‘Irish customers want a kitchen that is warm and welcoming, and premium appliances that stand the test of time’
Ben Murphy, country manager Ireland and director with Miele, at the Miele Experience Centre, Liffey Valley Shopping Centre.
Experiential retail became a buzzword at the end of the pandemic, but Miele had been refining the idea for several years.
The German appliance brand had already established Miele Experience Centres in many of the world’s biggest capital cities and its dedicated space at Liffey Valley Shopping Centre in Dublin brings that same sense of occasion to Ireland.
“We wanted to give the Irish consumer a sense of how premium should feel,” says Ben Murphy, Miele’s director and country manager for Ireland. “Premium isn’t just about viewing products, it’s about meeting our teams, engaging, touching the products and understanding the features and benefits.”
Miele has been in Ireland since 1983 and its appliances are designed and tested to last more than 20 years. The centre was conceived to attract long-time customers as much as new ones, giving them a chance to ask questions and to engage with the products in a very practical and tactile manner. The Liffey Valley Experience Centre mirrors those in Milan, Paris, Copenhagen and Stockholm, Murphy says.
“A Miele Experience Centre should feel the same everywhere,” he says. “You’re meeting the same friendly, knowledgeable staff and getting that same Miele feeling.”
He believes the Irish market is more than ready for it. Over the past two decades, he says, Irish consumers have become more affluent, more discerning and more comfortable buying premium brands, including premium domestic appliances.
Visitors to the store are greeted by the team – “part of the Miele family” – and offered hospitality before being left to browse without pressure. Staff then pair them with the colleague best suited to answering their questions.
“A number of our team members are specialists and we have different age profiles,” Murphy says, “from people with families to younger members just starting out. We try to identify the customer’s requirements and tailor their experience in store by matching them with one of our key employees.”
Demonstrations are central to the concept. A Miele Experience Centre is equipped to host cooking classes as well as intimate masterclasses with some of Ireland’s favourite foodies. The team is ready to cook a meal any day of the week in order to showcase particular features and guest chefs have included Rachel Allen and Mark Moriarty. “If we show you something and it lives up to your expectation, that’s a very positive thing,” says Murphy.
Certain customers come to explore kitchen design ideas; others to learn more about the latest technology. The store showcases a curated edit of Miele’s hero products and highlights include its MasterCool fridge-freezers; Taste Control, a cooking feature that helps automate results; and the new Nova washing machine, which he describes as a world first, designed with Miele’s gentlest programme yet to protect clothes for a lifetime.
"One of the tests we often do to demonstrate how delicate the washing machine cycle is involves washing a rose from end to end. It comes out of the machine with its petals still intact.”
Murphy believes that customers want “good, honest advice, that’s truthful and unbiased” and staff are ready to offer their opinions on appliances as well as which companies and partners to consider when designing a kitchen.
“In Ireland, we love the kitchen,” Murphy says. “Irish consumers want to create a kitchen that is warm and welcoming. After all, in my home, friends and family come in, they sit in the kitchen, we have a drink in the kitchen, we socialise in the kitchen.”
Miele has paid close attention to how the sound, colour and function of its appliances fit the way people live now.
“If you want to socialise in your kitchen, having a dishwasher that’s super-quiet is so important,” says Murphy.
One question that often comes up is price. As a premium product, Miele sits at the higher end of the scale. The team responds by walking customers through the value of a product over its lifetime. An appliance built to last 20 years, Murphy argues, should be judged on that lifespan rather than on the sticker price.
Miele is a company built on innovation and at the recent consumer electronics and home appliances trade show, IFA, in Berlin, Murphy saw how the company is focusing on using AI to reduce the time and effort people devote to household chores.
Cameras in ovens and dishwashers are central to this. In a dishwasher, the camera assesses what has been loaded and how dirty it is, then chooses the programme and detergent amount using Miele’s PowerDisc automatic dosing system. In an oven, FoodView captures images of the cooking process every minute, so you can monitor its progress at a glance in the Miele app, adjusting the oven settings or switching it off remotely.
Murphy also expects Miele’s advanced steam ovens, already popular in Scandinavia and Germany, to grow in popularity in Ireland.
“People of my generation will remember pressure cookers bubbling away furiously on a stove somewhere. Miele has really looked at this whole concept, at how steam cooks fish and meat, and how it retains the nutrients in vegetables. We’ve come up with a concept that allows the consumer to cook with care, safety and precision, but faster, while still holding on to the nutrients in the food.”
The Miele Experience Centre at Liffey Valley Shopping Centre is one part of a wider approach by the company to invest in all of its retail partners throughout the country.
“Miele is investing in a training programme that takes the Liffey Valley experience and brings it to our ambassadors and partners in electrical retail. We’re working very closely with them so they understand not only the future trends, but that Miele products are the way to future-proof a kitchen for the next 20 years, meaning they’ll stand the test of time.”
The Liffey Valley Experience Centre, Murphy explains, is partly about “setting the standard for our partners to follow”.
Looking ahead five to 10 years, Murphy would like to see more than one Miele Experience Centre in Ireland. But his real measure of success is the fact that what customers are told in the centre holds true once the product is in their home. “The knowledge that’s imparted by our teams to consumers is actually felt long after they walk away,” he says.
Visit the Miele Experience Centre at Unit 15, Liffey Valley Shopping Centre, Fonthill Road, D22 XH28; phone 01 4610710 or email liffey-valley.store@miele.ie. For more, see miele.ie
