The Third Spot

Over the weekend I attended a design and marketing show put on by one of my customers in Denver, Colorado. They had world renowned flower expert J Schwanke present a wedding program for over three hundred customers. J is the driving force behind JTV, which is a web site that features a different weekly webisode about floral design for the floral professional and floral enthusiast. This concept recently morphed into a bigger more expansive creative forum called ubloom, www.ubloom.com.

The idea behind ubloom is to expand and cross pollinate creativity in floral, craft and special events. J has gathered friends and experts in these other areas to create a community that is hungry to share information and knowledge. I always look for a “nugget” to take way from these types of presentations and J gave several on this occasion.

The idea of The Third Spot struck me as something I not heard of before. J spoke about, “Work is where you have to be. Home is where you want to be.
And, The Third Spot is a place that you want to hang out”
J used the Starbucks model as an example. His local Starbucks has a Barista who greets him every morning with his favorite drink, made to his specifications. The Barista puts J’s name on the cup so he feels like it’s his place. The chairs invite him to hang out. The music makes him remember a happy time in his life. The community bulletin board lets him know what is happening in his community. The Third Spot is replicated in places like Borders and Barnes and Noble. They each have coffee vendors inviting you to relax, enjoy your favorite beverage, brose and hang out. These places create a lifestyle setting that many fast food restaurants are trying to replicate.

Could The Third Spot idea be an idea to fulfill a need for your customers to hang out in your place of business? Could you upscale the coffee and drinks inviting your customer to enjoy their shopping experience? Could you create a lending library of the latest books and magazines on business, design, marketing? Is there an opportunity to have DVD’s or books on tape that your customer could barrow to educate their staff? Do you offer a community exchange board for notices, meetings and information? The Third Spot is an interesting concept that could create added value and a place for your customers to meet, share ideas and want to spend more time in your place rather than the competition.