Dick's New Destination Store

A 17,000 square-foot turf field is adjacent to the Dick's new 100,000 square-foot Eastview Mall store. 

I am happy to write about something happening in my neighborhood. Dick's has decided to erect its first destination store concept at my local mall, Eastview Mall in Victor, New York (a suburb of Rochester, NY).

As malls and retailers are struggling with how to pivot as more and more product sales are conducted online, Dick's has decided to explore the path of offering substantially enhanced customer experiences as a part of its retail brand.

This will not be your typical sporting goods store. The concept is to merge product with service, experience and community building. Imagine a place that offers a turf field by summer, an ice-skating rink by winter and a running track and rock climbing wall all year-round. Imagine workshops and training sessions for athletes of every type and all ages. Imagine team practices at the store. Imagine advice on how to create your own home gym. And imagine a juice bar, movie nights and birthday parties as a part of the concept. Every department within the store will have an experience element built in. 

And, as another example of its community-building, this Dick's store will conduct a community contest to name the field. 

This should begin to give you an idea of how brick-and-mortar retailers must evolve to compete with the convenience and cost-savings of online product sales. 

Successful brands have always focused on emotional and experiential customer benefits over functional benefits. And the most successful brands have created a sense of community based on shared values. They have become the home for tribes of like-minded individuals. And retail brands that follow this path have become destinations.

While elements of this have been tried by retailers before, this is a first for a pure sporting goods store. For instance, several sporting goods stores have featured rock climbing walls. Orvis offers classes on fly tying, casting and other fly-fishing skills. Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World format has indoor ponds, fish aquariums, restaurants and archery ranges and teaches classes on everything from fly fishing, dutch oven cooking and archery to hunting and GPS navigation. Its largest store, Bass Pro Shops Pyramid in Memphis, TN is housed within a 321 foot (32 story) high pyramid structure. 

And looking further afield, consider the Build-a-Bear Workshop brand, which creates a complete experience around customizing one's own teddy bear. Or the Rochester-based grocery store brand, Wegmans, which grows stronger and stronger every year by constantly creating and innovating new customer experiences within their stores. 

I am looking forward to how this concept evolves, what will work and what will not work as well, what will be added and what will go away. But, rest assured, I think Dick's is on to something. This is the only way brick-and-mortar retail will thrive well into the next decade.

Customer-Centric Brand Strategy

Too many companies still think of marketing as the thing to do to sell more products. The products are a given and marketing plans are created and executed to sell more of the products the company produces. In this way, marketing is a tactical afterthought. 

But what if the purpose of the company was to meet (and even anticipate) the needs of one or more specific customers? What if that company focused on a limited number of very specific customers with very specific needs? And what if that company used research to better understand (and again, even anticipate) those needs? And what if the company's focus was to meet more and more of that customer's needs through additional products and services?

What do I mean by focus? Bass Pro Shops focuses on people who fish. Orvis focuses on people who fly fish. Arena and Speedo focus on swimmers, and especially competitive swimmers. Lane Bryant and Avenue cater to plus-sized women. Paul Smith's College is for students who love the outdoors and especially the Adirondacks. Brigham Young University caters to LDS college students. zZounds.com caters to musicians. 

But what if their growth strategies were not focused on targeting new markets for the same products and services but rather, creating new products and services to better serve their specifically targeted core markets? To become invaluable to a specific set of people creates tremendous brand loyalty and even advocacy.  And, more importantly, it insures that the brand remains current and relevant leading to a much longer life. Specific products and services can become obsolete over time. Meeting important customer needs in an ever increasing and evolving set of ways does not. 

Instead of a product-centric strategy, consider a customer-centric strategy. 

Similar Product - Different Brand

I took up fly fishing a couple years ago. I have several lightweight 100% polyester long sleeve fishing shirts in my closet. They range in color from slate blue to tan, white and a shade of green. All of them are tailored in a similar fashion although some have rubber buttons while others have regular buttons. Some use VELCRO on the pockets while other use zippers. They are all made of a rip-stop weave. They all have a cape back for better breathing. Most have sleeves that can be rolled up and tied off to become short sleeved shirts. But each is a different brand purchased at a different store. One is labeled GRT from Columbia Sportswear Company. One is Field & Stream brand. And one is labeled Carhartt Force. LL Bean, Patagonia, Orvis, Worldwide Sportsman Freecast, Magellan Outdoors, Simms and several other brands offer similar shirts. 

Given that the products are designed for the same sport and are so similar with the same functionality, it made me think about how the brands themselves imbued the products with different qualities and different meanings. 

Think about how each of these may vary by brand:

• Store at which it is purchased (Tractor Supply Co., Dick's Sporting Goods, LL Bean, Field & Stream, Orvis, Macy's, etc.)
• Average price point ($35, $50, $100, $400, etc.)
• What the typical customer does outside of fly fishing (lawyer, business executive, farmer, hunter, etc.)
• What the brand itself is signaling
• Which brand says "I am one of you" the best
• Which brand is the most prestigious
• Which brand is the most true to the sport of fly fishing
• Which brand is perceived to be the most functional
• Which brand is perceived to be of the highest quality
• Which brand is perceived to be the most durable

It is interesting to think about how the appeal of very similar products varies depending on the brands that are associated with those products. This then is at the center of what branding is all about.

Brands and Baseball Caps

Brands are often used as self-expression vehicles. And baseball caps are a simple way to do this.

People use baseball caps to communicate their interests and affiliations. They use them to demonstrate their support or pride. Baseball caps can project a certain image or social status. People use them to connect with other like minded individuals. Baseball caps can also communicate personal accomplishments and personal passions.

I thought it would be fun to present you with a variety of baseball caps. Think through the type of individual who would wear each cap. What are his passions? What is he trying to communicate? Why did he buy a cap with this brand on it? What is his likely social and economic status? Will it identify him as a certain type of person? Will the baseball cap attract certain people and turn others off? What are each brand's associations? Are you familiar with some of these brands and not others? Does that say something about you? Are some of these brands insider brands? Think about how much a brand can say about a person who uses that brand as a badge.