Developing a Brand of Electrical Appliance Retailer

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Developing a brand of electrical appliance retailerReg Moses

The Communications Council

Advertising Effectiveness Awards, 1992


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Developing a Brand of Electrical Appliance Retailer

Reg Moses

BACKGROUND

In 1961 a group of service technicians and electrical retailers branded together to take advantage of combined buying power.

They called themselves 'Retravision'.

From such humble beginnings Retravision has grown to become the biggest electrical specialist in the country with well over

470 stores, turning over in excess of $720 million per year. This fact at the time of appointment of the agency was virtually

unknown by the Australian consumer.

Retravision is not strictly speaking a franchise or a licence to use the name. There is a Retravision Company in each state,

and every Retravision store owner is a shareholder in that state company. Directors of the State Company are in turn elected

by the shareholders from their own ranks. The chairman of each state board becomes a director of the national company.

Retravision Australia, the national company, owns the Retravision logo, and does all the National deals with all the national

suppliers.

The concept behind Retravision has not changed since 1961 - that is, to give the small, owner-operator type of retailer the

chance to combat the prices of the chains and department stores.

In November, 1989 a meeting of directors and shareholders of the NSW Company expressed concern as to the strength of the

Retravision image and the effectiveness of the then current mix of advertising.

Historically over $4 million a year had been spent on retail television and catalogue advertising featuring product and price.

The agency was briefed to examine whether there could be a better way.

Strategy development

Our analysis of existing research and initial market observations raised a number of questions.

1. What is the role of retail advertising in this segment, and how does retail advertising effect consumers?

2. To what extent was Retravision

Title: Developing a brand of electrical appliance retailer

Author(s): Reg Moses

Source: The Communications Council

Issue: Advertising Effectiveness Awards, 1992

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understood?

top of mind?

3. Do Retravision shareholders support the same Retravision or merely see it as a buying facility, paying only lip service to the

brand?

Consumer perceptions

A research project conducted by Retravision in Sydney and Newcastle in September, 1989 confirmed our hypothesis that

consumers understanding of what electrical appliance retailers stand for is poor. Despite combined retailer advertising spends

of $40 million p.a. in NSW, advertising recall and brand comprehension are extremely low.

Consumer attitudes to brands of retailers tend to be almost entirely based on the shopping experience and limited expectations

exist as to the benefits of one retailer versus another (Table 1).

Rather than confirm these attributes as key advertising copy points, we interpreted this research data to mean the electrical

retailer market was a virgin market for branding. Key attitudes having been determined solely by the shopping experience.

Most retailers, due to their intense concentration on price/product promotion fail to establish clear identities for their stores and

give no indication of clear benefits of shopping at that retailer. In fact evidence exists to suggest consumers find it very difficult

to differentiate between brands of retailers, their communications being seen as one long blur.

Qualitative research conducted by Keig & Co confirmed consumers who are not themselves in the market for an electrical

appliance view electrical appliance retail advertising as loud, brash and irritating.

The role of retail advertising

Over $40 million a year is spent on electrical appliance retail advertising in NSW alone. This money is expended because by

and large retail advertising works!

TABLE 1: RANKING OF FACTORS INFLUENCING LIKELIHOOD OF VISITING AN ELECTRICAL

STORE

Competitive prices 16.08Informed advice 14.99Demonstration for more complex appliances 13.54Efficient after sales service 12.83Friendly service 12.72Top brand names 11.72Installation service 11.04Wide range of brand names 10.72Wide range appliance types 9.76Good displays 7.93Easy parking 7.55Good store layout 7.54Specialist electrical store 7.54

Convenient to home/work 7.25Open long hours 7.18Fast delivery 7.08

After hours delivery 6.39Part of a chain 4.48Run by the owner 3.35Source:Bennett Research, September, 1989.


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Despite Retravisions accounting for over 20% of all electrical goods sales in NSW, only 4% of consumers could actually

remember they had purchased their goods from a Retravision store.

Brand comprehension

What does Retravision do (Table 5)?

Only 45% of respondents could name the business Retravision was in, despite an investment of over $4 million p.a. in retail

advertising.

Strategy development

We hypothesized that retail advertising makes Retravision highly relevant to a small group of purchasers, but basically fails to

impact on the bulk of the population. We accepted that such advertising is vital to the continued success of the group becauseit does generate store traffic, but retail advertising is limited in its ability to create a brand identity for the advertiser. So we

proposed that the retail advertising account be left with the incumbent agency and that BAM produce an additional advertising

component. One which would create an image for Retravision. One which would ultimately ensure that when anyone is

thinking of buying an electrical appliance Retravision is the first store that springs to mind. We agreed the following

communication objectives for the image advertising.

