The Idea Blog

It’s no secret that I have long advocated that better brands extend the experience they have with their customers as far as they can. Heck, if you could put a customer service operation in their garages, that would be ideal.

Part of this is my quest to dig into retail, whether by creating a store-within-a-store or going whole hog and taking the freestanding, brand-owned and -operated option.

I saw this assessment of Apple’s retail operation in MacWorld, and I thought the succinctly reported, “keys to success” worth repeating … and remembering.

1. “Apple knows how to pick its spots.” The locations are key. They began in slam dunk markets and have expanded - but not too quickly. My earliest experience with the furniture industry was that a brand often began in its worst markets, where it wasn’t getting the business it thought it should. That’s fine - and, perhaps, obvious - but it probably won’t lead to immediate results.

2. “Apple’s got some big brains leading its retail efforts.” Can’t emphasize this enough. Retail is all about branding, but you need more than big branding brains. How to retail” experts are even more important in the execution.

3. “Apple takes the long view.” The demands for instant store profitability aren’t there. Apple sees it as much as a delivery mechanism for the brand experience. Why else load up on “geniuses.” Again, for the furniture industry, this is a good example. If you’re extending your brand to retail, you probably didn’t have very strong distribution to begin with. Have a clear goal going in, one that matters to the business, not just the retail silo.