Last night we went to our favorite Indian restaurant and enjoyed a fabulous meal. My daughter-in-law ordered her usual Chicken Tikka Masala and she made a very interesting comment after she had just a few bites. She said; “the food tastes better when you eat in.” Everyone agreed. However, we all knew that the food we take home from that restaurant is the very same food they serve when we eat in.
When I asked the group why? I received a no-answer. Perhaps we don’t actually trust our taste buds when we are caught up in the emotional experience of eating our favorite foods!
This is not far off from the truth because the answer lies in the experience. The experience is a highly important element of all products we consume. The Indian décor, music, wait staff and of course the great food combined to provide a mini adventure in which our expectations were met and exceeded. All of these environmental factors are controlled by the store. All are tuned to touch the four human emotional spaces as Neil Fiske and Michael Silverstein explain in their book “Trading Up”; questing, taking care of me, personal choices and connecting.
All retail stores from restaurants, department stores, supermarkets, price clubs or even deep discounters know that when you shop at their store, a unique emotional experience is frequently the only thing that sets them apart from Amazon.com.
What is the lesson? Professionally, if you are in retail store management or sales, you realize the importance of the in-store execution of our brand. However, in my opinion, this is the easier lesson. There is another, personal lesson to learn. This very same pattern that works in retail environments may be applied powerfully in our personal interactions at work and at home. You see, all of us are selling something whether it is success to our spouse and children at home or success to our associates at work.
What can we do to increase our effectiveness? Realize that the experiences we create are the real products we sell in all aspects of our life. Entirely? No. However, the emotional experience our family, associates or customers receive from their interactions with us always make the food taste better, the project more enjoyable or family time a richer, more strengthening familial experience.
To take advantage of what we observe in the retail environment, let’s tune each of our personal interactions to guide our family and associates to the four human emotional spaces of; questing (adventure), taking care of me (self improvement), personal choices (expression) and connecting (friendships).
Remember, the product IS the experience.
