Hi from Chicago...
Amazing two days...full on but so inspiring. In the past 48 hours we've visited about 20 stores and had several seminars.
Highlights for me have included Wholefoods, American Girl, Bass Outdoors and Fox and Obel - to name a few. Today we heard from companies including Lettuce Entertain You, Groupon, Arc Worldwide and Crate & Barrel.
I'm going to be uploading pictures when I have some more time - needless to say, I've taken hundreds!
Some key themes are really emerging for me include seeing evidence of social & sharing economy (Groupon, Levi's); the rise of mass to mass niche (Wholefoods, Fox & Obel); Fusion concepting (Lettuce Entertain You) as well as omni-channel retailing (Cisco, Crate & Barrel, CB2). Countless examples of what I'm terming 'mobile manifestations' - QR codes are on everything (and I mean, everything!). And they're not the domain of the big brands - the weirdest place I've seen QR codes is on "bathroom media" advertising local businesses in San Francisco. Also noticed them being used on community messages in Wholefoods.
Mobile is definitely a key driver - with accessibility growing and the prediction that 50% of US consumers will have a smartphone by January 2012. On that note, some nice insights from Arc today on the mobile shopper:
Low involvement categories should focus on delivering exponetial value whilst in high involvement categories there is a push toward mobile being used to add value by enhancing the instore experience.
We're leaving tomorrow on our way to Sweden. Will aim to write more when I'm at the airport...
