Challenge: A specialty electronics retailer was losing market share to lower-cost, big-box retailers.

Objective: To explore potential new brand strategies for updating the brand and insuring its long-term relevance against big box retailers. Specifically, Plan-it explored opportunities for building an “expertise positioning” through all aspects of the store experience, ultimately improving the customer experience. The study explored store operations, product and service offerings, and promotional offerings that could help drive sales and customer loyalty.

Solution: To determine the optimal brand strategy, Plan-it utilized focus groups and in-depth interviews across critical markets, specifically targeting key customer segments with a focus on high end customers, those most loyal to the brand and most familiar with it; these customers helped to further clarify the brand’s core values as well as uncover potential areas for opportunities.

Result: Based on insights, Plan-it made recommendations for creating a 365-degree experience for higher-end customers who sought “expertise” from an electronic store; suggestions were made for in-store improvements, product enhancements to the line, service offerings, web site enhancements and promotional opportunities, both in-store and out of store. While the brand ultimately closed its stores, many of the new concept recommendations have been successfully used by other technology and electronics retailers (e.g. store of the future).