Influx

Every brand manager knows that the experience while shopping for a brand can define brand image as much as the advertising or even the product itself. Designers and decorators are now commissioned to create retail environments from the bottom up, trying to shape shopper experiences in ways that will benefit the brand, from color-choices and music, down to lighting nuances. From a macro perspective, the departure from the classic, utilitarian retail layout occurred relatively recently and the current thinking about how best to build a shopper experience is still quite young.

Once again, we can look into the asian crystal ball and learn from Japan, where retail environments of the coolest brands are gravitating further and further away from their traditional roles as ends of the distribution chain. Instead, the hippest shops are becoming brand showcases that are essentially art installations into which customers can enter and interact with parts of the art.
NY Times article called ‘The Economy of Cool,’ discussing Japan’s new store designers