Bricks and brands

One reason, only too often, is that retail brands are not really brands at all but a misnomer for labels and/or fascias. A French associate berated me last week for the lack of an English word for ‘enseigne’ (normally translated as ‘fascia’).

My suggested ‘insignia’ was dismissed as not really English. Nonetheless, authentic seals of approval - culminating in royal warrants (how topical) - are certainly more substantial than mere sign-writing on store facades.

Store locations are, by definition, in the public domain, so when one of them closes down the name above the door is cast into darkness. Pruning the estate (courtesy, fashionably, of a CVA) can contain this to the local level, and keep the corporate fascia lights switched on, for a while at least.

But if all the doors shut up shop at once, oblivion awaits; though House of Fraser’s recent deal with Biba (might the high street’s secrets also be subject to a 30-year rule?) proves that resurrections can occur.

The mortality of bricks and mortar, and retailers’ vulnerable dependency upon it, has been thrown a virtual lifeline. Not only is online set to shine ever more strongly, but the pure-play leaders are showing that the channel itself is the brand.

‘The mortality of bricks and mortar, and retailers’ vulnerable dependency upon it, has been thrown a virtual lifeline.’

Amazon and Asos, never to be dismissed as mere fascias, have valuations that are heavily underwritten by brand equity. This status affords them the confidence to leverage their brands for their competitors’ or their merchants’ advantage - Asos directing its shoppers to other sites, Amazon fulfilling for third parties - and classifies them as consumer goods companies as much as retailers.

So who should actually own the brands: the retailers, the consumer goods companies or the channel-operators?

Maybe the best brand owners are those who know best how to market them. Neil Cole, the brother of Kenneth Cole - no slouch himself when it comes to creating and propagating a brand - is the chief executive of Iconix, a US-based (and now also European) house that licenses its portfolio of 30 wholly owned brands through exclusive contracts with major retail groups.

These groups - which include Walmart, Target and Macy’s - maintain their private label programmes and continue to distribute their suppliers’ brands, but enjoy significant upside at the same time from giving precious space to showcase unique collections - which they design/source themselves - under brand names that Iconix guarantees to proclaim with widespread and highly professional marketing support.

If retailing is the oldest form of marketing, let the new marketers have their say.

Michael Poynor managing director, Retail Expertise