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Will a rebrand be enough for Zavvi?

Posted in General, Digital September 21st, 2007 by admin

As we already know HMV, Tower records and indeed Virgin have been suffering huge drops in footfall and sales due to the download culture of today’s music buyer. We hear of the launch of newer, faster and more easily accessible music, film, podcasts etc everyday, whether it be through Apple, Nokia or Vodafone.

In our own research with 16-year-olds this summer, we found that not one of them goes to a traditional retailer to buy music but instead all swoop or download with their mates wherever they hang out.

To my mind the issue with the buy out of Virgin Megastores by Zavvi is not the pros and cons of a rebrand - it’s more an issue of being relevant to today’s consumer. However good the rebranding, will it in isolation make people go there (if they didn’t when owned by a globally recognised brand such as Virgin)? Virgin had credibility. Zavvi has nothing. They need to reinvent the music purchasing experience rather than just re-badge the stores.

The challenge for Zavvi is can they recreate the category and give me a reason to go there? What as a new brand on the high street will they create as the experience? It’s a bigger issue than a new name or logo.

This blog was written by: Simon Moriarty, Studio Design Director at retail design agency Fitch

To read the news story related to this blog, go to mad.co.uk