Exactly what is it that gives a brand, a product or experience so much appeal that I can’t resist the urge to indulge? How can something not even remotely on my radar find its way into my heart and charm the dollars out of my wallet? Obviously, fulfilling a need is a basic driver to purchase, but I’m also convinced the drivers to many purchases are fueled by what I see as the three Laws of Attraction: appeal, attach and attain.

My first theoretical Law is that of appeal. If your brand wants to be noticed, it has to generate appeal. For me, appeal starts with the visual, something eye catching, which may be created through the use of an interesting color, a fun shape, or something aesthetically new and different. Disruption can play a role in appeal, something so startling, unique and outside your expectations that it pops off the curb, the screen, or the shelf. If your brand blends in, especially in a crowded segment, it is by definite devoid of appeal. In the consumer packaged goods world, Tide laundry detergent’s genius is the orange color, disruptive and unique in a sea of sameness. I have always admired retailers who leverage a color that other brands rejected. The pink and orange sign on a Dunkin’ Donuts is hard to miss. But that’s just the first law. Once you’ve attracted attention through a strong appeal, your brand needs to attach.

Attach, the second Law of Attraction, is about establishing a kinship, striking an emotional chord, or capturing the imagination. Once I walk in the front door or pick your appealing product from the shelf, that’s the cue for your product to attach itself to me. J. Crew’s Liquor Store in Tribeca had me at hello. The second I saw it from the curb, I was hooked. Such an innovative, offbeat approach! I had to go inside. Attachment manifests itself with the impression that, “Hey, this brand really gets me,” or “Wow, I want to be a part of this.” A storefront that easily communicates its proposition in a new and exciting way elicits these feelings from me, while a product with attributes that incorporate my individual sense of style can create attachment. Attachment can be a powerful force. It’s what puts a brand into a consumer’s consideration set, often times at the top.

There’s a LOT of talk under our roof here at Interbrand about the digital aspects of retail branding. Many brands are busy developing or executing digital strategies, some a little further along than others. If you don’t have a strategy for how digital serves your brand, you need to start. Because it isn’t a fad and it isn’t going to go away anytime soon. A recent experience illuminated a key differentiator in experience between the digital and the tangible: the mess.

A recent trip to a common mall brand illustrates why many of your customers would rather go online than come into the store. My shopping trip yielded a table of jeans that looked like someone had slept in the middle of them. Sizes everywhere. This wash here, that wash there. Little if any organization around style and fit, the two things I need to select a purchase. Not simple. Definitely not clean. A complete and absolute mess. The product, not necessarily inexpensive, certainly wasn’t being treated well and in a manner which would actually help me buy it. If anything, it was a huge turnoff and the haphazard display made it frustrating to shop. (You don’t want your store looking like my kid’s bedroom. It isn’t pretty.) It may not have been the company’s intent to drive people out of the store to their website, but that was the outcome.

When I log onto a retail site, the cheerful models peer back at me and give me a bit of the vibe of what to expect from the brand. If I need a size, no problem, I click to see if they have what I need in stock. A simple, clean, no-mess experience. Product looks great on or off a model. No stock, no problem, I know quickly and can move on. This isn’t to say that the digital realm is mess-proof. Certainly, all web experiences are not created equal and some end up being hard to use.

Even while a company may be lax tidying up after the chaos we shoppers leave in our wake, the tangible world still has its advantages. Try as they might, online experience can’t let me feel something.

During a recent business trip to London I had two very memorable dining experiences that shared an uncommon element—experiencing the kitchen before experiencing the restaurant!

The first restaurant, Belgo, was a mussels place that sat in the basement of an old stone building. You enter from street level into a small dimly lit room where you are greeted by a hostess who leads you down a long dark stairwell that take you straight to an expansive view of the kitchen. You see many chefs busily preparing mussel creations and get the sense that this is a place that takes food seriously and wants you to know it! The end feeling is that you are like a rock star who has some exclusive back door access from the proprietor that the rest of the world isn’t privileged enough to experience. The décor was authentic and utilitarian, the food was outstanding and the wait staff was knowledgeable and friendly, but that entry experience was the pièce de résistance!

