I've been thinking a lot about the term "retail theatre" lately. I've noticed that it continues to appear now and then in the blogs I frequent, and I've become increasingly bemused as I've seen a propensity among retailers for the creation of theatrical environments simply for the sake of theatre, without any clear effort (at least as far as I see) to link the "theatre" to the shoppers' needs.

I remember back to days in my distant past (15 years ago now!) when I was the Director of Marketing for a large Canadian specialty retailer. Athletes World sold casual footwear and apparel primarily to urban teens. We went through a phase of making our stores look trashy - hiring graffiti artists to paint the walls, unfinished concrete floors, even wrecked cars in the middle of the sales floor. In the end we clearly achieved the goal of making our stores look trashy, but to what end? The inauthenticity of our "street smart" efforts fooled no one, least of our our savvy target customer. In hindsight, we didn't improve the shopping experience. We just ended up with ... junky stores.

On a recent trip to Las Vegas I was walking through Fashion Show, the chichi shopping centre at the north end of The Strip. This mall takes it's fashion cred seriously. A fully produced fashion show - live models and all - is produced every hour on the hour from noon until 6:00PM on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

This is serious "retail theatre" - but to their credit it completely reinforces their core consumer proposition - the destination for fashion in Las Vegas.

I've posted some pictures here of the infrastructure they have built for these fashion shows - an elaborate stage that rises from the middle of the shopping centre floor, professional grade stage lighting and audio systems, good quality models.

This is retail theatre done right - in a manner that showcases product in a compelling, high involvement way. In a manner that builds on the shopper's experience, rather than just existing for its own sake.

How can your company, retail or not, build theatre in a way that showcases your products or services?

Just before the show begins

The stage begins to emerge from the floor

The control booth

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Graeme Spicer is a Canadian trendspotter, ethnographer and observer of all things retail. He spends his time consulting with leading retailers; presenting at conferences across North America; lecturing at OCAD, Canada's leading design school; and reading too many blogs. Graeme blogs at http://graemespicer.typepad.com.