Inspiring fearless style not fashion followers
The Challenge
For nearly two centuries, Harvey Nichols had held its position on London’s fashionable Knightsbridge as a beacon of high fashion, but by the mid-2010s its iconic status was in decline. Facing the toughest-ever retail environment and stiff competition from newcomers such as Net-a-porter and Dover Street Market it was fighting for its very survival. It needed to rediscover its passion and adapt to new customer needs and expectations. It needed to put customers back at its heart.
The Impact
9
9
9% income
increase
for the year Mar 2019
9% revenue growth to £210m
for the year Mar 2018
3rd
From 21st to 3rd in Which? High Street Survey
putting it on a par with John Lewis
The Outside-in Perspective
For more than a decade, Harvey Nichols had failed to recognise or act on changing customer needs. By speaking to existing and potential customers, we re-visited what the brand was all about to understand where it could innovate and how it could reclaim its relevancy for today’s stylish shoppers.
The Insight
Through our conversations, we discovered that rather than enabling customers to feel confident and able to fulfil their need to be seen as stylish and unique, many potential customers were, in fact, intimidated by the brand’s ‘fashion sheep stance’.
What they needed were products, inspiration and motivation to be the best version of themselves, not pressure to follow the fashion crowd. They needed to ‘inspire fearless style’.
The Solution
Refocusing attention on the customer rather than the products, we created a ‘Customer Promise’ - to inspire customers to stand out, be unique and be ‘fearlessly stylish’ - in order to keep customers front of mind at all times.
This new way of thinking and acting inspired new ways of working - from rebranding sales assistants to ‘Style Advisors’, to launching a handbag refurbishment service and launching a members’ app. A customer-led scorecard helped track progress against the promises and financial success was viewed as an outcome, not the primary focus.
The turnaround was captured in this feature from Contagious.