Some great information here about the new Hershey's store and the American Girl Place in Chicago. It's amazing to think that American Girl Place does about 1 million guest visits a year! If I'm not mistaken, the Hershey's Store was done by Brian Collin's group at Ogilvy!
Stuff the cupcakes. The Hersheyizer has a show to do.
A girl named Megan from Florida has just arrived -- naturally enough, from American Girl Place. It's her birthday. And at Hershey's new "experience" on Chicago's Magnificent Mile, that means that the singing baker has to pull down his headset mike, cue the loud electronic music, turn on the grin, and sell the sticky lyric like it's pure cocoa butter.
"Hey, Here We Go Now," warbles a young, happy, gainfully employed actor called Pierre Sanders, as he careens through the store surrounded by an open-mouthed lunchtime crowd. "It's Time for a Chocolate Show Now," he sings, his tenor rising.
There's another new entertainment venue on Michigan Avenue -- officially opening Wednesday. And it isn't the Lookingglass Theatre or the new Drury Lane, and it sure ain't the performance space at the Museum of Contemporary Art. It's Hershey's Chocolate World, the new candy-pushing emporium that's not so much a retail store as an interactive theater where the theme is easy to grasp and the sweet point of the show never changes.
Both the Hershey Store, which has been opening on a sporadic, test basis for the last week or two, and American Girl Place are part of a revolution in retail -- as well as dining -- that is eliminating many of the traditional boundaries between selling and entertainment. Corporate America -- most of it, at least -- has got the message. But by and large, the traditional arts establishment -- which still generally requires large commitments of time and money from its customers -- has yet to wake up the new realities of stores with actors.
" 'Cause We Love Our Hershey's Chocolate," sings Sanders (he's one of three gainfully employed Hersheyizers and the company is auditioning for a fourth), "`Cause We Love Our Hershey's Chocolate/Just for You."
And we're not just talking Las Vegas or Orlando anymore. "Michigan Avenue," says marketing guru Joe Pine, "is becoming an experiential hub."
"Cultural institutions used to have cultural experiences to themselves," says Pine. "That's not true anymore. A parent or a grandparent can have the best possible time with their daughter at American Girl, because she's so engaged there. They don't then necessarily feel compelled to go to a museum or a theater." (Emphahsis ours)
Meaningful interactions
The trend toward experiential retailing has been well documented. In their influential 1999 book, "The Experience Economy," Pine and James H. Gilmore argued that companies had to learn to "script and stage compelling experiences" to make money in a marketplace where the public now craves meaningful interactions far more than mere stuff. (Emphahsis ours)
In this manifesto, candy or food (or anything else one might be selling) are merely "props" that allow the proprietor to put on a show.
For a lot of visitors to Chicago, experiential theater is probably the only cultural event they'll pursue.
"I came because I wanted my daughter to experience this place," says Rhonda Bandes, another Hershey visitor from Florida. "If I wanted to buy a candy bar, I'd go to the grocery." (Emphahsis ours)
Chocolate World -- which has another, much-smaller location just off Times Square in New York City -- is not a shrinking violet. The waving Hershey's Kiss hanging around on the sidewalk this week and posing for photographs is just one giveaway. Located in the site of the prosaic old Loyola University Bookstore at 820 N. Michigan Ave, Chocolate World sports a massive theatrical marquee lit with scores of bulbs. It couldn't be any more different from the Lookingglass Theatre (right across Michigan Avenue), which barely advertises its presence to people walking just a few feet from its door.
And the Chocolate World is in the right part of town. Just around the corner, at 111 E. Chicago Ave., is American Girl Place, one of only two such places in the nation that markets its potent brand of history-themed dolls and clothing with the help of a 153-seat theater in the basement.
Themed to the hilt and immensely popular, this poly-cultural emporium now has two different shows (the new one, "Bitty Bear's Matinee" is for younger children), offering at least 25 performances a week. "We're always looking for new ways to tell the story of our brands," says Scott Davidson, American Girl's director of theater.
By the time American Girl's "Circle of Friends" closes at the end of the summer (to be replaced by a reprise version of "American Girl Revue," taking advantage of how fast the child audience regenerates itself), this high-quality show will have played a whopping 2,500 performances. "Wicked" should be so lucky.
Since American Girl Place opened in Chicago in 1998, an astounding eight million people have been through its doors. As the plethora of red bags and up-market dolls on trains and planes reveals, a 10-year-old girl coming specially to Chicago is probably coming for American Girl -- not one of the city's traditional museums or theaters. (Emphahsis ours)
Read the full article: Chicago Tribune news : Business
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