David Jones undergoes ‘complete rethink’ to align marketing with brand purpose

One of my all time favourite marketers

So they don’t know what their purpose is? And they expect a research company to tell them?

Let me help you out: if you have to ask, you don’t have one.

She is confusing “purpose” for “positioning” -a common mistake, in these buzzword-bandwagon-jumping times.

Might be worth her reading this post: https://mumbrella.com.au/three-uncomfortable-truths-brand-purpose-259011

lolz The level of bullshit spouted sometimes exceeds comprehension.

complete rethink of its brand purpose
Leading an extraordinary Life tagline
out of step with its purpose
anchored back to purpose
have purpose, values and mission really aligned to what will be our future campaigns.”
reassess its purpose.
“We have redefined our purpose,”

ahh bugger it, ive gotta stop there as i keep throwing up in my mouth.

what a load of bullsh*t

This is painful. I really feel sorry for you when you have to front your boss/bosses and explain to them how your newly created brand vision/purpose isn’t translating into sales.

Just another case of a marketer trying to justify their relevance in a digital-centric market place. Consumers simply don’t care about your “brand purpose” DJs, get with the times.

Just give them a range of brands at affordable prices and they will buy with you. They don’t care about you as much as you think. Purpose, vision, mission, values etc.. are at odds with the key drivers of sales- PRICE, PRODUCT, CONVENIENCE.

You have just wasted millions of dollars in research.

Tim, get on board the bandwagon friend cause I reckon they’re 3 from 3 based on the article you reference.
1. research helps uncover purpose rather than inventing it.
2. they’re moving toward genuine purpose because they weren’t living their positioning of “extraordinary”. Once their purpose is announced I’m sure they’ll strive to prove it at every opportunity.
3. DJs is a premium offering so going back to “purpose” is an appropriate premiumisation strategy.
I’ve never met Victoria, but she doesn’t sound very confused to me. She could become one of my favourite marketers too. As for buzz-words, sometimes there’s a reason for a lot of buzz about something.

“We are not extraordinary in every channel and in every campaign”… you still won’t be even after you do all of this work. It shows a real lack of understanding of the key drivers of brand growth.
A better brand positioning document won’t stop customers leaving because your competitors in retail and online are doing a better job at meeting the most important customer needs.

“50 David Jones staff sat in rooms talking with consumers about the brand”

That really is all that needs to be said about this.

Jamie -just because they are abandoning a positioning/endline/ad-idea like “extraordinary” does not mean that they have a genuine purpose.
If they had one, they’ed know it. It wouldn’t take a research company to uncover/invent one.
Shall we have some guesses as to what the DJ’s purpose may be?
“Helping you self-actualize via consumerism”?

that’s not what I said Tim. What they have is recognition that platitudes are just that and that just saying ‘extraordinary’ isn’t enough. Brands often lose their way and have to get some clarity around what makes them really tick.
You can be cynical about it but the massive revival K-Mart had a couple of years ago was research driven. They uncovered (not invented) the role of the brand in the consumers life and that gave the creative agency something to work with.
The alternative is that you just keep guessing and hope you come up with a sweet ad.

Those economic models will tell the story of how you are driving traffic/sales because they just include marketing channel data. The model is manipulated to show a result , a result that makes the marketer and their media company look good. totally unscientific. Try modelling it with real factors that drives traffic , like price and product , and you will see those marketing channels return on nothing .

Seriously – DJ’s has no idea why its brand is not connecting with consumers?

Here’s my analysis for free (remember you get what you pay for).

DJ’s customer service is lousy and products in a lot of cases are overpriced rubbish. Fashion is targeted at the young which I find ironic as a lot of men and women with the cash to spend are like me, over 40 yet cannot find suitable clothes or, if we do, we can’t find the staff to help us purchase them. If I’m going to bother going online I shop at Nordstrom or Macy’s – better quality and choice and even the AU$ against the US$ drop means you can still get value for money.

Hopeless cause…the search for DJs purpose is like marketing version of “where’s wally”

Jamie, I wager advertising research was secondary in the success of Kmart when compared to the massive revamp of the in store experience, layout, supply chain revamp, house brand strategy and pricing strategy.

How’s this for some more free advice ? It’s actually about basic retailing not gobbledegook marketing speak by people who probably have never sold anything in a store or served a customer in their lives. How’s this DJ’s – actually have prices on the sale items? Can’t tell you how many times sale items are not priced…silly and slack.Have some real “sales” – the men’s shoes in the latest sale look cheap and nasty. I noticed no Italian Milana shoes which are generally nicer quality at the Chatswood store in latest sale…lots of new – ( cheaper buy ins of old stock ? ) brands appearing.
Stop flogging me Amex cards. If you have appliances with missing bits DON’T sell them to me at a Sale only to find out at home I need to spend more time and money getting them fixed. Throw them out and have some respect for your customers. There’s a start.

What seems to be overlooked here is that David Jones is now Woolworths.

It was bought for $2.5 BN by Woolworths South Africa who did it to apply CEO Ian Nairn’s (ex-Country Road) successful retail marketing formula of good value fashion merchandise, value-priced, with far less premium designer concept gear presence in-store, and more in-house brands (i.e Country Road, Trenery, etc) that has worked gang-busters for them before.

That’s the only purpose Victoria’s talking about. It’s just glossed up in buzz words.

+1 @12/Jenna.
DJs (and Myer) lost the retail war about a decade ago ( at least) when they removed floor staff from their stores. Should the hapless customer actually find an employee, they were too busy stocking, or filling in paperwork to help, or basically knew nothing.
Online – they never really got there – competitors ate that space before the Big 2 even woke up from their long board lunches.
DJs and Myers will got the way of Mark Foys, Walton’s and Grace Bros. …. Gen Y says: Who????

“Complete rethink to align brand with purpose”?

And all that other guff. I could only be more astonished by this fiddling while Rome burns if I was a DJ shareholder. People keep their jobs for presiding over this nonsense?

Hang on. Maybe I can get some of that money for the old bits of string I have in consultants’ draw.

A whole stack more research needs to be done this way. Make your employees the moderator in open-content research groups amongst current customers and get those employees to tell you about your brand. Particularly if you are daring to consider “hub” content – it carries the sharpest axe of any medium.

I once went to buy an item in the David Jones Clearance. That was when they used to advertise, “We don’t have sales at David Jones. We only have twice-yearly clearances.” I finally found the item and went to buy it, only to be told, “Oh, no, that’s not a clearance item. The clearance items are all gone.” Never mind that the clearance was still on and the item was the same as advertised…

I’ve rarely been back since. But I did walk past the front door the other day and saw the theft detectors festooned with inverted yellow paper bags, all emblazoned with “MID-SEASON SALE NOW ON”. So it seems they now do have sales. I wonder whether they still have bait-and-switch?