To make Retravision relevant to consumers even when they are not in the market for an electrical appliance. This in turn

would build higher awareness and understanding of Retravision.

Which would:

Make Retravision an automatic choice for the shopping list.

Make the existing retail advertising more effective.

We identified that, with over 470 outlets Australia wide, Retravision stores are actually part of Australias largest electrical

appliance chain.

The strategy

Target 6 Havent Bought 67Bing Lee 11Source:January 1990 Data Shopping Mall Survey 200 respondents aged 30-45 years.

TABLE 5: BRAND COMPREHENSION

% of respondents

Sell electrical goods 45 Sell TVs 4 ) Rent TVs 20 )

Rent & sell TVs 7 ) 55Manufacturer 4 ) Distributor 5 ) Dont Know 16 ) Source:January 1990 Data Shopping Mall Survey 200 respondents aged 30-45 years.


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Research indicated that if we communicated that Retravision was the biggest, consumers would naturally deduce that

Retravision had competitive prices and a wide range of product. Size was the security blanket that would communicate that

Retravision is knowledgeable about what it sells.

The creative rationale

In April, 1990 a campaign based on 3 x 15-second television commercials featuring oversized electrical appliances and the line

'I said the biggest retailer of electrical appliances - not the retailer of the biggest electrical appliances' went to air in Sydney

and NSW provincial markets (Figure 2).

In June, 1991 two additional 15-second executions featuring a giant music system and TV were added to the mix.

The image campaign was placed on Sydney and NSW Regional TV Networks from April 1990 to December, 1992. In this

time, normal retail TV advertising and catalogue distribution was maintained.

The results

Attitudinal

The campaign is being tracked regularly against key advertising objectives (Table 6).

By the fourth quarter of 1991, Retravision had achieved No. 1 position as store of first choice and the highest spontaneous

awareness for an electrical appliance retailer (Figure 3 and Figure 4).

Turnover

Analysis of Retravisions $ turnover vs the total market for electrical appliances in NSW shows the power of the image

campaign in gaining share for Retravision. This has been achieved with no significant variation in the number of stores in

NSW (Table 7).

1. Break through the clutter of retail advertisements, including those that seek to 'build an image' at the same time.2. Produce highly visible and humorous work which will capture the imagination of the Australia public.3. Single-mindedly position Retravision as the biggest retailer of electrical appliances in Australia.

TABLE 6: KEY ADVERTISING OBJECTIVES

April, 1990 July, 1992

Store of First Choice indexed 100 184rank No. 3 No. 1

Spontaneous Awareness index 100 161rank No. 3 No. 1

Source:Keig/Newspoll Tracking.

TABLE 7: RETRAVISION AVERAGE STORE NUMBERS P.A. NSW

1990 1991 1992

Retravision Average No. of Stores 120 119 122 NSW

July-Dec, Total


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Advertising efficiency

The high cut through of the 15-second approach has enabled a reduction in the total Retravision media spend in both image

and retail categories (Table 8).

SUMMARY

Retravision has recorded a 34% cumulative increase in turnover in one of the toughest retailing environments

since the 1940s. That growth can be traced to a three year campaign designed to make Retravision the store of

first choice for electrical appliance shoppers. All other elements of the Retravision NSW market mix - pricing, in

store promotions, catalogues and traditional price product advertising - remained the same.

In achieving this goal, the agency has developed a model which provides an explanation for why retail advertising works and,

of equal importance, what are its limitations in brand building. By diverting 10.5% of Retravisions media spend from classic

price promotion to image/awareness building, we have made the total advertising expenditure far more efficient.

NOTES & EXHIBITS

FIGURE 1: INTEREST IN PRICE PROMOTION

1990 1991 1992 Increase

Growth in Retravision T/O $'s* +13% +9% +8.8% +34Total Market growth $'s* +3% +4% +6% +14Source:* ABS Retail Trade Data.

TABLE 8: RETRAVISION NSW ADVERTISING EXPENDITURE TREND ($ MILLIONS)

1990 1991 1992 Cum.

Media Image 0.90 0.34 0.24 1.48Media Retail 4.70 4.20 3.60 12.50plus catalogues

TOTAL SPEND 5.60 4.54 3.84 13.98


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FIGURE 2: RETRAVISION, 15 SECS. TELEVISION


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FIGURE 3: STORE OF FIRST CHOICE


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FIGURE 4: UNAIDED AWARENESS


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Developing a Brand of Electrical Appliance Retailer