Think Outside The Building

First impressions mean everything.  

I’ve written about the power of first impression before.  But there's even something deeper, a pre-first impression that can be made.

Your business, your office, your home, or any room can reflect your personality or your brand, and you can influence how people are inevitably judging you and your dwelling.

People like you and me judge things quickly, and that’s just human nature.  It isn’t right or wrong, it’s just the way it is.  What are you presenting to the world?

If you think a first impression may not be indicative of the entire experience, you might be right.  But what it also means is that if your visitors and customers have a negative or even neutral first impression, it will require you to do extra work to reverse their impression of their overall experience.  This is precisely why Disney cares about the security gate experience even before people enter their parks.  They know that the first positive feeling felt (sometimes unexpectedly) becomes a snowball of great experience.

Disney thinks outside the building.

These initial impressions happen for most people visually, and this is a tremendous opportunity for you and your dwelling to do the same.  

What if you can make a first impression before they expect their first impression?  What if your business could greet your customers with a smile when they least expect it? 

You can steal Disney’s magic strategy and think outside your building. 

These powerful pre-first impressions can set the tone for what’s in store for the entire experience.  It can arouse curiosity, create comfort, and solidify your customer’s decision to step into the door.  

I marvel at how many businesses miss this huge opportunity.

In this case and with this project, this pre-first impression was going to be front and center, figuratively and literally.  The initial concepts of the building had huge windows alongside the building.  The natural light would flood into the space which was quite important.  

This, however, posed to be a potential mesmerizing first impression.  Since looking out the windows from the inside presented a boring parking lot, what if we could still get light in through these windows, but present some visuals to greet the guests from the outside?  We could give them a flavor of what they might expect inside.  

For the large front window, we selected OCEANIC, to evoke a feeling of curiosity and wonder.  It also helped that it would look like a giant aquarium.  We punctuated this with a cement block pathway, inviting them to come closer before coming inside the door. 

Further down the building, we threw a curveball, presenting an abstract artwork that would also light up at night.

It’s been fun to see the reactions from visitors.  They are encountered with an unexpected favorable first impression, and that gets things off to the right start even before they walk through the door.

I’d love to help you formulate ideas to do just the same:

Think outside the building.