Bella Katz on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn

Melbourne’s Chadstone shopping centre has opened its luxury wing to massive crowds. So massive in fact that rather than risk a riot, management started and finished a voucher promotion at 5am on opening day.

Yesterday, a beautiful sunny day, the queues to Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Tiffany, Chanel… were more than 30 deep with security staggering people allowed through the door. By all accounts it has been a veritable success.

Today, a rainy Melbourne day, Luxury has a different story and the new marble floor is dotted with blue plastic buckets as rain, rather than sunlight, pours through that designer glass ceiling.

I wonder what Karl Lagerfeld, Patrizio di Marco et al would have to say about that…

Bella Katz on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn

There is a serviced apartment complex in the Gold Coast’s Burleigh Heads that my family and I have been going to for almost ten years. When I got married all our guests stayed there too, so at a quick calculation I’d say we’ve contributed about $30,000 to their bottom line over the years.

For those who’ve never been there, Burleigh Heads is a beautiful beach that’s close enough to Surfers Paradise to feel connected to the action, but far enough to remain untouched by the overdevelopment other Gold Coast areas have suffered.

This complex was by far the nicest in the area, an area that is basically holiday accommodation the entire length of the coast. It was also very competitively priced for a relatively slick place with the beach just across the road.

In the last few months it has changed ownership and been renamed under its new brand and new management. It has also seriously gone down the gurgler and for all our loyalty over the years, I think we’ve done our dash with this place.

In a one week stay I can reel off this little list of failings:

• Dishwasher was broken: Not a good start for a 3 bedroom apartment with 4 kids under 10. We arrived on the Thursday and management sent someone on the following Wednesday (one day before we left) to check it out. Not to fix it mind, just to review it. Apparently management cannot fix anything inside the apartment, they can only tell the owners to do it.
• Main balcony sliding door jammed: Again, for a beach holiday with the balcony as the key selling feature it ain’t a good look. Maintenance guy came on Wednesday, six days into our stay and one day before we left and said “Yep, previous guests told us about this…”
• Two cereal bowls in the cupboard: Fun times for an apartment that sleeps 8.
• TV remote has broken battery cover and flat batteries: They couldn’t check the batteries and shove some cellotape round the thing?
• Towel rail missing the bar
• Tap dripping in the bathroom
• Bins don’t come with rubbish bags
• Apartment complex UP lift button not working: If you want to go upstairs from the 6th floor you have to push the down button, get in the lift and push UP button when inside. So if someone downstairs has pushed it before you, you’ll ride all the way down before you can go back up again.

Even when you’ve been a guest of this place as many years as we have there comes a point when you start to wonder why bother. If it takes a week for management to call in their maintenance people… If the resort do nothing more than man-the-front-desk and have no control over repairs inside the apartment… If standards keep slipping every time you go… It’s time to look around for a new place. Hell, why not pay more and go somewhere with some customer service? i.e. an extravagant place where they line their bins with bin bags…

Maybe the Gold Coast was a holiday mecca in its heyday and resorts didn’t have to lift a finger to fill the rooms - but those days are gone. Too many choices and holiday time too precious to waste doing the sort of maintenance you left home to avoid.

Management of these places have to lift their game because as guests we can forgive one or two oversights that are dealt with quickly, but lazy service and an entire checklist of chores and I’m looking for a new place to spend my hard earned money.

Bella Katz on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn

Pumpkin Patch children’s clothing is a big deal in New Zealand, being its second largest publicly traded retailer. The chain, which launched as a catalogue business in 1991, now has 235 stores worldwide with close to half of all revenue coming from Australia.

But Pumpkin Patch is in decline. Several weeks ago they announced they would close 20 of 35 US stores in order to curtail further losses. They largely cited the recession as reason for a 7 percent fall in half year profit to NZ$9.5m and attributed the strength of their brand to having cushioned the blow.

I have some other thoughts…

Some of the world’s best marketers talk about how recession can lead to troubled times for one particular type of retailer: the one that’s bang in the middle. This is the brand that is neither premium nor low cost. It is that huge space that occupies the middle market and when finances get tighter it’s just easier for customers to walk away. (For a great article on how premium luxury has no fear of recession, read Luxury Stands its Ground by Mark Ritson.)

Pumpkin Patch sits right in this middle space and, contrary to their belief that they are an ‘innovative retailer’, they have over the years become just another middle of the road brand.

I would argue that when they first launched they sold uniquely designed, well-made, age appropriate clothing out of natural fabrics, such as merino wools and other fibres that New Zealand is known for. They were an immediate success in New Zealand and very quickly became one in Australia. As I’ve mentioned in the past, New Zealanders are fierce supporters of all things home made and ‘Brand New Zealand’ has a premium all of its own too.

So what has happened to that delightful little label? I suspect the same thing that happens to many delightful little labels as they grow up: they start focusing mostly on their bottom line and don’t keep as close a watch on their brand.

Pumpkin Patch now seems to make average-quality, above-average priced clothing in the same designs that low cost retailers such as Target produce. They use a lot of synthetic fabrics such as acrylic and polyester, and just about - if not everything - is made in China. These are not reasons in themselves for A brand’s downfall, but they are all reasons for THIS brand’s downfall. This is not what they set out to be and this is not what attracted loyal customers to them back in 1991.

I have a 2-year old daughter and before she came along I had no idea how determined and researched a customer I was going to become. Authenticity, heritage and craftsmanship are things new parents are prepared to pay a real premium for. For everything else there is Target. I wanted to buy from Pumpkin Patch (because I would argue that expat New Zealanders are even fiercer supporters of NZ products than those living there) but I never did.

