Inside can be found museum-like dioramas, a theater, a cafe, a doll hair salon, and lounging areas designed to facilitate interaction among shoppers and the examination and use of products" (Diamond 2009, p.119). Diamond et al. (2009) argues that entertainment brands, such as American Girl, the Disney store have a unique power as brands, not simply to encourage consumers to buy the product, but also to foster consumer creativity, and suggest that as a result identity exists in dialogue with the corporation, and is not merely manipulated by the seller. Consumers are crafting their own unique image as they choose, consciously, to 'brand' themselves. In these "themed flagship brand stores" offering "spectacular environments… far from being overwhelmed or coerced by the sign-rich context, consumers use the retail environment as a stage on which to perform, enthusiastically enacting the brand and cocreating the spectacle. Therefore, emplacement is reconceptualized as a shared endeavor, with the marketer ceding considerable freedom to consumers" (Diamond 2009, 120).

At American Girl stores, families are crafting a multigenerational experience of sharing idealized images of girls long past. The product alone is not the point, rather in buying the product an 'experience' is conveyed that is enjoyed and expanded upon at the store. The girl engages in creative play with the doll that is enhanced through the books, not closed off. Of course, it could be argued that American Girl offers a highly directive play experience: instead of truly old-fashioned girls who made clothing for their dolls, girl consumers buy dolls from the manufacturer. The books direct the narrative of the dolls, rather than leave the doll's lives open-ended. And parents are clearly buying "a moral salve for a culture whose conception of girlhood was often painfully at odds with girls' -- and mothers' -- day-to-day experience" (Diamond et al. 2009, p.122). American Girl is the 'anti-Barbie' and 'anti-Bratz...

While this affection for the brand might seem to be simply an extension of what Steven Manning calls "Students for sale," or an unhealthy blending of education with corporate branding, Diamond notes how, as a result of going to the store, some families report doing research into their family roots and American history in a way that transcends the specific narrative of the doll. The store experience prompts a different level of investment on the part of the family and child, beyond merely buying a can of Coca-Cola simply because it is on a school's premises.
Branding, while not to necessarily be embraced, may not be as insidious some media critics may believe in all contexts. In an entertainment-driven store, the consumer is not a purely passive object, even if he or she is subject to marketing. Brands shape our environment and our identity, but consumers also 'talk back' to brands and use brands as individualized human entities.

References

Diamond, Nina, Mary Ann McGrath, Albert Muniz, Stefania Borghini, & Robert

Kozinets. (2009, May). American Girl and the brand Gestalt: Closing the loop on sociocultural branding research. Journal of Marketing. 73: 118-134. Retrieved December

17, 2009 at http://www.nd.edu/~jsherry/pdf/2009/American%20Girl.pdf

Manning, Steven. (2009). Students for sale. From Navigating America: Information

competency and research for the Twenty-First Century. Edited by David Moton & Gloria Dumler. McGraw/Hill.

Twitchell, James B. But first a word from our sponsors. From Navigating America:

information competency and research for the Twenty-First Century. Edited by David

Moton & Gloria Dumler. McGraw/Hill.