100 GREAT BUSINESS IDEAS • 63Developing stylish areas that are decorated and designed to
appeal to your target market, even if they do not sell your core
products, will reinforce your image and help customers appreciate
the distinctiveness of your products and brand.
The idea
One of the trendiest new ideas in marketing, brand spaces advocates
creating stylish spaces—perhaps a bar, art gallery, lounge, or
exhibition hall—that may not be directly related to your main product
but where individuals are immersed in your brand image. Practiced
by leading companies such as Apple, ING Direct, Kodak, Google, and
Nokia, there has been a dramatic increase in the number and quality
of brand spaces.
French car manufacturer Renault uses brand spaces with a high
level of commitment and panache, running four brand spaces in
Buenos Aires, Bogota, Mexico City, and Paris. Its latest project,
the Terrasse Renault in Mexico City, is impressively designed, and
centers on “a bar with wooden latticing, through which visitors
can glimpse the Renault zone, where car prototypes are exhibited.”
Occupying prime real estate in global cities and offering gourmet
cuisine, art galleries, and seamlessly blended marketing, the Renault
brand spaces are characteristic of the concept. Renault describes its
brand spaces as “hosting artistic, cultural and sporting events in
keeping with the brand’s universe to reinforce Renault’s energy and
identity as a visionary, warm and innovative brand.”
(^26) BRAND SPACES