In a retail space designed to profile a brand, what should the bathrooms look like? This question is addressed on Flooring the Consumer by guest author Marianne Cone. Ms. Cone visited the M&M's World and Hershey's stores in Times Square and discovered... that all the attention on the brand image completely disappears with the bathroom. M&M did nothing interesting with theirs, and Hershey's doesn't have a bathroom for customers. According to Marianne Cone, they missed a huge opportunity. I agree. Customers do notice. And we would have to think that both these stores are popular with children. [d'oh] And children have much less ability to 'just hold it' than adults. Why not capitalize on this, and make moms and dads love the brand even more with kid-friendly, themed bathrooms?
It seems that carpet and tile retailers have a better grasp on these issues than destination entertainment retailers. In another recent post on Flooring, CB Whittemore reports on a bathroom in a carpet and tile store. A little attention and creativity has customers raving about the bathroom, and becoming inspired for their own renovations.
Iris Shreve Garrott at Checking Out and Checking In notes that the National Zoo has amusing animal facts in their bathrooms, taking the zoo customer experience into the bathroom. See the poster about hippo poop here.
Disney gets it, and tends to continue their area theme right into the bathroom, according to Becky Carroll writing at Customers Rock. If you don't, the magic kind of disappears, doesn't it?
Other notable posts:
Katie Clark, writing at Practical Katie, had to fight to get drop-down shelves installed in the ladiesroom at her library, and counts it as a big achievement. [Why are some things just so hard?]
Carolyn Townes writes about that well-known cultural phenomenon -- the women meeting in the bathroom and talking. I've noticed bathrooms in clubland are getting larger, no doubt to accommodate.
Other bloggers participating in the blogfest are listed on the blogroll to your right (or click through if you are reading the feed).
