Smartphone emergencies
- Simone Maas
- 28 nov 2015
- 3 minuten om te lezen
Do you recognize that terrifying moment when you drop your phone on the ground? For a second you lose control over this important device and you freak out. Maybe your mum and dad don’t really understand this feeling of yours. And your grandpa would most definitely describe you as crazy. Mlab wouldn’t. Mlab is a new store in Antwerp. They opened their doors the 28th of may. Mlab specifically focuses on smartphone reparations and teaching people about the endless possibilities of their mobile devices. They treat your phone the way a patient is treated in a hospital.
What is it? Mlab is a store that repairs and teaches about phones. This may sound really lame. You can find little shops who fix broken screens everywhere. Mlab is not even slightly comparable with all of those. First of all they offer a wide range of services. You can follow a course about the basics of using a smart phone, but Mlab can also inform you about the different options on your phone. Letting your phone and heating device at home communicate, we know that this a real thing but how can I install that myself? Mlab answers these sort of questions. This of course is all very handy but their shop is designed and promoted in a very young and fresh way as well. I came by Mlab when I was in Antwerp. From the outside it looked very interesting but it did not come across as a store that had something to do with phones. The interior is very roomy and creative with different shapes and bright colours.
The promotion is where Mlab shows their funny side. Their main focus lays on costumer treatment. They take your broken phone serious and therefore use the slogan ‘Mlab, for smartphone emergencies’.
Why is it cool? We live in a world that wouldn’t even turn without smartphones. Okay, maybe that statement is a bit over the top but it is a fact that a big part of the population has a smartphone. In the last year 1.2 billion smartphones were sold and that’s all just in one-year time. Services like Mlab are fulfilling our needs by guiding us to the wonderful but intense world of smart communication. If your precious device breaks, you want to get it fixed as soon as possible. Also, when you have a question you want a quick and clear answer. Mlab provides these services in less than 30 minutes and adapts to the level of understanding of the costumer. However, that’s is not the thing that makes this conceptstore cool. They give their costumers the feeling that they understand them. A broken smartphone is an emergency ( as the following commercial shows)!
This video shows that they have made their service the experience. I would almost drop my phone on the floor right now, just so that the mini ambulance would come to rescue it. The fact that everything around the actual end result is so important is in line with the trend ‘Experience the product’. Mlab does the exact same thing as insurance companies. They make commercials in which great stories are told that are supposed to resemble their costumer treatment but which give almost no information about the products they offer. Achmea is a great exemple of this. After watching this video I would want to sign up for one of their insurances just because of the happy vibe this fragment brings.
Even before Mlab opened they already made people think about how they use their phones by introducing a text walking lane, two lines on the street to walk between for those who text and walk at the same time. Often texters walk in to each other because they are not paying attention to their surroundings. The text walking lane would be the solution to this problem and would keep you and your smartphone safe. They were not the first one to introduce this lane. National Geographic already made an item about the dangers of texting in public in December last year.
Mlab overall just has a very authentic image. Their main focus lays on the serendipity seekers by making the process of getting your phone repaired even more exciting than the actual result. These people are looking for the new and special things and carry the slogan ‘the journey is the destination’. Mlab is also just the right place for those people who get completely lost in the chaos of apps and online possibilities. They are in desperate need for ‘bullshitfilters’. Mlab can answer their questions and clear their heads by giving them personalized advice about how to handle smartphones.
What sources did I use?
http://mlabstores.com/nl/ (afbeelding 1)
http://www.spottingthecool.com/de-smartphone-ambulance-is-onderweg/ (afbeelding 2)
http://plugin-magazine.com/living/texting-junkie-take-a-stroll-down-the-text-walking-lane/ (afbeelding 3)
Always wonder,
Simone
Comentários