Are you experiential?

The little girls who arrive at American Girl Place dressed like the dolls they hold in their arms show what's possible when merchants take an experiential approach to retailing, experts say.

In addition to museumlike displays of the upscale dolls and their accessories, American Girl Place stores include a café with special booster seats for the 18-inch dolls. Then there's the on-site theater featuring young actresses as characters from the company's books, and a salon where girls might queue up for more than an hour to get their dolls' hairdos made over.

It's all about providing a rich experience for customers, many of whom travel from out of state to visit the three stores, in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. “For an American Girl fan, coming to American Girl Place is like a pilgrimage of sorts. They plan their trips around it,” says spokesperson Stephanie Spanos. Little wonder that experiential stores are sometimes called destination stores.

Experiential retailing means making connections with consumers who come to interactive stores for more than merchandise. “You have to win the hearts and minds of consumers by doing something that benefits them and showcases your product,” says Erik Hauser, director of the International Experiental Marketing Association in San Francisco. “Then you'll win their business.”

It's a holistic approach that involves both emotional and rational triggers. “People think experiential marketing is just some sort of tactic,” Hauser says. “It's not.” Instead, he continues, it reflects a U.S. economy where consumers generally have what they need but will shop for nonessentials if given a reason.

The interactive approach means higher traffic and longer stays than typical. “Our customers on average spend over two hours per visit at American Girl Place, compared with the industry standard of around 20 minutes,” Spanos says.

The popularity of the three-level, 40,000-sq.-ft. American Girl Place in Chicago, which lures more than 1.2 million visitors a year, reportedly is prompting American Girl — a Middleton, WI-based unit of toy giant Mattel — to look for an expanded location on the city's Magnificent Mile while also drafting plans to open smaller boutiques in smaller markets. American Girl sales hit $436.1 million in 2005, up 15% from the prior year.

By focusing on what the customer wants to get out of the retail experience, experiential marketers strive to engage customers with more than raw product. The goal is to create an interactive experience that no one else can replicate, says Mike Bills, managing partner at Fitch, an international retail design and consulting firm with offices in Columbus, OH, and New York, among other locales.

A growing number of brick-and-mortar merchants are giving experiential marketing a try and realizing gains beyond the obvious ones at the cash register. “The impact on brand equity is enormous,” says Joe Carpenter, director of retail merchandising at Manchester, VT-based Orvis Co., which takes an experiential approach in its flagship store in Manchester as well as more than a dozen of its 32 other stores. “It has a great psychological lift even among our own company. You get to see the product come to life.”

It also boosts relations with vendors, Carpenter says: “It give them tremendous inspiration about their partnership with us and the possibilities.”

Cabela's, the $1.8 billion Sidney, NE-based outdoor-gear merchant, opened its first destination store in Sidney in 1991 to educate and entertain customers as well as to sell merchandise, says spokesperson James Powell.

Today Cabela's has 14 destination stores ranging from 53,000 sq. ft. to 246,000 sq. ft.; together they generated about $624 million in 2005. They're chock-full of wildlife dioramas like those found in museums, aquariums stocked with native fish, gun libraries showcasing antiques and collectibles, laser shooting arcades, archery ranges, and boat showrooms.

A typical Cabela's store draws more than half of its customers from more than 100 miles away, Powell says. The average amount of time spent in the store is three hours.

“We know it's paying off through our significantly increasing revenues and profits over the past decade,” Powell says. “We're seeing increased customer loyalty, increased traffic for both new and repeat customers, and growing brand recognition and acceptance as a result of our efforts.” And all of that is resulting in a growing share of the retail market, he adds.