One of AOL Time Warner’s last acts of 2001 was announcing that it would close all 85 of its Warner Bros. Stores, while one of the Walt Disney Company’s first acts of 2002 was its own announcement of closing another 50 Disney Stores (for a total of 120 in the past year). Then in March, amidst continued disappointing sales, Disney decided to split its remaining studio stores into two distinct formats – Disney Play aimed at kids, and Disney Kids at Home aimed at their parents. | the -experience i IS the marketing James H. Gilmore B. Joseph Pine II The Experience IS the Marketing One of AOL Time Warner s last acts of 2001 was announcing that it would close all 85 of its Warner Bros. Stores while one of the Walt Disney Company s first acts of 2002 was its own announcement of closing another 50 Disney Stores for a total of 120 in the past year . Then in March amidst continued disappointing sales Disney decided to split its remaining studio stores into two distinct formats - Disney Play aimed at kids and Disney Kids at Home aimed at their parents. What happened How could these titans of media and marketing - especially with all the beloved cartoon characters featured so prominently within James H. Gilmore B. Joseph Pine II their stores - fail so miserably at retailing Disney even finds the going so difficult it now looks to double its trouble. We believe the problem stems from the very concept of retail store. Instead of stores AOL Time Warner and the Walt Disney Company should have leveraged their vast knowledge of their theme park movie music and online businesses to create retail experiences. Consider a competitor in the toy business The Pleasant Company maker of the American Girl collection of dolls. When founder and exschoolteacher Pleasant Rowland decided to go beyond selling her wares directly to consumers rather than open a store she produced an experience The American Girl Place just off Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Here mothers and daughters with not a few grandmothers spend time together at The American Girl Theater where for 25 apiece they can take in a 70-minute staged production The American Girls Revue. They go to The Cafe for a grown-up dining experience paying an admission fee of 16 for lunch or tea and 18 for dinner. Girls pose for a photo shoot to take home a copy of American Girl Magazine with their pictures on the cover. They Copyright 2002 by Strategic Horizons LLP Page 2 even have their dolls hair styled in The .
