It Goes Both Ways

Branded environments are becoming more populous. I feel that there are two ways branded environments come about. One, the direction based on the reading, is the brand is established and the environment comes secondary to further support the brand and keep it alive; some brands that have used this direction are Nike, Coca-Cola, MGM and M&M. But the other one that I would like to more explore is the opposite, the direction in which the environment is established and the brand follows, examples being Rainforest Café and Build-A-Bear; I also feel Las Vegas achieves this on a certain level. One could question the effectiveness of direction number two, stating that it is not as successful, but it also has to be realized these notable brand experiences belong to older brands, not the new babies of the environment-brand. It is also good to note that in the environment-brand approach, people will be more likely to make in store purchases, such as in the Rainforest Café and Build-A-Bear because there are no distributors of their products that can offer markdowns or sales, their products are only sold by them. The Rainforest Café, for an example, also mark up their food prices, because they can. Why? The experience, because no where else can you sit in a room with fish tanks, waterfalls, moving animals, vines overhead, while it thunderstorms every fifteen minutes?