Nowadays it seems that some retail brands are thriving where others are simply disappearing from our lives.
How is it that brands such as Hackett and Austin Reed, which essentially offer the same products are travelling in such different directions?
Both offer a good quality product, made for middle England, but the two have very different approaches to their customers.
Hackett (pictured) offer a beautifully designed environment, which Austin Reed tried to emulate and failed resulting in its move out of its flagship store.
While Hackett isn’t a new brand, established in 1979 it seems to still act like a new player – designing and innovating where Austin Reed has not. This is probably the best lesson that more established brands should notice.
At the heart of what makes a brand tick is its essence and how this manifests itself through all channels of communication. Compare and contrast the website, Facebook and Twitter accounts of Hackett and Austin Reed for example, you immediately see that Hackett is confident in its brand and it installs trust with its customers:
Austin Reed however looks to be on sale permanently and therefore does not exude a feeling of authority:
There is so little dialogue between Austin Reed and its customers, there’s no wonder it’s a failing brand. Perhaps a full brand overview would help Austin Reed, bringing onboard a named designer to steer its ranges and help the brand regain its lost confidence.
It’s so important to keep things fresh with comms, particularly in the fickle world of fashion. Abercrombie and Fitch for example seem to be on the slide from a position of complete stability and brand credibility, has it simply not kept itself in touch with its customers?
In Hollister recently, browsing the incredibly cheap sale rail, I was interested to hear that its logo is being trimmed back, is this because they have had customer feedback or because Hollister is losing its confidence?
Conversely, Supreme has those in the know dashing to their laptops at 11am on certain mornings to take advantage of its sales, a fantastic example of digital being used to celebrate a sale.
The queues outside Supreme in Soho during London Fashion Week were mind boggling, here is a brand that will keep its dialogue with its loyal followers, often utilizing the guerilla world of online, to maintain a buzz around the brand without getting too big.
Abercrombie and Hollister should take heed and look at what the likes of Supreme and Stussy do with social media.
On a similar vein to Supreme you notice walking around London lots of small, niche players, starting to emerge – Scotch & Soda, a choccy brand that’s a great example.
Are these small yet popular brands a sign of a resurgent retail market? Or have they appeared as an answer for the consumer’s need for quality and service? Sound familiar? Nowadays you can get value online but you don’t get the same level of service, or the feel of something special as you peruse the unique and carefully curated smaller shops.
The supermarkets are just about to start investing in their stores again and it’s about time too, consumers are fed but with the drab almost identical interiors that have evolved over the last 10 years.
A successful retailer is a sum of its parts, being good in some areas and weak in others will not create a strong proposition. Using social and digital enables brands to listen to their customers and develop a dialogue, if this is backed up with a good range and great service you have success on your hands – stop listening to your customers and you may as well give up.
By Michael Longmore, director of Fishpie Design Agency