It's all about relevance

CRICKET appeared on the Ten O’clock News last night – well to be accurate, our offices  appeared  because we live in the same New Oxford Street building as the Jessop's flagship store featured in all the news feeds! However, no sooner had we started reflecting on the brand implications of Jessop's unsurprising fall into administration after 77 years trading, than the Danish luxury sound and vision brand Bang & Olufsen announced their ‘strategic’ closure of 125 European retail stores.

Is there a link and are there any lessons for the larger brand community?

Well the primary link appears to CRICKET to be all about relevance – or lack of.

In June of last year Jessop’s probably felt like some latter-day plague victim, watching the closure of the Jacob’s Photo flagship store opposite and knowing that it was only a matter of time before the High Street Irrelevance virus hit them too. 

It was largely death by Internet but there are some other factors as well. Fewer people are buying ‘never with you when you want it’ cameras now they have a perfectly good camera in a smartphone that uploads seamlessly onto their social media site. Those who are buying cameras, and who do want advice, trust the web forums more than any minimum wage spotty sales assistant and it’s a click through to purchase (not to mention probably a cheaper price). Knowledgeable enthusiasts want to go to the specialist independent where the person behind the counter is a keen amateur, knows their stuff and is able to build a relationship. Jessops were caught in the killing ground – and didn’t have time to reinvent themselves. Interestingly, our flagship store underwent a re-invention only 9 months ago… but apart from being smarter, the actual offer didn’t look any different from what was already there. It certainly wasn’t either an amazing photographic experience centre, or a re-invention around personal advice or service.

B&O have pulled the plug (at a cost of £11m) on the European franchised B&O store network it built up over the past few years due to “a significant underperformance” of the stores. They are also spending a further £10m buying themselves out of their existing dealer arrangements in BRIC markets where they are focusing their growth. Our experience of B&O stores across Europe is that they are little more than glorified showrooms… a limited sense of anything that could be called a brand experience centre. When they have control of their brand in BRIC markets it will be interesting to see how they handle it. 

The B&O brand today is much more than the bad old days of a Philips TV in a brushed steel B&O cabinet… but to realise their brand potential they have to make the brand relevant to the BRIC luxury brand market. And that’s going to require more than a glossy showroom and a chap in a nice suit. JS