Stagecraft Creating an effective trade- booth experience has a lot in common with theater, said retail strategist Laura Davis-Taylor.

Davis-Taylor, who noted that designing customer experiences has a lot in common with live theater production. “You have the lights, color, the conversations, the smells.”

‘IS THIS EXPERIENCE FOR ME?’ Creating environments that use the senses to trigger

emotion is basic to successful trade-show design, agrees Paolo Zeppa, senior vice president and general manager of Immersa Marketing, A Freeman Company, because emotion is “the first entry point. It’s where an individual decides: Is this experience for me, or not for me?” Few mediums have the same potential to move people as

face-to-face events and experiences — but when it comes to leveraging that potential, there are areas where trade shows lag behind retail. And by ignoring key ways in which retailers are creating new customer experiences, Zeppa said, trade- show organizers may unwittingly engender negative emo- tions such as frustration and disappointment. One example is retailing’s embrace of customization,

which uses online and mobile digital tools to guide shoppers toward exactly the product they want, based on what they share with retailers about their preferences. Successful retail- ers, Zeppa said, take the position that “there are a million consumer brands — let me show you what is right for you.” And retailers aren’t only customizing shopping experi-

ences, they’re giving consumers ways to create their own custom products. Coca-Cola, for example, has introduced a vending machine that lets buyers create their own flavors.

“It is not just about Coke and Coke Zero,” Newman said. “You create whatever flavor you want.” Likewise, consum- ers are now able to add their own designs on their running shoes, or have their names stitched on the backsides of their jeans. Newman said: “It’s all about being able to per- sonalize a product.”

› PCMA.ORG JULY 2012 PCMA CONVENE 41 Melinda Kendall