Chobani is a brand that’s proud to claim it was created by social media. It places great emphasis on both posting and monitoring social media activity to stimulate and track brand health.
As a result, the launch of its first brick-and-mortar store in SoHo, NYC back in 2012 may have seemed like an unusual decision. However, the huge levels of consumer social-media sharing it has generated, marks it out as a initiative worthy of note.
Creating a physical home for Chobani – a space dedicated single-mindedly to yoghurt – wasn’t in itself hugely innovative. After all, Nespresso have been operating branded boutiques around the world for decades with great success. What other innovators should be taking note of is Chobani’s success at leveraging what they’re calling ‘Phygital’, the nexus between physical and digital spaces.
Chobani’s Chief Marketing & Brand Officer, Peter McGuinness sees the store not just as an incubation / inspiration centre, but as a strong trigger for consumers generating and sharing digital material. He claims it is “one of the top five most Instagrammed restaurants in New York City”, creating independent ambassadors for the brand via the consumers who visit and post content.
The dramatic lesson for the rest of us may be: create physical spaces where consumers can have hands-on experience with your products and convert functional benefits into emotional ones…
It’s a technique we’ve seen work pretty well for Nespresso, Lego and Nike!
