2.5¢ : Prada at Soho

This 4th of July holiday, I took a trip to NYC in hope of escaping from Texas heat, and of course do some decent clothes shopping. Prada is one of the targets that I can not pass on. The famous Prada flagship store occupies the entire block on Broadway and Prince Street, although 80% of the showroom store is used for presentation and only 20% for product display. It does seem to be a little bit over the top. The giant "wave" designed by the Dutch architecture took almost half of the room, sloping from the street level to the basement level. There are at least 20 LCD monitors lined up next to the walk path, featuring Prada’s latest runway show. I was excited to check out this store and want to know how RFID would change my Prada experience.

I talked to the most adorable sales guy in the store and asked him to show me the trendy suitcase that in fact I can’t really afford. Then our conversation switched to their RFID project. When the store opened in 2001, RFID was deployed to help the company gain customer insights as well as to serve as a high tech marketing tool. However, according to the sales person, Prada had to drop the project due to technical difficulties. First, the technology itself is not at its optimal stage. It constantly needs IT specialist onsite 24/7 to maintain the stability. Second, there are unknown RF signals (probably from cell phone or other electronic devices) interfering the transmission. It’s rather annoying when scan is not doing the right trick to show off RFID's feature. Third, majority of Prada’s customers prefer more personal service, sometimes two sales people at a time, rather than enjoying the benefit of "fast service". Beside, I think Prada faced the same privacy concerns that challenged Wal-Mart and Beneton, especially when Prada’s customers have higher social economical status, they may not want their information be shared or used by any brand marketing research.

Although RFID project was terminated, Prada doesn’t seem to stop expanding to other high tech territories. There is a new movie out in the theatre over the weekend, called "The Devil Wears Prada". Of course, the movie is not only about the mean boss who wears Prada but also about how an average girl thrives to succeed in the big city. Nevertheless, the marketing effort combines movie, music, and retails in selling everything Prada. They also work with Amazon.com on exclusive sales of clothing and leather goods we see in the movie. Majority of the merchandise were sold out before the movie release.

Although I didn’t take away the $1200 sheepskin suitcase I really want from Prada's Soho store, the experience is like touring a modern art museum, expect everything has a price tag. Priceless!!