December 3, 2013 Storytailing à la Under Armour in Shanghai – 80% story and 20% store Retail Share this post: During my visit to Shanghai, I visited the brand new Jing An Kerry shopping mall, situated in prime real estate downtown. On the 4th floor, Under Armour has opened an innovative shop, truly not like others. Storytailing: a true execution where the shop is 80% story and 20% store. Under Armour story If you don’t know Under Armour, it’s a near $2B sporting apparel company, founded in 1996 by a 23-year-old athlete, Kevin Plank, and based in Baltimore Maryland. Having observed Under Armour in several countries, it’s a brand that seems to know how to break codes. Herewith the storytailing concept, a mixture of brand storytelling and retailing, launched in Shanghai. Below, I wanted to highlight their Shibuya Tokyo store. Retail Story Storytailing storefront While not located in the highest footfall area of the mall, the “storefont” looks more like Under Construction. Approximately 15 metres wide, the front is all intrigue. Gated by two athletic men bearing iPads, I was admitted at the expense of an email address. Inside, I was told there was a 7-minute show. When they were ready, the doors were open and I was awash in a flood of white light. Into the pearly gates… Once inside, we were ushered into a large room that was thin in depth, but rather wide. We stood behind a bar and then the room turned into a widescreen movie, playing all around us with surround sound. The 7-minute movie was all action. I will… (not just “I can”) Store-tailing Once the film was finished, we were escorted through a diminutive selling space where you could pick up a brochure and/or buy one of some 20 references that were stored on the scant shelves. The Under Armour team has dared to be different. Where they could have been much stronger is in the integration of a great social component; what I call social retailing. First, they did not allow me to take pictures or film. The Kerry mall does have wifi, but clearly, they were briefed not to allow social sharing. Secondly, in the retail store there was no incitation to share. No QR code. No reminder of WeChat or Sina Weibo… Moreover, on the ‘reminder’ poster (see right) located on the 3rd floor of the mall (encouraging people to go visit the UA experience), no URL, social buttons or QR code to facilitate the link. Follow up … key to the ROI? I did receive an email of confirmation from UA (left) the afternoon of my visit. However, nothing since. Notwithstanding my lack of Chinese, I did find a link in their email to their Sina Weibo page. In terms of justifying the investment (the famous ROI), one has to imagine that there were some reasonable metrics put in place, including how many visitors mentioned, micro-blogged, blogged, etc. Also, I will be keen to see if they pursue any emailing with me to see how they work their CRM. So far, nothing more (it’s been three weeks). Overall: A great case of storytailing, but a disappointment in terms of social retail. Post Scriptum: Under Armour in Shibuya I also visited the Under Armour store in Shibuya, Tokyo. Their storefront is a standout in a crowded space. I’ll reserve a recounting of the inside for another post! Under Armour in Shibuya, Tokyo NEWSletter Subscribe to Minter’s Bi-Weekly NEWSletter and receive a free copy of the exclusive and updated 8 Golden Rules of an eReputation Your Gift For Signing Up 8 Golden Rules of an eReputation SUBSCRIBE! You have Successfully Subscribed! apparel, clothing, retail, Shanghai, Social retail, sports, Stortelling, story, Storytailing, Tokyo, Under Armour Minter Dial Minter Dial is an international professional speaker, author & consultant on Leadership, Branding and Digital Strategy. After a successful international career at L’Oréal, Minter Dial returned to his entrepreneurial roots and has spent the last ten years helping senior management teams and Boards to adapt to the new exigencies of the digitally enhanced marketplace. He has worked with world-class organisations to help activate their brand strategies, and figure out how best to integrate new technologies, digital tools, devices and platforms. Above all, Minter works to catalyse a change in mindset and dial up transformation. Minter received his BA in Trilingual Literature from Yale University (1987) and gained his MBA at INSEAD, Fontainebleau (1993). His newest book Heartificial Empathy, Putting Heart into Business and Artificial Intelligence, bowed in December 2018 and won the Book Excellence Award 2019 as well as being shortlisted for the Business Book Awards 2019. It's available in Audiobook, Kindle and Paperback. He is also co-author of Futureproof (Pearson, Sep 2017) and sole author of The Last Ring Home (Myndset Press, Nov 2016), a book and documentary film, both of which have won awards and critical acclaim. Minter has a new book on leadership, You Lead, How being yourself makes you a better leader, published by Kogan Page, that released January 2021. It's easy to inquire about booking Minter Dial here. View all posts by Minter Dial Previous post Next post
