The landscape of retail is changing, and fast. London is home to more international brands than any other city, yet that’s not stopping new players and brands crossing borders is now commonplace.
In 2013 there were 31 new market entrants, and today, two-thirds of retailers based in the Americas are now in London[1]. In such a sought-after city, the challenge of standing out from the crowd is enormous but the opportunity is too. With increasing goodwill following the 2012 Olympics, London had a record 8 million overseas visits in 2013. These changes, coupled with global, savvy and more demanding consumers, means retailers are operating in a completely different ball game.
What does this mean for London brands?
For retailers, the answer to success lies in a clever, strategic and differentiated approach to branding, one that puts your customer first. As Sam Walton the founder of Walmart so aptly put, “There is only one boss, the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else”. So how do you make sure your brand cuts through the noise? By having a clear brand strategy and impeccably integrated marketing communications.
Creating a memorable message
As a brand, your litmus test should start with seven simple questions: Who are you? Where have you come from? What do you stand for? Why do you want to tell your story? How? Why? And most importantly, why should anyone care?
If you relay information through narrative, people are more likely to emotionally connect with it and remember the details. People don’t choose to spend time with retail brands. They choose to spend time with a narrative that engages them or compels them to do something. Brands that skillfully tell their story create long-term emotional bonds with customers. To make people care about their story retailers must first understand their audience, then create a memorable brand identity and associated message library that oozes unique personality. Only then can they stand out from the crowd and connect better with their market.
Broadgate Circle, The City of London’s favourite outdoor leisure destination has done this well. In 2013, they embarked on a major redevelopment in order to improve their retail, restaurant and leisure offering. A strong, stand-alone Broadgate Circle brand needed
to be established to support and enhance all of their communications. Underscore’s role was to articulate the leasing opportunities for potential retail and restaurant occupiers, raise consumer awareness of what is to come, and above all create a sense of excitement about this major new destination for the workers, visitors and residents of the City and central London. We built on the look and feel of the brand’s story, “A Living Destination” and connected the narrative at every opportunity including the creation of “living” hoardings with a built in light experience so they come alive at night, and screens that are updated in real time.
Combining online and offline
Dwight Greisman, CMO at Forrester’s once described integrating marketing communications as, “not about bricks or clicks, but bricks and clicks”. The barriers between online and offline are continuing to evaporate and the best brands are not only making the transition between a virtual and real-world retail experience seamless; they are truly enhancing it by providing people with an engaging experience.
London’s infamous Regent Street is ahead of the curve in making a ‘bricks and clicks’ world a reality with owners, Crown Estate, introducing a smart phone app that utilises location-aware beacon technology to deliver discounts, new-product promotions and other alerts to the smartphones of shoppers as they walk past stores and restaurants. With the right customer profile the possibilities are endless for brands, but they need to tread carefully. There are obvious privacy issues launching services like these, if not utilised correctly they could do more harm than good. Studies by Accenture indicated that 61% of millennial shoppers would trade privacy for personalised offers from retailers. Clever brands will ensure they are adding value to the consumer rather than invading their privacy.
Consistency, consistency
A brand cannot exist in a vacuum. Great branding and design comes alive in its real-world application. Consumers distrust brands that present inconsistent service and experiences across platforms, whether they are offline or online. As a customer are you really going to buy anything from a brand you don’t trust? For retailers, it is important to consider engagement through sight, sound, touch and interaction, creating an emotional connection where brands are experienced rather than observed. The overall brand experience should be reflected in every touch point with the brand, from how an organisation talks and acts with its customers, its employees and its business partners. In other words, it starts from the inside out.
One of underscore’s most recent clients was Chelsea in Bloom, an annual event run by Cadogan Estate to entice attendees of the Chelsea Flower Show to visit their retailers. For the fourth consecutive year they were looking for a unique brand story, consistent across channels, to support 2014’s theme of “a journey through fashion, food and lifestyle”. Underscore’s “Creation in Colour Wheel” concept was chosen as a powerful, dynamic and iconic symbol of ‘unity through diversity’, celebrating all things nature and colour as the streets of Chelsea blossomed. The designs were immediately recognisable and had instant impact across all touchpoints including exterior signage, digital, online applications and varying collateral. The results of this integrated and consistent approach speak for themselves. Chelsea in Bloom experienced a 26% increase in visitors, which possibly contributed to the Cadogan Estate achieving an excellent retail estate valuation increase of 16%.
In order to compete in today’s saturated, global market, brands must be strategic about what messages they are communicating. Pretty collateral and humorous campaigns won’t deliver long lasting results. Start by uncovering your brand’s unique and memorable brand story, one your customers actually care about. From there, look to seamlessly integrate the brand experience in the virtual and real world. Also ensure your message is delivered consistently online, offline and everywhere in between.
So if you need a place to start, the key question is this – what’s your brand story?
[1] How Global is the business of Retail, CBRE, 2014