Sometimes you just know it’s time for a change. In business, there are many situations where the best course of action is to take a different path. Maybe you’ve just purchased an existing business from someone else. Perhaps your market has changed because your customer base is younger, older or more diverse culturally than before. Chances are you’ve looked around and realized that there are new competitors trying to eat your lunch – after all, everyone from gas stations to grocery stores sells flowers these days.
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| Creating a solid marketing strategy is crucial to help reposition your business in a changing marketplace. |
It’s one thing to acknowledge that change is good and even necessary but actually repositioning a business can be a time-consuming and costly proposition. You’re possibly looking at new business practices, new products, a new store design and or even a new business name. Is the upside worth the aggravation?
You won’t know until you do some serious navel gazing and planning. This stage of the process can be dirt cheap, a lot of fun and very insightful. Diane Mahony, retail consultant with Perennial Inc. in Toronto, has worked with some of Canada’s big-name retailers as they navigate their way through this area of a repositioning initiative. Her advice at this stage of the game is to start with a healthy dose of practical reasoning. “It’s really important to be realistic about what can be accomplished,” says Mahony. “Don’t pretend to be something you’re not. If creativity isn’t a key point of difference for a business then perhaps strong customer service is a better core for the brand positioning.” It’s a good point. While we may want to think of ourselves as being exceptionally creative, if the current bench strength on your team isn’t heads above the competition then you’ll need to bring that talent in house or choose another pillar for the brand.
Next up is a good 360-degree evaluation. This does just what the name implies – it looks at things from all angles. This means you should look at your business through the customer’s eyes. “Sometimes we just stop noticing the cracks and outdated merchandising because we pass it every day and we become immune to it,” suggests Mahony. “Try walking up to your business with a fresh pair of eyes as though you’re seeing it for the first time as a new customer would.” Elicit input from your team, your current customers and people who aren’t customers. From this last group you’ll want to know why they aren’t buying from you. It may be that your hours of operation aren’t convenient or that they don’t know where you’re located. You may even discover there’s a service issue you weren’t aware of. Look at what your competitors are doing. What are they doing well? Find the gaps in the market that aren’t being served by anyone else. Is someone out there partnering with wedding planners or home stagers? When you look at potential customers, don’t just think business to consumer (B to C): think in terms of business to business (B to B). As consumers continue to stop at grocery stores, gas stations and other venues to pick up their cash-and-carry flowers, developing strategic alliances with other businesses such as home stagers will be a niche of importance. So now that the soul searching is complete, what about the outbound activities? What if the name of your business just isn’t working? Should you change it?
“A good business name should clearly state what the business does well,” Mahony says. “Changing a name may not be the best move if there is a lot of established awareness associated with the business.” If you’ve just purchased an operation from another business owner who ran it for years under an established name and it’s a beloved landmark then think twice before you change the name. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. Look at your notes from your analysis of your business. If you listed creativity as a key strength – choose a name that communicates this positioning. It can be as simple as going on the Internet to an online Thesaurus and typing in “creative flowers.” You’ll get several synonyms for these words that may hold the nuggets of a new name. Be cautious before opting to go with the simple “Jane’s Flowers” – it may give your ego a boost to see your name in lights on the storefront but it won’t tell a story to your customers.
Look at how your store is merchandised. Is your store arranged in any meaningful order or have you placed accessories throughout the store with no rhyme or reason? Display your pricing clearly – people want to know what things cost and they may assume your designs are more expensive than they are. You’d hate to lose a sale because someone assumed incorrectly they couldn’t afford it! Try arranging things by colour and price point. Invest in some good photography highlighting your most attractive signature arrangements and make some large posters to show what it looks like along with the price. Don’t rely on the same old stock photos provided by external agencies – they don’t show what you really can do. Flowers are an aesthetic purchase and you need to celebrate this in your merchandising. Set a budget for your repositioning exercise and keep at it. You don’t have to make all the changes at once and some of the most effective repositioning strategies are very inexpensive.
When asked what the biggest “bang for the buck” action a retailer could take towards a revitalized retail experience Mahony emphasizes the familiar phrase “cleanliness is next to Godliness.” She advises that simply getting rid of “the clutter and making the retail space nice and open can create an incredible impact.” It’s great advice. Sometimes we have so much clutter in our stores that it’s hard for customers to navigate. Make your shop an “easy shop.”
Look at your sales per square foot, transactions, average sale and total sales before and after your “retail makeover.” You’ll likely see the benefits of your repositioning exercise fairly quickly. Once you’re clear about your retail brand you’ll find it much easier to communicate it to the market. Change is sometimes challenging and a wee bit scary. At times like this it may be wise to look to our flowers for life’s lessons, as this famous quotation by Anaïs Nin summarizes nicely: “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
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