From a Brand Renewal to a Brand Extension

The objective is to create for a company of the sector we have been assigned :

- Either a new and unfamiliar brand extension
- Either a brand renewal 

In our case the sector is "Department Stores" and we have chosen Harrods.

On the one hand Harrods is the most famous department store in the world and has a very strong heritage.

We could almost say that London wouldn't be london without Harrods.

It is one of the touristic destination just like Buckingham Palace or Big Ben.

On the other hand we could consider that Harrods is a bit stuck in the past and less modern compared to London competitors as Selfridges or Liberty.

Therefore it is a brand with plenty of opportunities as there is lot of things to do...

Harrods is a very large structure. "Harrods group of companies including Harrods Bank, Harrods Estates,Harrods Aviation and Air Harrods" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrods

They are already selling everything possible and imaginable in the store. The legend tells we could order a real elephant at the pet store...

Harrods is
"the master of the brand extension"

Selling everything on the Harrods name from a teddy bear to Marmelade.





Therefore, at first I thought it might be difficult to create a brand extension and that I should rather work on a global brand image renewal in order to make Harrods more edgy.

But after some research I realized two main things that made me change my mind.

Firstly, the company has already done a lot recently to modernize its image, especially by using state of the art digital technologies .

The company has changed of ownership half a year ago. Mohamed Al-Fayed who was the owner since 1985 sold it for £1.5 billion to the Qatar Holdings, the sovereign wealth fund of the state of Qatar in May 2010. The change of owner & management is definitely the beginning of a new era. In the last year the brand has launched a GPS-based app to help in-store shopping, an app to buy via mobile and a magazine.




Secondly, their relatively “old-fashioned” positioning is maybe the one that fits them the best. As stated by the brand consultant Jackson Mahr:
http://www.brandchannel.com/features_profile.asp?pr_id=272

“The store is an example of how a brand steeped in tradition and legend can become a kind of museum exhibit (...) We like it to be as staid, traditional, and reliable as the House of Lords, a Cricket test match or indigestion after Christmas dinner. »

Unlike its competitors, Harrods cannot dramatically change without risking the erosion of its brand. It doesn’t mean that Harrods can’t evolve with its time but an important change in brand image might very risky and not appropriate. Therefore, we will try to come with a Brand Extension idea.

Introduction and Methodology

You could ask us why we arbitrary consider Harrods as a bit old-fashion and non edgy...

But a simple google search is an effective way to confirm that Harrods is not the most trendy department store today.

• If we google: "Best shop london"

The first result is the Time-Out annual award.

http://www.timeout.com/london/feature/482/londons-50-best-shops-50-41

Liberty : Winner - 1st

Selfridges : 2nd

Harrods : .... Even not listed on a 50 stores list

• If we google: "Best department store"

The first result is

http://www.selfridges.com/

As it has been voted "best department store in the world"

Harrods was even not in the finalists.

"The award, conferred at the Global Department Store Summit in New York, was determined by executives and industry experts from a field that included the world's biggest department stores.
Criteria by which the competitors were judged included the strength of their brand, innovation, in-store experience, customer service and financial results."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/7825262/Selfridges-named-worlds-best-department-store.html

• If we google : "department store"

Selfridges : 1#

Harrods : 2#

Macy's : 3#

Printemps : 4#

Galleries Lafayette : 5#

As a result we can conclude that Harrods is still very famous, but might lack in innovation.

The company seems to rest on its laurels, happy enough with their iconic status.

ID card & Impressive Figures

Type	Private company
Industry	Retail
Genre	Department Store
Founded	1834
Founder(s)	Charles Henry Harrod
Headquarters	London, United Kingdom
Key people	Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani
Products	Quality & luxury goods
Owner(s)	Qatar Investment Authority
Employees	5000+
Parent	Harrods
Website	www.harrods.com

"The store occupies a 5-acre (20,000 m²) site and has over one million square feet (90,000 m²) of selling space in over 330 departments. The UK's second-biggest shop, Oxford Street's Selfridges, is a little over half the size with 540,000 square feet (50,000 m²) of selling space."


(source : Wikipedia)

WELCOME!

Welcome to Harrods Hotel.


As part of the module "Managing Luxury Brands", this bog will explore paths to create a new Brand Extension for the department store Harrods. You will discover the evolution of our reflexion throughout the blog.

In the beginning we considered Harrods image a bit stuck in the past and non edgy. This is why we wanted to do a brand renewal at first and called the blog "Harrods in Progress".
But after some researches and discoveries we rather decided to create a brand extension in the end.

This blog will be a continuous diary of our researches. Including pictures, articles and comments.

Our conclusions will only be reported in the essay. This blog is rather the skeleton of our research process.


More Soon


Charles Grison