Disney Stores Get the Apple Magic
The New York Times reported yesterday that entertainment super giant Disney is planning to reboot its entire chain of global retail stores as part of a major new strategy and vision inspired and guided by Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
In the current economic climate, most retailers are looking for ways to cut down on spending and holding-back on investment and growth initiatives. But according to the New York Times’ Brooks Barnes, Disney is taking a leaf out of Apple’s book and using the economy’s downtime to reinvent its own retail stores.
Disney is… getting more aggressive and putting into motion an expensive and ambitious floor-to-ceiling reboot of its 340 stores in the United States and Europe — as well as opening new ones.
This mirrors Apple’s own aggressive efforts in the last 18 months to refurbish existing stores and open whole new outlets. It’s a strategy that’s paying off. In August, Bloomberg reported that Apple’s retail stores were performing consistently well, despite the economic downturn.
Apple… increased revenue at its stores by 2.5 percent in the first six months of the year to $3 billion as the rest of the retail industry suffered. During the same period, sales at all U.S. retailers fell 9.2 percent compared with the first half of 2008, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.
So the investment and growth strategy is working well for Apple, and clearly Disney is hoping that some of Steve’s retail magic might rub off on it.
Fingerprints
Steve Jobs joined Disney’s board of directors as the majority shareholder in 2006, and, according to Barnes, “…[his] fingerprints can be seen on Disney strategy, in the same way that he influenced the look and feel of Apple’s own immensely popular retail chain.” And while Jobs didn’t personally develop Disney’s new retail strategy, he pushed the company to go for much more than a standard refurbishment. Andy Mooney, Chairman of Disney Consumer Products, is quoted saying, “Dream bigger — that was Steve’s message,” Certainly sounds like Steve, doesn’t it?
And the dream is big. Emphasis has moved away from regarding the Disney stores as merely merchandise outlets to something far more grand. “The world does not need another place to sell Disney merchandise — this only works if it’s an experience,” said Jim Fielding, President of Disney Stores Worldwide. “When consumers are ready to spend again, we will be ready.”
The new stores will include theaters for children to watch their favourite Disney features, karaoke contests and even live satellite chat with Disney stars around the world. Smart displays with embedded sensors and audio/video components will create personalised experiences for shoppers. “Walk by a ‘magic mirror’ while holding a Princess tiara,” writes Barnes, “and Cinderella might appear and say something to you.”
In addition to the theater (in itself reminiscent of Apple Store’s own in-store lecture and learning space), the new Disney stores will allow customers to interact with the high-tech fixtures and fittings via their iPhones. Employees will brandish hand-held payment devices, just as they do in Apple Stores.
Steve Jobs shared detailed documents on Apple’s expertise in retail store development and management, while Disney Executives paid visits to Apple stores. According to Barnes, there was even a ‘pilot’ store to iron-out the wrinkles. Steve Jobs insisted Disney create a prototype store, which it dubbed “Imagination Park.”
The company followed his advice, working for the last year on a full-scale, fully stocked store inside an unmarked warehouse in Glendale, California. The prototype was crucial to shaping an overall philosophy, Mr. Fielding said, noting that he discovered the shops needed more “Pixar-esque winks and nods.” To that end, one sales area is now labeled “WWTD: What Would Tinker Bell Do?”
The new stores will be unveiled in May 2010 in Southern California, Long Island and Madrid. Disney is also planning to create a new flagship store in Times Square, New York.
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App Store Thaw? Apple Accepts A Gmail Push Application
It has now been over a month since we first wrote about GPush, an iPhone app that uses Apple’s Push Notification system to alert you when you have new Gmail messages. Like so many other apps, it was starting to look like Apple simply may not accept it. But a surprise came to developers last night: An email from Apple accepting the app.
Now, before you get all excited, it’s not live just yet. The developers had an issue with the Amazon servers they use to run their system, so they temporarily took the app down, but the team expects things to be back to normal and the app to be in the store in the next 24 hours, we’re told. Again, as far as Apple is concerned, the app is good to go.
If you need to know about the app itself, I suggest you read our initial piece, but it’s pretty straightforward, it brings push support to Gmail on the iPhone via Push Notifications because Apple doesn’t support push Gmail natively, for whatever reason. What we’re more interested in is the timing of this acceptance.
Granted, this is all speculative, but the timing of Apple accepting a Gmail push notification app that it has been sitting on for a month is curious. Earlier this week, Google CEO Eric Schmidt stepped down from Apple’s board of directors. A few days prior to that, the FCC sent letters to both Apple and Google inquiring about the their relationship as it relates to the App Store. This was brought about by Apple rejecting Google’s Google Voice app. And then yesterday, we reported that Google and Apple did have a no-poaching rule for hiring between the two companies, something which the Justice Department was looking into.
Could all that pressure, specifically on Apple as it relates to Google, have caused Apple to accept this app? Or, at the very least, did Schmidt’s removal from Apple’s board pave the way for this? The developers are wondering the same things. Sure, it may sound silly that Apple’s stance on one app could be changed by these things, but we do know that Apple has started watching even single app rejections/non-approvals more closely as no less than Apple VP Phil Schiller is now weighing in on them.
Or maybe this is the first sign of a thaw for Apple’s frigid policies with developers who create apps in what it considers to be a gray area. I’m not saying GPush was definitely one of those apps (though we did wonder that from day one), but a month is a long time to wait for approval, even by the App Store’s standards. And the GPush developers say that they did not change anything in the app to make Apple accept it.
Whatever the reason for the acceptance, if you’re a Gmail addict, it will be a good thing to have GPush in the store. As I said, look for the app sometime in the next 24 hours in the App Store. It will be $0.99 for the first week of availability, then the price will go up to $1.99.
[photo: flickr/richard stebbing]
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