Niketown as an Experience - Essay Example

As part of this swing toward making everything an aspect of the brand, companies were beginning to recognize the power of the building to promote the brand itself. One of the companies to key into this idea early was The Body Shop, which expanded by as many as 50 stores per year beginning in 1988, even during the years of the recession. “Most baffling of all to Wall Street, it pulled off the expansion without spending a dime on advertising. Who needed billboards and magazine ads when retail outlets were three-dimensional advertisements for an ethical and ecological approach to cosmetics?

The Body Shop was all brand.”2 Another company to quickly realize the potential of focusing completely on developing the idea of brand was Nike. Despite the potential for long-term payoffs, there has often been difficulty in getting business executives typically focused on the current ‘bottom line’ to understand the significant assets architecture and design can be in developing the corporate brand, which, in turn, works to establish the company’s ultimate success. “While statistical analysis and econometric techniques have been used to evaluate the trade-offs between alternatives, features and prices for products, there has not been a tool to inform the design process of architecture, environmental graphic design and the built environment.

However, the ‘fixed assets’ of built environments, especially those of retail and consumer service sectors, are integrally linked to brand identity and equity.”3 The executives at Nike, though, did their homework and revolutionized the architecture/design/brand connection to such an extent that it becomes difficult to draw the line between retail outlet, entertainment venue and museum.