Brand retailing

I have written before about the importance of brands in our businesses from stationery to ink to gifts. A recognisable brand has a cache of understanding embedded with it. If it is a good brand we retailers can leverage this.

The importance of brands was reinforced this week when I read the story about the Hello Kitty hospital that opened in Taiwan. This takes brand engagement to a new level and while it may seem crazy to some, to Hello Kitty fans this would be the place to have a baby.

In our businesses today we have well known brands. Some of us I am sure could more successfully leverage these to drive traffic and sales. Social media lends itself to brand level engagement as it is through this you can connect your business with a brand, reaching people who otherwise may not have connected your business with the brand.

While we are unlikely to brand our businesses entirely as one international brand, we can, in-store, create spaces owned by brands to become destination stores for products from these brands.

Read the hello Kitty story and maybe you will find the brand inspiration I found.

After reading Political Animal by David Marr, sent out by Network Services, I thought I’d like more time to read more of what we sell.  This is an interesting book. It plays out in an unexpected way and that’s why I’d like to read more of what we sell – to challenge assumptions. While it’s impractical it’s also important – knowing more on what we sell.

Here’s a good example of where there is value in promoting magazines in prime location.  We are pitching the Scooby-Do interactive product from Hallmark at the counter with the latest Scooby-Do comic.  We have done this to add value to the display – to both the products. It makes sense to do this rather than have the products in difference locations in-store. It’s all about leveraging the brand as much as we can.