Retail real estate has long been defined by footfall, tenant mix, architecture, and location. But as consumer expectations shift, these factors alone are no longer enough.
In this conversation, Justin Starck, Director of Branding at Portland Design, explains why successful places today are built around a clear brand narrative. It connects strategy, design, and community into a meaningful experience. It is not about adding storytelling as a layer, but about creating places people understand, relate to, and ultimately return to.
INTERVIEW
People Don’t Fall in Love With Places. They Fall in Love With the Stories They Tell About Them.
ACROSS: Justin, today we want to talk about “brand narrative”, a term our readers in retail real estate may not yet be familiar with. To start, how would you explain what a brand narrative is and why it matters for places?
Justin Starck: At its simplest, a brand narrative is the main story a place tells about itself. It defines who it is, what it stands for, and why it matters to people. It is not a tagline or a marketing line. It is much deeper than that.
The narrative is the ethos for why a place exists. If we’re creating or redeveloping a place, it’s about asking: what’s the reason for what we’re doing? I always try to work backwards from the end point. I call it designing backwards. It means starting with the optimum experience and building everything from there.
Once you understand the data, the relevant trends, and what the client is asking for, including their expectations and priorities, you can start thinking strategically about how the visit should connect with people. If you fast-forward to that point, the brand narrative is essentially how people would describe that place in the most positive and meaningful way.
It is not just about what they get. It is why it matters and why they love it.
We also have an opportunity to represent the ambition, values, and beliefs of everyone involved in creating or developing a place.
“It’s not just about what people get. It’s why it matters and why they love it.”
ACROSS: And how is that different from traditional branding in retail real estate?
Justin Starck: If you just create a place brand, it might arrive almost unannounced and say, “This is who we are.” But the narrative explains why it matters. It should not just arrive. It should excite people about what they will be able to do there, how they will experience it, and how they will talk about it.
The narrative is the story that users will tell their friends, family, and colleagues. A brand on its own cannot do that because it is not compelling enough. A good story connects emotionally so people can retell it in their own way.
Another important difference is locality. The narrative needs to reflect what is unique about a destination. It should be something you could not simply pick up and place somewhere else. That is what gives it identity and authenticity. It creates what we call a sense of place.
“A clear narrative shapes everything, from tenant mix and public realm to digital touchpoints and community integration.”
ACROSS: Many in the industry would say: we have positioning, tenant mix, architecture. Why do we need a narrative on top of that?
Justin Starck: Those are all component parts. They are essential. But what the narrative does is weave them together into something more human.
Architects often approach a building as a design problem in itself – how things fit together and how flows work. But people don’t usually engage with places like that. They care more about what they can do there.
The story humanizes those components. It allows people, whether they are visitors, operators, or commercial stakeholders, to see their part in the overall experience. It’s like being in a play. You don’t just know the premise. You understand your role and the journey you are going on.
From a business perspective, it is not abstract at all. A clear narrative shapes everything, including tenant mix, public realm, digital touchpoints, and community integration. It influences customer usability, social value, and ultimately long-term asset performance.
ACROSS: What makes a compelling place narrative?
Justin Starck: It is a mixture of things. One of the most important is local context. This includes community, culture, and what makes the place meaningful. That informs everything, including why it is there, why it matters, and what people get out of it.
Weak narratives usually fail because they try to include everything, rather than deciding what they stand for.
There are also the benefits. These are not just services, but what different people gain from the experience. People need to be able to see themselves in it.
Another key factor is that the narrative must be able to evolve. The best places evolve organically, and the story needs to allow for that. You don’t set it in stone. You set the context. The core thread stays the same, but it adapts to time, culture, and changing needs.
The most valuable places are never finished. They evolve with their community, and the narrative holds that evolution together.
That is why it is very different from a marketing positioning.
“The narrative is the story that users will tell their friends, family and colleagues.”
ACROSS: Listening to you, it sounds like a narrative is also very individual. How do you turn that into something shared?
Justin Starck: You start with an overarching narrative. You can think of it as a kind of synopsis that captures the collective experience.
If it is a good story, people can see themselves in it. Then you interpret it for different audiences. The plotline stays the same, but you apply different lenses.
For example, what does it mean for a young family, a tourist, or a worker? The answers are different, but they all sit within the same narrative framework.
We used to work with personas, but they can be too rigid. People don’t behave in just one way. Someone might use a place differently depending on the time of day or situation. Modern developments need to support that complexity. They need to offer a mix of experiences, from practical to social to escapism.
ACROSS: How do you translate a narrative into design?
Justin Starck: We create what we call ‘experience drivers’ – a set of core principles that guide how we think, design, and deliver the optimum outcomes.
They are not guidelines in the traditional sense. They make the intent visible in every decision. Because in reality, most places do not fail at concept level. They fail in translation.
