Thoughts on Marketing: The Toy Store Experience

Let’s suppose the following scenario:
A child in a toy store holding a toy in his hands and asking his dad to buy it, but dad says « no ».
What will happen is:
– Answer (A): The child says « ok dad » and put the toy back in its place.
– Answer (B): The child starts crying and lying in the floor for a toy that his dad doesn’t want to buy. But at the end, the cashier passes the toy in the barcode reader, and the child is smiling with eyes full of tears that didn’t dry yet.

If you chose Answer (A), you have an amazing child. Don’t continue reading, what I’m talking about next may not convince you. Thank you.

When Apple opened the first Apple Store in 2001, all retail experts and analysts have predicted its fail. They were right, because they saw it in number’s perspective. But their prediction failed, because they didn’t see it in Steve’s Jobs perspective.
Steve Jobs understood that it’s all about the user experience, and Apple Stores drive a great customer experience. 

When you go to an Apple Store and you hold the new iPhone in your hands, you can see how amazing the design is, you can see how fast the phone is, you can see how the camera is great and you can see how it fits perfectly in your hands. And that creates a kind of special connection between you and the new iPhone, makes you want to buy it. 
This is exactly what happens to the child when he holds the new toy in his hands. Because, once you catch it, it’s hard to release it. And this is what I call « The Toy Store Experience ».

Business and marketing experts say that what made Apple what it is today might not be its revolutionary products like the Mac, the iPod or the iPhone … But It is the Apple Stores. What other competitors don’t have.

If your product is -for example- an App, it is easy for you to show your great product to your costumer to make him want to buy it. All what you have to do is offering him a trial period.
But, when it comes to a physical product, I think you should consider the Toy Store Experience.

Ads make people discover your product, but user experience make them want to buy it.

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