At Polo Ralph Lauren’s Madison Avenue store in Manhattan,
passersby attracted to new fashions shown in window displays can tap
on the window, which is outfitted with a thin touch foil material
mounted on the glass that turns it into a touchscreen interface.
Window shoppers can then live up to their name—calling up a pro-
jected image of different clothes, displayed on the actual window. If
they really like what they see, they can use a conveniently located
credit card swiper mounted on the outside of the window.
“I really wanted to find a way to make that amazing technology a
retail reality,” says company senior vice president David Lauren.
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Even individual product brands are getting into the act.
Procter & Gamble’s CoverGirl brand, for instance, created a
mobile application, ColorMatch, that recommends shades of makeup
based on complexion, clothing, and accessories colors. The idea is to
provide a tool when women are at the makeup counter, where they
wouldn’t have access to a computer.
Look for several brands to begin leveraging the mobile-to-store
channel to influence purchase decisions. In recent tests, Visa created
mobile apps that enable shoppers at nineteen Safeway and eight
Mollie Stones stores to text short codes to Visa for advice on wine and
food pairings (see Figure 9–1).
In another initiative, diners at local restaurants can text Visa to
receive voice messages from the establishment’s chef about that
evening’s menu.
One could easily imagine such offerings as branded services from
Zagat’s and other guide brands.
Spectator Mobile, on the other hand, is a mobile-optimized version
of winespectator.com, tailored specifically for wine-buying informa-
tion on the go, especially when at a restaurant or in a store.
With Spectator Mobile, members of WineSpectator.com can
search for scores and tasting notes in Wine Spectator’s database of more
than 200,000 wine ratings, view vintage charts of all the major wine
ALWAYS KEEP SURPRISES IN-STORE
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