Zizzi, the second restaurant, had a similar experience, except that you entered onto a mezzanine that allowed you to look down over the entire kitchen and restaurant. From above you could feel the bustling energy of the busy kitchen with its bright colors of food and flashes of fire that really opens your eyes wide and has you leaning over the railing to see more. The mezzanine was such that you had to walk twenty feet out over the restaurant then switch back to get to the metal curving staircase that leads you right to the hostess podium. Again, a total rock star feeling as the hostess is looking at you the whole time you are descending the stairs as though you are the only guest of the evening!

There has been a tidal wave of automotive advertising flooding the airwaves the past few months with claims and promises of improved product quality, safety, style, gas mileage. Media spending is way up, with every manufacturer trying to entice customers back into the showrooms.

But to what end?
Consumers hate car shopping and they don’t want to go back into the dealership. Big surprise—the shopping experience there is still one of the most frustrating, untrustworthy, and manipulative games you can be subjected to.

Add to that the fact that the recession has also caused most dealers to suspend investment in their facilities, and you understand why the thought of venturing into a dealership is bleak. Promising better on TV only to deliver the same old retail experience only fuels consumer frustration and mistrust.

Instead, consumers do everything they can to stay out of the dealership, with online research and shopping being the preferred norm. Now even purchasing online has gained popularity.

Successful brands like Apple, Whole Foods, IKEA, even Walmart, understand how to leverage the power of shopper insights to deliver game changing customer experiences that build brand excitement, loyalty and bottom line results.

Auto companies must do more to improve the customer experience in showrooms! And there couldn’t be a better time. With the recent upheaval in the industry, the marketplace is ripe for someone with the courage to innovate and completely reinvent the paradigm. Success will come to those who differentiate.

The upcoming flood of hybrid and electric car provides an excellent opportunity for change.

Once. Twice. Yes, starting very soon, Apple will have done it for a third time: changed the way we buy and listen to music. Apple acquired digital music startup Lala in December and shut the site down in May, leading tech pundits to speculate on the coming of “an iTunes in the cloud,” once the streaming music service is incorporated into Apple’s business model.

Although Apple won’t comment on its plans, as a loyal Lala.com user and Apple fan, I’m fully expecting to enjoy a cloud-based iTunes experience in the near future, and I think it’s great that Apple continues to advance their retail strategy and break paradigms of the industry by sourcing great ideas, making them profitable and bringing them to a larger audience.

For years, the majority of cash at quick service restaurants has gone “through the window.” The growing car culture has dictated a focus on drive-thru efficiency to the point where the dining room has become an afterthought to operators and subsequently a barrier to customers.

The cost of updating and maintaining a dining room has seemed cost prohibitive to many QSR chains and their franchisees, especially in light of the high drive-thru ratio. But by not offering a unique, pleasant dining experience, they have let the brand image wither on the vine. And it’s now coming back to haunt them. I contend that the high drive-thru ratio is in large part due to customers avoiding the “ick” factor of enduring outdated, smelly, deteriorating environments with no sense of place or brand personality. The dining room is the brand.

So with much fanfare, and at least as much controversy, Apple’s iPad has been released to the masses. Okay, I admit it, I ran out and bought one the day the 3G model was available and I also admit that I’m a bit smitten with it. I have no doubt that it will change my behavior in much the same way my iPhone did. But as much as the general public was anticipating the launch, I wonder if retail wasn’t equally as excited about it as part of the digital retail experience of the future.

From what I’ve seen so far, I can use it as a creative tool (no more losing my pen cap thanks to the sketch app). And I’ll be more efficient with my time away from home. I can imagine that, put to the right use, a device like this has the ability to bring a different set of efficiencies to retail.

Maybe the iPad and the inevitable wave of competitors will have the ability to transform my experience at checkout. Maybe checking in at a hotel will be easier.

To be most effective, a sustainability initiative must be approached holistically. Sustainability and brand thinking are alike in that they radiate outward from the heart of the business. Just as brand is part of everyone’s job, sustainability can be too. Both brand and sustainability strategies are ideally intertwined, well thought out and well executed from vision to prototype. Typically, companies with this kind of forethought get high marks for differentiation and credibility, such as Whole Foods Market and Starbucks. There’s a direct benefit to the value of the brand.

Whether a company has a long history of social responsibility or a newly awakened desire to conserve resources, there are trusted ways to make decisions based on return on investment. If a large fleet of stores is in need of image refreshing, that’s an opportunity to look at controlling energy costs and sustainable building strategies. Even stores primarily in tenant spaces can look at a healthier environment and LEED certification.