Building a lasting emotional connection with consumers
We recently launched†The Most Connected Brands Index†to help businesses and brands understand how they are connecting with consumers and provide them with ways to improve. Inga Howell, Global Marketing Director at Superunion, helped contribute to the report:
Here Superunion explains the brand and creative strategy behind Argos that†made it one of the strongest performing brands in the Most Connected Brands ranking.
The challenge
Selling thousands of products to over 70% of UK households through its catalogues and 845 stores, over 40 years ago Argos pioneered the concept of mass value retail.
But with the launch of online shopping, fast in-store iPadpowered ?click and collect? services and a new range of premium products, Argos had grown to become the UK?s largest online retailer, offering universally appealing convenience and choice to millions of consumers. Our task was to transform the Argos brand to reflect its new reality as a digital retailer.
We created a new brand built on Argos? unique proposition: to deliver products they want with immediacy, local availability and choice, something we called Super Retail. And with an added new bold, bright personality, revitalised portfolio of own brands, and the approachable, downto-earth tone of voice, the brand helped Argos take its next pioneering step ? becoming the digital Super Retailer, universally loved by generations of UK customers.
The strategy
Argos offers an optimal blend of online and High Street presence and experience designed for the digital age. Whatever you want, whenever and wherever you want it. So, we built a brand rooted in exactly that.
The bold Super Retailer strategy demanded an equally brave personality that speaks with a confident, active tone of voice, infusing passion and vitality to everything Argos does as a business. The new personality has been expressed through bold and playful bursts of colour, applied to digital and print catalogues, TV and mobile advertising, website and stores.
The new personality inspired the redesign of the new Argos? own brands, from the premium Collection range, a midpriced Home range, to a basic value offering of new home products, for every wallet and occasion.
Starting from just 99p, Simple Value is a range of 140 everyday essential products for the home. We thought simple shouldn?t just mean basic. Shifting the meaning from ?basic? to ?simple with a twist?, the twist came in the form of simple and honest product descriptors and a bold, award winning packaging design in Argos? signature red and white. The copy, with a touch of humour, elevates the conversation, speaking in a simple and honest way. From pillows that ?count sheep? to phones that ?catch up on conversations?,
Simple Value is simply different. From service innovation ideas, redesigning an entire range of home products, to a new approach to the catalogue and designing colourful characters that guide children through ?My Christmas Wishlist? app, we continued to work with Argos for several years, helping to keep this much-loved retail pioneer one step ahead.
Inga Howell, Global Marketing Director, Superunion
