Sir Phillip Green knew what he was doing when he sold the company for \u00a31 to a group of inexperienced \u2018entrepreneurs’. He was abandoning a sinking ship, unwilling\u00a0\u00a0to go down with it or to invest some of his \u00a35.8Bn fortune to revive the BHS brand and offering.<\/p>\n
The firm ultimately collapsed after its new owners failed to secure \u00a370m for a turnaround. \u00a370m I\u2019m sure that would have been easily found from Sir Green’s fortune.<\/p>\n
In the end, potential investors and lenders knew that BHS was dead in the water and refused to back an ailing brand that lost its significance with customers a long time ago.<\/p>\n
What was BHS’s brand in the end?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The artificial changes that the purchasing group made in its final days simply weren\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n Whilst the new branding (1) was a nice touch it was already too late, a cosmetic measure for a company critically burdened by high overheads and an astonishing pensions deficit.<\/p>\n It does raise the question as to the company\u2019s identity in its final few months. The new BHS(1), Bhs (2) or British homestores (3)?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The failure to establish a consolidated brand that customers could identify with was symptomatic of a complete failure by management to make the retailer relevant again.<\/p>\n As confused as they company\u2019s branding was its in-store offering. Instead of focusing on its core offering the company expanded its offering in a desperate attempt to gain market share. BHS moved into Perfume and food, further confusing consumers and moving into already occupied territory!<\/p>\n Its venture into food was somewhat bizarre as rival M&S already dominated this space. Their confused venture was defined by their stocking of discount Happy Shopper<\/em> products alongside \u2018premium\u2019 brands. A perfect symbolism of the company\u2019s failure to settle on its offering and identify its target market.<\/p>\n Its perfume offering also ventured into a space already dominated by Debenhams and Boots. I’m shocked at what value management thought they could add by stocking perfume alongside homewear.<\/p>\n In the end, instead of focusing resource into branding and customer initiatives the company expanded and was left severely outgunned by rivals Debenhams, M&S and John Lewis.<\/p>\n Just take a look at advertising spend;<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Source: Marketingweek.com<\/a><\/p>\n Not surprisingly the underinvestment in the company\u2019s brand and offering lead to an abysmal YouGov Brand Quality Metric<\/a> with the company achieving a score of 12.3, way behind rival Debenhams (38.8) and M&S (59.5).<\/p>\n What next for BHS stores? <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n In the end, BHS ended up like Woolworths, a tired brand that failed to move with the times. The attempts to offer everything ultimately lead to delivering on nothing and now customers can look forward to useful and significant offerings on the highstreet.<\/p>\n As, of the ashes of the old Woolworths, companies such as Poundland, B&M bargains, Iceland and Wilko came to occupy the derelict stores the same will happen again.<\/p>\n With countless online polls showing shops such as H&M, Zara and GAP as prefered occupiers for BHS stores I expect the reality to be harshly in contrast.<\/p>\n![\"BHS1\"](\"http:\/\/frugalstudent.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/BHS1-300x200.jpg\")
\u00a0![\"BHS2\"](\"http:\/\/frugalstudent.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/BHS2-300x169.jpg\")
![\"bhs3\"](\"http:\/\/frugalstudent.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/bhs3-300x187.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/frugalstudent.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Screen-Shot-2016-08-27-at-16.52.41-300x72.png\")
<\/p>\n
![\"Screen](\"http:\/\/frugalstudent.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Screen-Shot-2016-08-27-at-17.22.19-281x300.png\")
<\/p>\n