiums, exposition centers, and the next half baked version of No Dough. However, seldom are these industrial zones re-energized with significant investments in cultural facilities which are more typically reserved for the showcase locations of the downtown. One of several major exceptions is the Frank Gerry designed Guggenheim Museum located in an aging industrial district in Bilbao Spain. It is here that a new model of urban gentrification can be recognized where art becomes the engine of the urban renaissance. This model involves the use of public art and cultural facilities as a promoter of community regeneration. In particular, unpopular and stigmatized urban neighborhoods can now be revitalized more than ever in the current economy when underutilized land and aging and often functionally obsolete buildings are reclaimed.
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Tags: art, Culture, Real Estate Development, Retail, urban gentrification, urban renaissance
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Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
Contemporary film often reflects the sentiments of its audience and initiates varied emotions that are generated well beyond the subject matter of the movie itself. In this regard, the music, location, and lighting can serve as a window into a deeper set of emotions and yearnings. This is for the simple reason that images and sounds link our consciousness with the unconscious to bring back memories of the past that ultimately reinforce the thoughts and feelings about the present.
In the movie You’ve Got Mail, Meg Ryan plays the role of Kathleen Kelly, an owner of a children’s bookstore in New York. It is a quaint intimate and well stocked independent and profitable shop that is a clear extension of her own sensibilities, perhaps allowing Ms. Kelly a needed connection to a lost childhood. But, life was good for Ms. Kelly’s and her devoted patrons until Foxbooks, mega-big-box-store, announced plans to move next door, seemingly to quickly serve the role of category killer.
Hugh Grant, in the 1999 film Noting Hill, played the role of William Thacker who also owned and operated another independent book store in a vibrant London neighborhood, known for its antique shops, small cafes and one of a kind specialty stores. Perhaps the shop was a frivolous commercial experiment with a recent inheritance or a deliberate move to a more pragmatic phase of life after a recent divorce, but it served a vital role in the neighborhood as a place of socialization and community connection. In real life, Notting Hill is an area in West London, close to the north-western corner of Hyde Park, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is a multinational district, once considered as a slum, now known as a creative community and home of the annual Notting Hill Carnival and the Portobello Road Market.
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Tags: death of shops, little shop, Retail, retail in movies, shifting retail trends
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Monday, June 15th, 2009
Micro-transactions on the web
- Consumers are proving that there is a market for small dollar amounts for on-line content. Ring tones, cheap internet calls through Skype, iTunes and more are ringing up big dollar amounts on micro-transactions. It was once believed that consumers would not pay for on-line content and the only way to profit was through on-line advertising and monthly subscription services. Now advertising revenue for the time being is not as profitable as once thought and consumers expect information to be free.
Home accessories, a luxury in a down market
- Little luxuries in depressed times cheer people up. In the down market designers of big ticket furniture items are facing a major challenge. A few smart ones are adding well designed home accessory collections to their offerings. But this is not just about pure design; consumers also want functional products that are long lasting, something that the discounters do not provide. Consumers of high quality furniture are attracted to premium materials and finishes and high levels of craftsmanship.
- Home gift and table top retailer recently engaged famed British Architect Zaha Hadid to design a collection for the company.
- Unlike big ticket furniture, home accessories can change by the season to better reflect both design and fashion trends.
Aspirational and luxury retail taking a hit
- Luxury brands in the recent economic boom of 2003-2007 focused on their existing trade with a greater variety of high priced goods, but often with perceptible reductions in quality. The luxury brands also sought to expand their empire by attracting new aspirational consumers by opening more points of purchase to reach a larger market and by developing new products at lower price points for those who aspired to step up to the brand. This resulted in more consumers paying more for premium goods. But just a few years later, the consumer at all levels has traded down and perhaps to never return to the same level of consumption, in this generation.
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Tags: Affordable indulgences, consumer spending, consumerism, Decade of Decadence, design and fashion trends, micro-transactions, New Economy, rethinking green, Teen market shift, trading down
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Thursday, June 11th, 2009
Brands have been telling their stories for decades now. Typically, in a mass-advertising, mass-branding world, the ‘telling’ has involved reaching and impressing as many consumers as possible. Those who literally bought into these storied brands then gained the respect and admiration of other brand-exposed consumers.
Example: if you’re Jaguar, and your (expensive) story is about old money with a dollop of English eccentricity and the whole world is aware of this, then consumers craving recognition from anyone impressed with this kind of lifestyle only need to buy one of your cars to bask in the glow of their peers’ admiration. Much of the current market research completed today is based on this idea of the brand story. For instance, Country Squires tend to drive Jaguars because they are status symbols and gain them access to the social club. However, while well-known, storied and very visible STATUS SYMBOLS will continue to dominate consumer societies for years to come, they will face increasing competition from STATUS STORIES: As more brands go niche and therefore tell stories that aren’t known to the masses, and as experiences and non-consumption-related expenditures take over from physical status symbols, consumers will increasingly have to tell each other stories to achieve a status dividend from their purchases. Expect a shift from brands telling a story, to brands helping consumers tell status-yielding stories to other consumers.
These types of experience are rapidly increasing as guerrilla and mobile retail are gaining popularity. For instance, major newspapers have recently caught onto Kogi Korean BBQ which sells their tacos out of trucks in LA. Fans get location updates via Twitter & usually 100s of followers are waiting when the trucks pull up. Another example is the ever-growing in popularity Treat Truck in New York.
Status Stories: Why Now?
STATUS STORIES are an answer to some of the major shifts and trends taking place in the consumption arena, from uniqueness, to visibility, to ‘alternative status sources’:
No longer do consumers want to be like the Joneses, the Mullers or the Li’s. When individuality rules and conformity is frowned upon, owning something no one else has is hot. The ‘mass’ that consumers are willing to put up with is either the stuff they don’t really care about—and can get on the cheap at the Wal-Marts and Aldis of this world—and some remaining objects of mass desire like the iPhone or the Mini Cooper. However, even these are likely to be customized and personalized the moment they leave the warehouse, website or store.
This consumption trend accounts is pushing the hand-made, artisanal and local markets. Many designers are custom making fashion piece or designing limited edition items. These one-of-a-kind items are often the most have pieces of the season and consumers are willing to dish out the cash for the luxury of having one.
The shift from mass to unique explains the surge in niche or even one-of-a-kind products and services. So brands will increasingly not want to, or will not be able (if only for financial reasons) to tell their story to the masses. Which in turn means that consumers buying from these brands will no longer be able to rely on the product or service to provide them with that instant recognition and admiration from their peers. It is thus up to the customer to tell a story, any kind of story, with the brand providing the ingredients.
Besides the shift from mass to uniqueness, mature/prosperous consumers now predominantly live in experience economies. Experiences not only are inherently more unique, they also do a better job of providing instant gratification: they’re often more affordable, and thus more numerous than old-world status symbols.
Tags: consumer, guerilla retail, market research, mobile markets, mobile retail, pop-up shop, twitter
Posted in Advertising & Marketing, Retail | No Comments »
Thursday, June 11th, 2009
End of the Urban Mall
National retail chains can hardly lead a re-imaging of the city, any more than bars and clubs, and especially not hotels with their ever expanding demand for publicly supported convention centers, stadiums and arenas to fill their rooms. Likewise, chain stores occupying the latest version of an urban mall, once considered to be the panacea of an up and coming city, are now so risk adverse that they have long lost any real interest in downtown locations other than a handful of the most vibrant cities.
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Tags: community, consumers, malls, Retail, shopping, shops, suburban malls, town centers, urban malls
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