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Market, Then Market Some More

The closure of Banana Republic in the U.K. is symptomatic of a failure in shopper communication

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Banana Republic has a pretty grand shop on London’s Regent Street, as well as outposts in other major U.K. shopping destinations. It’s been here for a while now and the decision has just been made to scrap the fascia in this country.

To be precise, that’ll be eight stores disappearing – not a huge number, but a significant statement for U.S. retailers operating in Europe and choosing the U.K. as the first port of call when setting up shop. As part of San Francisco-based Gap Inc., this is an outfit that has struggled from the off, in spite of some winsome interiors.

The problem for U.K. shoppers was knowing what it represented, other than a retailer that they’d not heard about and that seemed to offer better-end clothing, with prices to match. This begs the question, how much marketing is necessary to put a retail brand on the international map?

Abercrombie & Fitch (New Albany, Ohio) seemed to have its moment in the sun, but head to its London flagship – and in place of lengthy queues to gain admittance in 2016 – and it also seems to be lacking as far as footfall is concerned. It may be the case that, if you want things to work this side of the water, the message has to be promoted not once or even twice, but on an almost unremitting basis.

This is fine if you happen to be a homegrown retail business and its marketing initiative is part and parcel of your efforts in the location that is home to most of your shops. Put the shops more than 3000 miles from the U.S. East Coast (if you’re a North American retailer) and that expenditure could appear more questionable. Yet if you really want to be something more than a retail flash in the pan, then this is what’s needed. Other U.S. outfits would do well to look at Banana Republic’s U.K. travails. 

John Ryan is a journalist covering the retail sector, a role he has fulfilled for more than a decade. As well as being the European Editor of VMSD magazine, he writes for a broad range of publications in the U.K., the U.S. and Germany with a focus on in-store marketing, display and layout, as well as the business of store architecture and design. In a previous life, he was a buyer for C&A, based in London and then Düsseldorf, Germany. He lives and works in London.

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