Nokia Flagship Store Lands in Chicago

Nokia, based in Espoo, Finland (U.S. headquarters in Irving, TX), opened its first U.S. Nokia flagship store in June.Situated in Chicago's Magnificent Mile shopping district, the brand store is designed as an upscale boutique offering consumers the chance to experience, learn about and purchase a wide range of Nokia products in an environment equipped with state-of-the-art retail fixtures and highly trained staff.The Chicago store is the first of its kind in the U.S. and the second to open worldwide, following the December 2005 opening of the premiere Nokia flagship store in Moscow. Nokia will open more flagship stores in global shopping destinations throughout 2006 and 2007, including a store on New York's Fifth Avenue this fall. Eight Inc., the creative agency behind the Apple brand stores, partnered with Nokia to design the stores. In addition to their role as product showplaces, the flagship stores will function as retail laboratories, says Cliff Crosbie, director of global retail and trade marketing for Nokia. "One important goal of the Nokia flagship store program is to determine the most impactful methods of retailing Nokia's product line, and sharing those learnings across Nokia's retail and operator channels."While other leading wireless device manufacturers have expressed concern that opening brand stores would damage their relationship with their networks of operator-owned retailers, Nokia claims that the flagship stores will benefit the more than 300,000 operator and retail outlets carrying Nokia products worldwide. Although these stores, unlike Nokia's non-retail "experience centers," do sell product, the primary focus of the flagships "is not about the sales volume," says Nokia spokesman Keith Nowak. "It's about the experience." He notes that prices for products sold at the flagship store will often be higher than those offered by service providers.The 8,880-square-foot space boasts a 2,450-square-foot sales floor, walled with interactive display screens featuring constantly changing imagery synched to the music playing in the store. In the front section of the rectangular showroom, Nokia mounts its newest and most popular products along these screens, which feature product information about each item as a consumer picks the item up. A miniature LCD screen below each product announces its price.As they learn about each product's features, consumers can test the services for themselves, sending text messages that appear on the screens in not only the store they are in, but in other Nokia stores worldwide. To minimize cumbersome wiring, the wires powering the product samples are high-strength and retractable, doubling as security tethers.The middle section of the show floor, separated by transparent glass dividers, is designated the "experience" area. Here, pristine Corian fixtures house Nokia products along with complementary products from other manufacturers in the configurations in which a consumer might use them at home. For example, a Nokia handset equipped with MP3 capabilities is hooked up to Harmon-Kardon speakers. In another display, a Nokia handset with a camera feature is linked to a Hewlett-Packard photo printer, loaded with paper so that shoppers can take pictures of one another, print them and keep them.The service desk is located in the third area of the store. Here, shoppers can purchase phones, activate wireless service through providers T-Mobile, Sprint or U.S. Cellular, and choose from several product accessories.Along with its selection of Nokia products, the Chicago Nokia flagship store also houses the "Vertu Lounge," a store-within-a-store showcasing the company's premium Vertu product line, which ranges in price from $5,000 to $90,000. The lounge is a built-in cubic space differentiated from the rest of the store by its even more upscale design, featuring marble floors and black walls and countertops. A trained Vertu salesperson provides private personal consultation to shoppers seeking these luxury handsets.

Nokia Flagship Store Lands in Chicago

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