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.