There is a Pumpkin Patch in a premium retail position on the children’s floor of Melbourne’s huge Chadstone Shopping Centre. This is the shopping centre where mums are literally lining up as doors open at 9.30am - having an outing with their prams, passing time before baby naps or just being out of the house for a change. There are many children’s stores down there such as Fiona Scanlan’s BIG, ESPRIT, Gumboots, Early Learning Centre, SEED, Cotton On Kids (I’d argue the most successful of the lot). Then there’s always Target, David Jones, Myer etc. There’s a lot of competition and clothing from Pumpkin Patch simply doesn’t stand out.

Before writing this blog I did a quick survey of a few mums about what they thought of Pumpkin Patch. Here’s what they had to say (and I’ll add to it as comments come in):

• “I reckon it’s pretty crappy - I don’t like the designs and it’s pretty overpriced for what it is.”
• “NQR (not quite right) as in age inappropriate designs. Also quite expensive but they’ve had sales most of the year.”
• “I stopped buying from Pumpkin Patch 6 months ago because they are overpriced for stuff that looks like Target, also the stuff doesn’t wash well.”
  
• “My sister gets an esale email almost every day.”
• “I find the designs a bit naff and the fabrics are all fakes like 100% acrylic cardigans.”
  

If I could end on a few words of advice for Pumpkin Patch, as I’d like to see it get through this and find a strong niche, really I would.

1. GO BACK TO YOUR HERITAGE, back to Pumpkin Patch 1991. What did you want to stand for then? Be honest with yourself, do you stand for that now?

2. If you want to continue producing largely mass market designs out of fairly average fabrics, DROP YOUR PRICES. Become a lower cost retailer. There’s a market for that: see Cotton On Kids, Target et all as examples.

3. If you want to stick with the higher priced label IMPROVE YOUR DESIGNS AND QUALITY. Start producing truly exceptional pieces out of beautiful natural fabrics. You may even be able to charge even more and get more profit from fewer customers.

4. DO SOME MARKET RESEARCH. Talk to mums, talk to your current customers, old customers, non customers. Look around at what successful and unsuccessful children’s retailers look like. Work out your position in the market.

5. DON’T TRY AND BE EVERYTHING TO EVERYONE. Don’t be afraid to lose customers if it means you can get more from better ones.

These are a few of the New Zealand children’s labels that I think are stealing Pumpkin Patch’s premium customers. Hopefully they don’t go down the same path as they become more and more successful.

• mokopuna merino
• Nature Baby: organic NZ baby wear
• Merino Kids

Bella Katz on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn

A few weeks ago I was invited to do a presentation to a group of senior executives on Marketing Best Practice. I was ridiculously excited about it because for the last six months I’ve been a a bit obsessed with this very topic (in fact I used the word ‘obsessed’ in my last post too.) I decided to do a quick review of The Good and The Bad of Australian brands right now and one of The Bad I included was the Woolworths / Safeway rebranding.

My big issue with this is just how long it’s taking to change the Safeway name to Woolworths. It has been a good four to five months that I’ve been seeing the Safeway logo with the Woolworths strapline, the Woolworths name in the Safeway typeface with the Safeway logo, the Woolworths logo with the new Woolworths branding. I’ve seen them all at the same time, in the same store, in different stores, on the staff uniforms. I’ve heard the Woolworths jingle on the Safeway tv ad. I’ve seen the Woolworths trucks, the Safeway trucks. I’ve seen my local Safeway staff celebrating Everyday Rewards with the entire store turning orange in recognition of that branding. That happened overnight - no confusion there - they had caps, balloons, signage, uniforms, flyers, loyalty cards, a website.

I’m not entirely sure from Woolworths point of view what the issue is now. It can’t be budget, as surely a company of this size has the budget to implement a new brand very quickly across all areas of the business. It can’t be the awareness issue regarding Safeway being the more prominent brand in Victoria, not any more as we’ve been seeing Woolworths all over Safeway for months. I can only put it down to two things and neither of them are very satisfactory. Either Woolworths’ brand team have been too busy with the launch of Everyday Rewards to focus on retiring the Safeway name. Or they think customers will be too confused if Safeway disappeared entirely and Woolworths took over. Customers are already confused - put us out of our misery!

Bella Katz on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn

I’m just a little perplexed at the Raise a Glass advertising campaign currently screening on Australian TV as brought to us by the RSL, Legacy and… Fosters’ VB. The ads are filmed as moving tributes to fallen veterans, retold by  ex-service men and women, friends and family members. At the end, there’s a shot of an empty seat with a full beer glass and a heartfelt but stoic voiceover plea for the nation to raise a glass in their memory.

In the opening seconds of the first ad I watched, I was touched by the story being told, but when that camera panned across to the beer glass I just thought “Please no… don’t let this be…” and when it was, I thought ah VB, shame on you.

Like the rest of us I enjoy a wine and yes, I raise a glass with friends and family to celebrate occasions. But this ad makes me cringe, it feels a little too much like VB has caught me at a vulnerable moment and turned my celebration into a sponsorship opportunity. 

The media release on Fosters’ website says the appeal aims to contribute more than $1 million to support serving and ex-service men and women, fallen veterans and their families. It’s an amazing cause to support. 

Unfortunately, VB has taken the cause (in a country where binge drinking is a massive issue) and added a rather nasty little condition: The more VB beer we drink, the more Fosters donates to the appeal.

And that’s just sad, isn’t it?

PS. They couldn’t just donate money and not tie it in with consumption?

Yes, that is General Peter Cosgrove saying “One simple way you can honour the sacrifice is…” by drinking more VB.

…vs the DrinkWise ads running at the moment. Does this campaign really stand a chance?