Page 256 - The Apple Experience

celebrate the brand. A little girl waving a magic wand in the princess
neighborhood can call up Belle from Beauty and the Beast or Jasmine from

Aladdin who suddenly appear. An image of Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story

might suddenly begin to fly around the store. Meanwhile Disney movies

might be shown in the theater, while character-drawing workshops are

taking place in another area of the store. “Apple stores revolutionized retail,”

said Fielding. “But it’s not like we were the new kids on the block. We

wanted to get back to our heritage.”
Disney looks to Apple to regain its “heritage” in creating excitement for

its retail store guests. Shouldn’t the rest of us? Ron Johnson once said that

there’s no one formula that works for every business or every retailer. Every

business must find the unique formula that works best for it. But he does

recommend that businesses start from scratch to create a formula that will

help them win the future. There is one big lesson that we can all take away

from Apple’s success. Stop trying to figure out how to sell something to
somebody; figure out how you want your customers to feel. That’s the Apple

way.

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1. Start from scratch. Try this exercise to kick-start some creative ideas. Ask

yourself, “How do we want our customers to feel when they experience our
brand?” The answer will be much different than asking the standard question,

“How are we going to grow our sales by x percent next year?” Starting from
scratch means asking new questions.

2. Create multisensory experiences for your clients or customers. Even if you do not

own a retail establishment, you can create such moments by adding video and
stories to your website or reimagining how you deliver presentations. Masterful

communicators go beyond the slides to inspire their audiences through auditory,