These drivers become the basis for design decisions. They are like sliders on a mixing desk. Depending on the space, you adjust them accordingly.
If one driver is about discovery, you might design appropriate spaces that encourage exploration. If another is about wellbeing, you might create sensory areas for relaxation or escapism. Every decision, including materiality, color, layout, and atmosphere, is informed by these drivers.
Without that narrative, every design decision becomes guesswork – based on precedent, taste, or what worked before. The narrative provides a clear roadmap.
It becomes the litmus test for everything. Nothing is left to chance.
“Without a narrative, every design decision is guesswork.”
ACROSS: What role do local communities play in shaping the narrative?
Justin Starck: A huge role. Every place needs to be informed by its locality. Otherwise, it has no heart.
We involve communities through workshops, interviews, and ongoing engagement. And we also test the narrative with them by asking whether it resonates and whether they see themselves in it.
A good example is Merry Hill Shopping Centre in Brierley Hill, England. It is a place that means a lot to the local community, not just for shopping but as a social space. We spent a lot of time listening to staff and visitors and understanding their relationship with the place.
We used real people in the brand. These were people who worked or shopped there, and we built the story from their voices. That authenticity is what makes it meaningful.
ACROSS: Many large shopping centers are still very standardized.
Justin Starck: Yes, and that is a problem. Standardization is really the enemy of how I like to work!
If you create something generic, people will not connect with it. Even well-designed spaces can feel generic or forgettable.
Retail today is about much more than transactions. It is about experience, culture, and connection.
We have seen how important it is to bring in local influences. This can include community initiatives, cultural programming, or simply reflecting the identity of the place. That is what creates longevity.
“A place story is not a one-off. It needs to guide decisions over time.”
ACROSS: How do you keep a narrative alive when things change, such as tenants, ownership, or market conditions?
Justin Starck: You need a clear experiential strategy and a strong sense of what the place stands for.
When a unit becomes available, you do not simply fill it with the next offer. You ask whether it fits the overall proposition and whether it makes sense within the ecosystem.
There needs to be a natural rhythm and synergy between spaces. If you understand the ethos of the place, those decisions become much clearer.
A place story is not a one-off. It needs to guide decisions over time, even as operators, tenants, or conditions change.
ACROSS: And how does the narrative translate into digital and social channels?
Justin Starck: It sits at the top and guides everything beneath it. However, it is not about telling. It is about listening.
You need to understand your audiences and adapt your messaging accordingly. It’s not one-size-fits-all. The same story is expressed in different ways for different groups.
Importantly, brands do not control the social conversation. The audience does. You can only contribute to it. That means you need to be flexible, responsive, and authentic in how you communicate.
ACROSS: Is there a way to measure whether a narrative is working?
Justin Starck: You can look at social listening, which shows how people actually talk about the place. The key question is whether that aligns with the intent.
At the same time, you need to accept that things change. People’s expectations shift faster than most strategies. You have to keep listening, adapting, and sometimes anticipating what people will want before they know it themselves.
The best brands do not just respond. They shape expectations.
In reality, the strongest signal is not what people say. It is what they keep coming back for.
ACROSS: Can a place succeed without a narrative?
Justin Starck: You are relying on a lot of luck if you do not have one.
The narrative is not just a nice story. It is a set of guiding principles that help create the right experience and ensure everything works together.
It is your framework. It brings strategy and vision together in a way that is human and understandable.
“It’s not about the physical space. It’s about what it allows you to do. The memories, the connections, the experiences.”
ACROSS: One word we noted down while listening to you was “lovable.” Is that what this is about?
Justin Starck: Absolutely. At Portland, we aim to design brands and places that people love, more. People fall in love with places through the stories they attach to them.
To make a place lovable, it needs to mean something different to each person. It has to feel personal. It is about what it allows you to do, including the memories you create and the encounters you have.
The same place can hold completely different stories for different people. That is the point.
It is not about the physical space. It is about connection — connecting people to moments, to each other, and to something meaningful.
That is what makes people say, “You have to go there!”
About
Justin Starck is Director of Branding at Portland Design, London. He specializes in developing and reinvigorating brands through customer experience strategies that connect physical and digital touchpoints, from online platforms to in-person and post-visit interactions. His work spans airports, universities, corporations, and retail destinations.
Justin approaches design as a problem-solving tool grounded in storytelling, strategy, visioning, and data. Central to his methodology is what he calls “designing backwards”: imagining a place at its very best across different moments, uses, and audiences, and then shaping the interventions needed to support that ideal experience.
Originally drawn to a career in education because of his interest in mentoring and helping people find clarity and alignment, he ultimately found consulting to be a way of combining that mindset with his passion for design and creative problem-solving.
