Boding well?
It was fascinating to see Johnnie Boden, founder and majority owner of the eponymous UK clothing retailer, donning his designer sackcloth and ashes and holding his hand up for getting things terribly wrong.
It seems he got rather bored answering the needs of his core customers. These were middle-aged mums who didn’t want to necessarily look or feel that way, and so who loved the bright coloured, preppy style Boden offered. Johnnie’s eye was instead caught by the shiny appeal of younger styles and shapes, generally meaning shorter and tighter. But the target young audience wasn’t convinced and the loyal base withered fast, so, they went from a £22M profit in 2021 to a £4.4M loss last year. Ouch and a half. Not content with sitting in the stocks and handing out the tomatoes, as the face of the brand, Johnnie is going to write “personally” to his customers, just in time for their relaunch, which he promises will be them returning to what his valued clients want.
The UK press went crazy over this story, with headlines in every major paper. Why? Because the boss not only fessed up, but used language like “nitwit” and “effing up”? Actually, yes. This certainly delivered greater PR punch than more predictable corporate lines like “sub-optimal strategic positioning” or “adverse market developments”.
We admire him for his candour and for apologising so publicly. It’s rare for a well-known brand to be so open and honest about their mistakes (if it were more common there might not have been such a media feeding frenzy.) We very much hope the positive short-term response can be sustained. However, we had a few reflections.
This use of language might work for many, but for some it might have had a faint ring of calculation and could have backfired. Certainly, it’s an approach you can only use once, both because any repetition wiIl definitely sound phoney and any further admission of failure will make punters lose faith in the brand (think of the internecine wars at Superdry.) When an apology is needed, sometimes the simpler the better.
Don’t forget, customers don’t want to dwell on what you have done wrong, they want to know how you are going to answer their needs and wants. Fine, you needed to apologise, but be quick and turn the spotlight back onto your customers. The activity at the weekend focused solely on the apology and not on the solution. So move on now, show them how you are going to make them look or feel better. Excite people again. Ultimately, your customers care much more about themselves than they do about you.
What’s undeniable, though, is the immediate response from customers to the press coverage has been phenomenal. This shows how pissed off they were with the direction their formerly beloved brand was heading in, but it also shows they really care. What a privileged position Boden are in, to garner such an emotional response. We hope they recognise this and do everything they can to fan these flickering flames of enthusiasm.
The strategic errors made before this screeching handbrake turn, suggest very strongly that the company had not built enough of a dialogue with their loyal customers to have any “canary in the mine” early warning of impending disaster. This needs to be a priority for them, not only to build on the eroded, but still clearly strong, foundations of passion for the brand, giving their customers more of a voice and involving them in their journey of reinvention, but also to ensure that Johnnie Boden never again has to unleash his delightful vocabulary on a startled, but rather charmed world.
Our pick of articles from around the web:
Keeping with the theme of apologies, we wanted to share Bri Leever’s excellent post from a couple of months ago on how to apologise to your online community.
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