I was fortunate to see Zoodle, a new retail concept from WH Smith, at the international terminal of Melbourne airport earlier this week.
From the bright yellow fixtures to the brand-name products mix to the name, this is a fresh new business that could fit nicely in a variety of retail situations. It’s very kid friendly, very fun.
In terms of brands, the store offers excellent representation of Lego, Moshi Monsters, Hello Kitty, Crayola and more. Inside the store, the brands are the hero. Zoodle appears above the entrance.
What WH Smith has done with this new format is to pursue change in a way similar to what we need to do in our channel. They have a well-known brand yet have gone with a new brand ahead of this to chase new customers. While it looks like they are still playing with the model, you can see that they are using the new name to drive a departure form a traditional Children’s focused book and other retail store.
Our Newsagency of the Future could benefit from a similar approach. Starting with a completely different name and under this building a new retail format that is relevant to today and the future. What many newsagents have today is more of a homage to a fading past.
I like the look of this.
As a follower of WH Smith for 40 plus years it’s great to read your review of their new concept store. Your thoughts on how the Newsagency channel can learn from the “experiment” are useful. Cheers!