Flagship store

Flagship store The flagship store is a store that put forward a brand and celebrate it. In naval terms, the flagship is the “lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the first, largest, fastest, most heavily armed, or best know". A generic definition of flagship stores was provided by Kozinets, according to which the flagship store is a type of store “used by marketers to build relationships with consumers”. The authors also identified three characteristics as follows:

1. The flagship stores carry only a single brand of product;
2. they are company owned;
3. they operate with the intention of building brand image rather than solely to generate profit for the company.

The last characteristic is the main difference between a brand store and a flagship store. The flagship store facilitates “the buying of experiences” , through the use of very particular details and innovative technologies such as interactive display.

History

According to Sassatelli we can find premises of shopping as entertainment around 18th century, where “consumers (...) learned to gain pleasure from the spectacularization of commodities” Departments store of 19th century presented themselves as place to visit. Carusone and Moscove identified the basic concept of flagship store in the 1970s, while the flagship store format as we know it today emerged in the 1990s. At the end of 1990s, the consultant Wolf coined the term «shopertainment» to state that as entertainment has seeped into every aspect of the economy, shopping has become blended into entertainment, becoming what he terms “shoppertainment.”

Form

Architecture: “Flagship stores differed in their design and physicality; they must have the best locations and the most prestigious address (Bond Street and Sloane Street in London and Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue in New York). That is the reason of engagement of leading architects to design flagship stores. The involvement of these celebrated architects will bring to further distinction to the international flagships. Flagship stores are identified as being distinguishable from the rest of the retail network due to their scale, design, location and set- up operating costs. Their decadent size provides a positive signal with regard to the identity and prestige of the luxury brand. Their design by world renowned architects and their physicality often in historical buildings adds to their exclusivity”

• 

  Boontheshop by Peter Marino Cheongdam-dong Seoul Korea

Buildings: Once placed in its flagship setting, a brand draws meaning from architectural form. Contributing to the brand’s essence at least as much through connotation as it does explicitly. (Kozinet, 2002) We can find flagship stores in renowned streets like Sloane Street in London and Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue in New York or Montenapoleone in Milan.

• 

  Louis Vuitton in Las Vegas Nevada US by Fernando Otero

• 

  Louis Vuitton Champs-Elysées Paris France by the architecture office Carbondale

Location: Flagship stores are core stores for brand name retailers, larger than their standard outlets, often found in prominent shopping districts such as Tokyo 's Ginza.” The carefully chosen location allows the brand to promote itself and celebrate the best products; highly frequented or tourist areas are preferable.

Flagship store and luxury: According to Sombart, it is mainly from the 18th century onwards that a hedonistic attitude to shopping developed. Thus, it was those shops selling luxury goods which were the first to arrange themselves as places of elegant entertainment;

Flagship Store is an innovative way to present luxury products in contexts totally focused on them. Luxury fashion retailers are employing flagship stores as a market entry method. Luxury flagship stores represent a strategic approach to market entry that is employed to support, enhance and develop distribution activities within a foreign market.

• 

  Maison Hermes Tokyo by Renzo Piano

• 

  Starbucks at the Forbidden City (Beijing, China)

Tourist attraction: The introduction of digital technologies in the retail environment has led to a higher level of interaction with clients by making the store even more comfortable for consumers and providing services in an original way (Pantano and Naccarato, 2010) We can find a lot of blogs and articles that speak about most trending flagship stores around; Travelbooks include iconic stores as touristic landmarks to visit at least once in the city, for exemple in Milan and New York City. https://info.thoughtworks.com/nyctop10 (New York City).
http://www.globalblue.com/destinations/italy/milan/best-flagship-stores-in-milan (Milan)


Function

Flagship stores carry different functions as they represents more than just a random retailing store. They have four different functions (ref mooore) as they act as :

• “a market entry method;”,
• “a conduit to market relationships;”,
• “the focus of marketing communications;”,and
• “a blueprint for store development.”
  

Flagship stores are especially relevant as marketing and communication tools. Indeed they are often the object of media coverage during their opening, when they are used as event venue or even for PR.

Flagship stores are also very pertinent for brands to present their “brand identity and brand values”.

They are “branding tools” helping brands develop as well as “showcase” their identity which can help them with their positioning within the market. Luxury fashion brands open this kind of store all over the world to build up as well as keep in check their image. The objective is to promote it through a nice and powerful in-store experience designed by the brand.

This is partly because they are developed to let customers enjoy the brand using all their senses. The consumer himself is in fact, going to the flagship store for first and foremost this sensual experience in an environment that was designed and is controlled by this very brand. In the end this acts as a way to create a brand-customer relationship as consumers are emotionally engaged and create memories of these experiences in this branded environnement.

Examples

Famous stores

• 

  Dior Omotesandō Tokyo created by SANAA

• 

  Louis Vuitton Rodeo Drive LA by peter Marino

• 

  Chanel Rodéo drive LA by peter Marino

• 

  Louis Vuitton Singapore by Moshe Safdie

See Also

• Sensory Branding
• Prada Transformer
• Peter Marino
• Flagship

References

This article "Flagship store" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Flagship store. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

---