Younger shoppers want memorable experiences, not just transactions. Starbucks' personalized cups, Build-A-Bear's customization, and the Unfinished Legacy store's in-house screen-printing studio show how brands create shareable moments that build loyalty and stand out from competitors.
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So let's hop into it, man. The experience economy. I think that this is a smart tactic.
Tactic? Tactic?
Yeah, tactic for businesses to attract, I think more so the younger generation.
You know what I mean?
The older generation doesn't really give a crap about like their experience. You know what I mean? They, like, my dad doesn't care about his experience when he goes to a store, right?
Right.
When he, when he goes in there, he's there for one specific thing, right? That's that. But, you know, for a lot of younger, the younger generation, and, you know, I could say maybe even people in my, you know, my age group, the 40, mid-40s.
Yeah, but it goes down to everything. Like, you go to Costco, you go to Publix, you might go to like, or you go to Whole Foods. When you go into those stores, especially on certain days of the week, they're passing out— well, Sample Saturday samples, they're passing out samples. So that's what I'm saying, that's part of an experience, you know, even though that's on a low, you know, on the lower end of that.
Well, right, you know, I get that, but I mean, I think what we're talking about is more, more, uh, extravagant.
A little bit.
It's more like orchestrated. It's a, it's a skeptical type of thing. It's a, it's something for people to go see rather than they even want. They just want the experience of saying they went to see that or they were involved with it or, you know, whatever.
Well, it's like we talked about in the other podcast about marketing techniques that businesses use, and we talked about Starbucks and how they make, right? Give you an experience when you go into Starbucks and you write your name on the cup, write your name on the cup, and they try to give it a neighborhood feel inside with the furniture. So, you know, what are businesses— you know, our business is selling an experience when they come in, plus products and services. So, you know, like if you go into a clothing store, right, what's the experience like in the clothing store? Like a Ross, it's like, oh, I'm here to get a deal.
But maybe if you go into a nicer store, like if you mean if you go into like a Louis Vuitton or Gucci store, there's going to be someone who greets you. If you spend a certain amount of money, they're going to bring out champagne.
Maybe, I guess.
No, that's what happens, right?
So they're— and the same thing. Or do they have nice seating?
Of course, when you're going to sit down and couches in the store, just make it a perfect time to plug my homies Unfinished Legacy. Check them out. It's a bunch of young guys, you know, they started their own clothing line and they opened their first flagship store and it's exactly what you're saying. It's a super experience. The ambiance, they got, you know, cool jazz playing when you walk in. It smells really nice. So the cool part of their store is that everything they do is screen printed in-house. So like it's So every garment is different, right? Like it's basically you buy a one-on-one every time you buy a shirt, even if it's the same shirt, it's not the same. Every shirt is different.
Right. That's cool.
It's the same design, but every shirt will just be different. You know, like there'll be a small inconsistency in the color or something, you know what I mean? But they also have like the whole screen printing shop set up inside of the—
Oh, that's cool.
Inside of the flagship store, you know, so that— so not only do you get to purchase the clothing, but you could also experience them making the clothes.
Yeah.
And they have days where people could come in and actually screen print on their shirt, like design their own shirt with the Unfinished Legacy logos and branding and whatnot.
That's cool.
That's a great example of the experience economy.
Even for kids, like they go— I remember when my kids were little, We said, you know, Build-A-Bear. They went to go to the store, made their own bear, you know, or whatever it was.
Exactly. I used to love taking my kids to Build-A-Bear, man. I am not kidding. Like, because you could, you know, you could put your voice in the little heart. Yeah. Whatever thing. Yeah. And that was a really— that's a really cool experience. You know, I hope a lot of— I hope every child gets to experience.
We talked all about like bowling, right? When I was a kid, you'd go to the bowling alley, you'd have some bowling, maybe some pinball, get some—
smoke some cigs that you were not old enough to smoke because you're inhaling all the secondhand smoke.
Some really bad pizza. Oh, horrible pizza. A pitcher of soda. No, I'm just saying. Now you go to a bowling alley, it's got laser light shows.
It's glowing in the dark.
Glow in the dark. They got a bar in there.
Disco lights. Music, you know, it's full arcade, right?
But I'm saying it's like a full-blown experience.
Like, you just— yeah, I mean, I don't even know, is there a place where you could just go bowl still? Like, just bowling?
No, lots of—
like, that stuff's gone, right?
Yeah, I drove past like one of the like old-time bowling alleys. Now it's called Bolero.
Yeah, that's the one.
Like, everything is cool.
It's all state-of-the-art.
Yeah, and I think people want to do things like that. Like, you brought up like indoor miniature golf with glow-in-the-dark balls.
And that was actually kind of fun. Like, I didn't think— I was like, all right, we're gonna pay this extra money to do this because it's inside, right? And then I was like, oh wow, well, it is a lot cooler temperature-wise. And then, you know, if it was a less busier day, I could see how it would have been— I would have enjoyed it more. But I don't like being rushed.
Right.
As my grandma would always say, I'm not Russian, so don't rush me. Um, I don't know where she got that from, but that stuck with me. I don't like being rushed into anything. And so like when there was a lot of people, we were kind of being pushed to go to the next hole. But the experience was still, all in all, I was like, all right, I could see how people would want to continue to do this.
I mean, I remember when I was a kid and we would fly somewhere, my parents would dress. We would get all dressed up, you know, wear a jacket on the plane. Yeah, we would get dressed up to go on the airplane like it was an experience to get on the plane. I mean, I'm, I'm old enough to remember like them serving like a full-blown meal while you're on the plane.
I don't, I don't remember.
Yeah, they would come around and say, oh, what do you want? I was like, now it's like first class gets that, but So, you know, now, now planes, they throw a bag of cookies at you and if that. Yeah, if you're lucky.
Southwest gave me some trail mix, Chex Mix type of party mix. That's what they call it, right?
Yeah.
Party mix with the crackers and pretzels.
It wasn't bad. No, but I'm just saying, like, people, things change.
But my wife forgot to ask. I was asleep and she forgot to ask for my soda.
But, you know, the, you know, so the shift started with all these experiences. And like the 1990s, you know, where businesses started to focus more on experience, creating a— like the same thing, like I took my daughter, was down there visiting, and we went to this.
Started in the '90s, bro?
How?
When?
Wait, very few businesses.
What kind? Laser tag?
Yeah, like laser tag, things like that, you know, started, you know, that was in the '90s, huh?
Yeah, but you know, laser tag. But I'm trying to think about what other kind of experiences started back then. What are you talking about? Explain.
Like laser tag, things were— things like Disney, going to Disney. Oh, it's an experience trip. How long has Disney been around? Since I'm a kid, like the '70s, right? I remember when I was in high school, it was a big deal. Disneyland, just Disney World in Orlando opened. I remember we went on a bus and we went up to Disney World. Went to, you know, back then it was crazy. You had these coupons, you coupons to get on the rides.