Under Armour - armour-plated digitail experience in Shibuya, TokyoBranding and digital marketing strategy | The Myndset by Minter Dial February 17, 2014 at 3:53 pm […] $2B in sales this year, likes to do things differently. Recently, I chronicled the very original Under Armour storytailing concept in Shanghai, where it’s more story than store. I wasn’t able to find out how many stores Under […]
Under Armour - armour-plated digitail experience in Shibuya, TokyoBranding and digital marketing strategy | The Myndset by Minter Dial February 17, 2014 at 3:53 pm […] $2B in sales this year, likes to do things differently. Recently, I chronicled the very original Under Armour storytailing concept in Shanghai, where it’s more story than store. I wasn’t able to find out how many stores Under […]
La experiencia del cliente: la tendencia clave de este 2014 | Territorio creativo April 2, 2014 at 11:38 am […] ejemplo, en las tiendas (retail) ha nacido un nuevo concepto: 20% store 80% story: el llamado “storytailing”. Se trata de tiendas donde prima la experiencia del usuario, vender pero contando una historia, […]
La experiencia del cliente: la tendencia clave de este 2014 | Territorio creativo April 2, 2014 at 11:38 am […] ejemplo, en las tiendas (retail) ha nacido un nuevo concepto: 20% store 80% story: el llamado “storytailing”. Se trata de tiendas donde prima la experiencia del usuario, vender pero contando una historia, […]
La experiencia del cliente: la tendencia clave de este 2014 | Territorio creativo April 2, 2014 at 11:38 am […] ejemplo, en las tiendas (retail) ha nacido un nuevo concepto: 20% store 80% story: el llamado “storytailing”. Se trata de tiendas donde prima la experiencia del usuario, vender pero contando una historia, […]
La experiencia del cliente: la tendencia clave de este 2014 | Hablemos de Marketing April 4, 2014 at 5:04 pm […] ejemplo, en las tiendas (retail) ha nacido un nuevo concepto: 20% store 80% story: el llamado “storytailing”. Se trata de tiendas donde prima la experiencia del usuario, vender pero contando una historia, […]
La experiencia del cliente: la tendencia clave de este 2014 | Hablemos de Marketing April 4, 2014 at 5:04 pm […] ejemplo, en las tiendas (retail) ha nacido un nuevo concepto: 20% store 80% story: el llamado “storytailing”. Se trata de tiendas donde prima la experiencia del usuario, vender pero contando una historia, […]
Concept stores: what do they mean for customer experience? | Content Generator August 6, 2014 at 10:26 am […] to the East, Minter Dial here reports on Under Armour’s attempts at storytailing, asking each store visitor for an email address before granting entry to a room […]
Concept stores: what do they mean for customer experience? | Content Generator August 6, 2014 at 10:26 am […] to the East, Minter Dial here reports on Under Armour’s attempts at storytailing, asking each store visitor for an email address before granting entry to a room […]
media technology May 19, 2016 at 8:41 pm Fickleness and discomfort around the use of technology for basic operational issues is gone. Individual manufacturers have also jumped into the fray. There are quite a number of places on can visit to find good information about subliminal technology and its affects on developing well trained minds.
So aspirational! The billionaire founder of Under Armour was once so broke he couldn’t pay a $2 toll — here’s the story what the experience taught him about In-store activates the space with DIGITAL SIGNAGE and disrupt the industry. – December 10, 2016 at 8:29 am […] $2B in sales this year, likes to do things differently. Recently, I chronicled the very original Under Armour storytailing concept in Shanghai, where it’s more story than store. I wasn’t able to find out how many stores Under Armour (UA) […]
Founder of Under Armour was once so broke he couldn’t pay a $2 toll — here’s the story what the experience taught him about In-store activates the space with DIGITAL SIGNAGE and disrupt the industry. – C.T.Technology (PG) Sdn Bhd CT.CO December 10, 2016 at 4:47 pm […] $2B in sales this year, likes to do things differently. Recently, I chronicled the very original Under Armour storytailing concept in Shanghai, where it’s more story than store. I wasn’t able to find out how many stores Under Armour (UA) […]