Is Christmas time in New York City and streets are packed of people doing their Christmas shopping. After having a hot dog & a coke in front of the Rockefeller Centre tree, Anna and I ventured into the new American Girl store which recently opened its doors to the public.
Initially, Anna was so excited about visiting the shop whilst I was more sceptic with the idea of spending our time there. However, as soon as I got into this brand new shop with two floors full of dolls, my inner child came out and I couldn’t hold myself just to enjoy the experience. The shop was spacious, the iconic star of the brand was placed everywhere and the pink and white interior walls created an involving and vibrating ambience.
In the American Girl store, children can buy existing doll or personalise their own. Each of the existing dolls have a dedicated section to explain the doll’s personality, big ideas, dreams, challenges and how her awesome attitude helped her to sort out difficult situations and build friendships throughout her journey - just like a real girl will do. You can also buy the book which tells the story of each doll in detail. The depth of personality of each doll shows American Girl’s understanding of the people it serves, their believes, problems, values & aspirations.
Next to each doll display girls can find a range of clothes and accessories to buy for her and her doll. For example, if Maddie - 10 years old girl from New Jersey - desires to be a rockstar, so she will not only be able to dress up her doll as a rockstar but she can also acquire the same outfit as her doll. All this mentioned above, shows how American Girl is making a great job inspiring girls to build confidence and inspire them to make a difference and be whoever they want to be in life. This is a powerful insight that connects all girls from all times.
In the ground floor, children have access to tablets where they can create from scratch their own doll for $200. Girls can define the dolls’ name, look, hobbies, favourite places and even decide if the doll requires hearing aids! how cool is that?
After spending sometime with Gabriella, Anna, Samantha and many other dolls, we decided to go to the store’s cafe for a cupcake. To my surprise, the cafe was full of children having food next to their dolls. The toys were sitting in specially designed chairs for them and in many cases the girls outfit was matching the one of their dolls!
Completely amazed by this experience, we moved to the American Girl beauty salon. In this section, hairdressers were making beautiful hair style to girls, dolls and even sometimes moms! providing people meaningful experiences as this helps the brand to stand out against other players.
If we look back at my previous post on Barbie’s (http://itsasmallworld2012.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/barbie-breaking-family-stereotypes_9.html) and we draw some comparisons between the way Barbie or American Girl are helping girls to build up girls’ confidence and desire to be whoever they want to be. I must say, American Girl is doing a better job in this, as American Girl is creating ‘real girls’ instead of dolls with fully built up personalities and challenges as real girl do; whilst Barbie dolls are a bit more of a face value product where character stories are flatter what doesn’t allow Barbies’ to further connect emotionally and empathise with children.
Furthermore, American Girl has understood the value of bringing the brand to life with its stores. Creating real life experiences allow girls to construct stronger emotional bonds with their dolls and enjoy unforgettable moment with family as well. Moreover, the in-store services gives another reason more for families to visit the store more frequently. In this aspect, I also consider Barbie has some margin of improvement. Creating powerful in-store experiences could help Barbie to bring to life its dolls and keep families yearning to come back to the store and engage with the brand.
As a marketer, I feel grateful of visiting the store as it taught me the importance of brands finding and sticking to what I call a ‘diamond’ insight (i.e. a deep human truth that will last forever) and bring this insight to life in such a deep and empathic way people won’t be able to forget!
I definitely encourage you to explore this magical place!
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