COLUMBUS, Ohio — Every brand has a story and Rachel Friedman wants to help make that story known. She helps consumers uncover what makes a brand special.
“What people really want to know as digital ads, you know, fill their feed, they want to know, well, who is it that I'm doing business with? What does this company even stand for?” said Rachel Friedman, founder and CEO of TENFOLD, a strategy and creative firm in Columbus, and TENSPACE, a new revolving brick-and-mortar immersive retail store. “Really understand the brand and enable people to get to know the brand on a more intimate and emotionally connected level.”
As a retail consumer herself, Friedman said she has felt uninspired by the shopping experience, so she’s changing it. She and her team created TENSPACE as a way to help rising online brands come to life.
Every two months, TENSPACE completely transforms, allowing consumers to be immersed in a different brand’s untold story.
They’ve hosted two shows already. The locally-based wrestling gear and sports apparel company, Rudis was up first and the LA-based lifestyle and wellness brand, Ban.do came next.
“The brands that we feature, we want them to be fast-growing, we want them to be doing something extraordinary in their category,” said Friedman. “We want them to have a really inspiring founder story. We want them to be blazing new trails. I think that's where it's really fun for us is to feature a brand that has just an extraordinary story with extraordinary product.”
The space is filled with interactive media, augmented reality, and physical experiences to bring consumers to the heart of the brand and the brand to the hearts of more consumers.
Friedman wants people to come in curious and leave inspired. It’s not a pop-up shop, nor is it really even a store; it’s more of an interactive story. A story of the passion that goes into creating and maintaining a brand, that often can’t be showcased online.
“We're really proud of the products that we create,” said Jolie Stuart, president of Ban.do. “There's a lot of story and a lot of effort that goes behind almost each and everything. I mean we make a pencil set that has compliments, and we spend hours, you know, really wanting to make those compliments meaningful, and be something that means something to the end-user. But, you know, again, those are hard stories to tell in kind of these snippets of the digital world and so it's really a unique opportunity that we had to work with TENSPACE and really let them tell this story with us.”
Friedman particularly likes diving into the story of the founder of each brand. During the two-month show at TENSPACE, her team layers in events that are specific to each brand.
“One of those events is a founders fireside,” said Friedman. “So we actually bring the founder into a sort of a Q&A platform here. We invite a lot of consumers in, a lot of guests in and people that are curious about the brand, or even fans of the brand. And they have an opportunity then to talk directly to the founder, which is really exciting.”
In today’s digital age, there’s a tremendous amount of competition out there for digital brands. TENSPACE is giving one lucky brand at a time a chance to stand out and expose them to new markets.
“With a lot of these online brands, they've never seen their product merchandised. And so this is a really big sort of milestone moment for them to see their product professionally merchandised in an environment that is specifically customized for them. And it really shows them what's possible,” said Friedman. “Maybe they have a new product that they want to drop and they want to gain some consumer insights. Maybe they just want people to follow them or download their app. So for every brand, the goal of the show is different.”
Stuart said retail is evolving and the current operating models are outdated. She thinks retailers need to create in-store experiences similar to TENSPACE so customers are inspired to keep coming back.
“As a brand, we're always looking for ways that we can partner with someone who already maybe has a brick-and-mortar space, or in this case, is really an innovative, more experiential expert and, and help us bring our brand to life and really showcase our product in a way that is really difficult to duplicate online,” said Stuart. “ It's exciting, we're so, so fortunate to be part of it.”
Friedman and her team are aiming to reinvent retail through artfully combining the online world with the physical so people can see, touch and discover what makes a brand truly special.
“We're creating a digital channel and a digital platform for these brands but it's through a brick-and-mortar experience,” said Friedman. “You can really look at TENSPACE as a brick-and-mortar influencer but doing it through genuine and authentic content from everyday people who walk in the door.”
TENSPACE is currently designing their spring show, which is set to debut in April. To keep up with TENSPACE you can follow them on their Instagram or visit their website.