This store had to be the weirdest experience in retail I have had since exiting the so-called haunted Winchester House into an inescapable gift shop torture chamber. The first hint this Ferrari store will be annoying is that every two minutes the loud sound of a race car will be going around your head. Yes, I am not kidding. At first I thought I was hearing things, then my wife and I started laughing then – after it did not stop – the sound was not funny anymore and testing us to leave the store.
I am a fan of Ferrari automobiles, especially the 250 GT line and the Mondial designs. Way before the cars went all tacky and cliché. I have friends who own Ferrari’s (or had owned one or two in the past) so this is no diss to the automobile, but a commentary on the use of an icon in automobiles, speed, and sexiness. They have replaced the logo worn on the tush with a logo you can wear anywhere you desire. The plus side is that both sexes can wear it now.
The store could have embraced the Ferrari legacy more but it decided to be a cross between a Coach purse store for men and a tanning bed on the highest setting. The 1000 watt lighting in the store could not be any brighter and I expected the aggressive sales-dudes to both hand me a pair of Ferrari emblazoned shades and also fill up my gas tank.
The store is way over done and in the aforementioned cliché manner. I would have loved to see a more museum quality to the store that showed why the Ferrari is more than a street legal race car for a Ferragamo wearin’, hair club member, secretary dating, divorced father with a coke dealer who sells him short.
Sure this persona is over the top but that is the very one-dimensional approach the marketing department must have made when writing the specifications for the experience design. As mentioned, I am a fan of the automaker and this store made me embarrassed to say that. It also made me drop my search for a classic Ferrari that I have been eyeing for a few years.
If sales do not produce the expected results, it may be easy to blame the economy but there are still fans there who would purchase a Ferrari product if they did not feel like they walked into a gimmicked-out retail experience.
Filed under: Creative Direction, Experience Design, San Francisco
