How Luxury Brands Craft Experiential Retail Digital Marketing: The Case of Coach Play Store
- Elven Hsu
- Apr 3
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 5
In the digital era, brands focus on crafting memorable experiences rather than simply selling products to their customers. Younger generations value not only the act of purchasing but also the ability to express their personal style, engage with communities, and immerse themselves in a brand’s story.
How Do Luxury Brands Use Experiential Retail to Expand Consumer Engagement
In recent years, luxury brands have embraced experiential retail, launching immersive spaces such as Tiffany & Co.’s Blue Box Café, Louis Vuitton’s Le Café V, Prada’s pop-up café at Harrods, and Coach’s Coach Play Store. These ventures are not merely about food and beverage services but serve as an extension of the brand experience. According to a Forbes report, experiential retail allows brands to expand their ecosystem beyond traditional stores and products, offering consumers a more engaging and dynamic way to interact with the brand. This fosters deeper, long-term connections and ultimately drives future purchasing opportunities.
By enhancing consumer interactions and reinforcing brand identity, experiential retail also broadens a brand’s appeal, attracting a wider audience and strengthening its market presence.
How Coach Crafts a Brand Value to Attract Consumers-Seeking Consumers
In September 2024, Coach opened its first experiential store, merging the Y2K retro trend with a café concept on Chifeng Street in Taipei, Taiwan, successfully, attracting young consumers eager to share on social media and the community. However, this type of experiential retail store faces the challenge of attracting first-time visitors without providing them with sufficient motivation to return. Hence, the digital marketing strategies might play a crucial role in ensuring brand influence extends beyond fleeting trends.
Coach’s Target: The Y2K Retro Style and Gen Z Customers
The Coach Play Store primarily targets Gen Z consumers, particularly those under 25. Having grown up in the digital age, this demographic is highly adept at using social media to interact with brands and is passionate about the Y2K retro trend. For these customers, a brand is more than just a functional product—it is a symbol of personal style and lifestyle expression. Coach effectively captures their attention through retro design, social media marketing, and online-to-offline (O2O) experiences.
Consumer insights and media reports indicated that the Y2K aesthetic is experiencing a global resurgence among younger generations. Coach capitalises on this trend to bridge the gap between the brand and its target audience.
How Can Digital Marketing Strengthen Brand Engagement in Experiential Retail
In the case of Coach Play Store, leveraging a variety of digital tools to create a seamless online and offline marketing experience could significantly enhance consumer engagement. By ensuring that consumers interact with the brand’s value across multiple touchpoints and gathering valuable marketing data at each stage, the brand can effectively analyse consumer behaviour and refine retargeting strategies to drive repeat visits:
Social Media Marketing & O2O Experiences: Leverage social media to generate buzz and drive foot traffic to physical stores while utilizing LINE official accounts to enhance brand-consumer engagement and deepen communication.
Real-Time Marketing: Use Bluetooth beacon technology to deliver promotional messages to nearby customers, increasing foot traffic and enhancing in-store engagement.
Data Analysis & Retargeting: Track customers' interaction behaviour and craft personalised marketing messages, such as exclusive event invitations for returning visitors.
Transforming One-Time Interactions into Lasting Relationships Through Data-Driven Brand Management
Data insights not only help brands understand customers' behaviour but also empower more effective marketing strategies. For instance, by adopting data-driven segmentation, brands could categorise customers into distinct groups:
Non-Participant Consumers: Use digital tracking to exclude previous visitors from initial promotional campaigns, focusing efforts on new audiences to drive store traffic.
Visitors Who Did Not Purchase: Implement marketing automation to send personalized messages with incentives, encouraging them to return and complete a purchase.
High-Value Consumers: Extend VIP event invitations and provide direct access to brand advisors via official channels, offering services that foster brand loyalty.
Brand Marketing Is More Than Just Exposure—It’s About Building Meaningful Connections Through Experiential Retail
In this case, we can see that through digital marketing strategies, brands can increase visibility and cultivate deeper emotional connections with consumers. This reflects the future direction of brand marketing, which should be designed around the “Experience x Data x Interaction” framework for more effective campaign execution. By leveraging data analysis and personalised marketing at different stages of the consumer journey, brands can transform consumers from mere participants into loyal advocates. This is the essence of digital-era brand management—"creating experiences with creativity and strengthening impact with data.
* This article offers marketing strategy recommendations specifically designed for the Taiwan market. Please feel free to engage in further discussion for additional marketing insights.
Author
Elven Hsu
Master’s in Luxury Brand Management, Goldsmiths, University of London. With 15 years of experience in advertising and marketing, and 10 years of team management in the Asia and UK markets. Held senior marketing roles at WPP, Dentsu, Publicis advertising groups, and in-house marketing. I have developed marketing and advertising strategies for global and Taiwanese brands. Extensive experience in brand building, digital marketing, social media, influencer marketing, strategic partnerships, and project management. By combining hands-on experience with a "Creativity x Marketing x Digital Technology" approach, I drive sustainable brand and market growth, enhancing brand visibility successfully.
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