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April 29, 2005
Best Buy designs evangelism into new stores
Last year, Best Buy began smartly firing 20% of its least profitable customers.
Now it's innovating in a new way: Launching three concept stores: Studio D, Escape, and eq-life. The first two were the subject of a Wall Street Journal article today. [You can find out more about eq-life on Andrea Learned's blog.]
Best Buy's idea is designing stores around a demographic: Studio D for women who make buying decisions for their households, and Escape for young, high-tech men and women. According to the WSJ, Studio D's warm lighting and cozy nooks give it a boutique-shop feel. Escape's glass-and-metal design is meant to reflect a nightclub scene.
These more experiential stores are designed for hour-long visits where friends will bring other friends to hang out and learn about electronics.
In the WSJ article, Best Buy VP James Damian comments:
"If we could build a network where our customers become evangelists, or become our sales force, what could that mean in terms of loyalty? We think that's absolutely huge."
James, I think you're on to something ; )
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Best Buy designs evangelism into new stores: (excerpted from Church of the Customer) Last year, Best Buy began smartly firing 20% of its least profitable customers. Now it's innovating in a new way: Launching three concept stores: Studio D,... [Read More]
I saw Ruby Anik, Vice President of Advertising for Best Buy, speak at last week's Digital Marketing Expo in NYC. I really got the sense that Best Buy was thinking far beyond traditional media outlets to engage their customers. Case in point: The Slothmore Institute. But they also have to deal with the other end of the spectrum: BestBuySux.org
Exactly, Seth.
I loathe Best Buy and no matter what they do, I shall never set foot in their retail hell hole again. Why? Restocking fees, that's why.
If any of you do purchase something from Worst Buy, better read the fine print oh so carefully (something I failed to do). They have four categories of products that require a 15% restocking fee, upon return. That's about as far from customer-centric behavior as a company can get.
