Chasing the Monster Idea: The Marketer's Almanac for Predicting Idea Epicness

Chapter 2. Does it create an experience?

It was May 19, 2001. An otherwise normal day in history, save for the genesis of the reinvention of retail but otherwise nothing of any historical significance occurred on that day. What's that? You're curious about the "reinvention of retail" thing? Oh, you already know about it. You've no doubt experienced it at least once in your life and I'm betting unlike other retail experiences, you can probably recall the particulars of the visit. It's not often a store becomes an attraction, but such is the case when you reinvent the retail environment and all. Still don't know where I'm going with this? Let me ask you a simple question, and I want you to audibly answer, as if I'm in the room with you. Don't worry that you'll probably garner puzzled looks and clandestine phone calls to anonymous authorities for talking to a book. The cover did that for you hours ago. Let me ask you this simple question and I want you to answer it aloud:

Which Apple Store have you been to?

Which Apple Store have you been to?

I bet you can answer with a particular store in mind. I bet you can visualize what that store looked like, how you felt inside it, what was unique about it's architecture and design. I bet you can describe with some degree of detail what makes it different than other retail stores. Remember, at its core, this is a tech store, it sells computers and MP3 players and software just like any other gadget store. But it's the only tech store you can think ...