Pack It In if You Act Like Packard

A Fast Company posting recounted the deadly consequences of a single flawed branding decision by the long-gone Packard Motor Company. As philosopher George Santayana said “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” So listen up, retailers.
     Prior to the 1929 stock market crash, the Packard motorcar was viewed in the U.S. as a highly luxurious automobile. For the first few years after the crash, Packard stayed true to the brand image, using a strong cash position and the cost benefits of a single production line. By the mid-1930’s, though, Packard chose to introduce low-priced “Junior” lines. The brand image suffered greatly. By the late 1950’s, Packard had packed it in.
     In my hometown of Vacaville, a renowned retail restaurant suffered a parallel branding failure. The Nut Tree restaurant was famed for its high-quality, luxury-priced California cuisine. Queen Elizabeth II and Ronald Reagan were among the many celebrity diners. People would fly into the Nut Tree airport and take the little train as a shuttle to the dining room. As I traversed the world providing shopper psychology training and consulting, I could pretty much count on somebody saying at some point, “Oh, you’re from Vacaville. I had a wonderful meal at the Nut Tree years ago, the kids rode on the railroad, and we bought toys I’d never seen being sold anywhere else before.”
     Then after the death of the family patriarch, highly publicized squabbles among the adult children resulted in wild vacillations between luxury cuisine and bargain meals being served at the Nut Tree. The brand identity was muddled, and with more restaurant chains having moved into Vacaville, the end came in 1996. Now the site carrying on the Nut Tree name is a fine retail development and the Nut Tree restaurant cookbook is sold at the Vacaville Museum.
     You may need to assume multiple personalities in your selling. To project proper brand images, maintain clearly delineated parts of the store. The new merchandise here and the resale merchandise there. The relaxed fashions for senior citizens in an area with a different color scheme, aisle width, and perhaps a different fragrance than where the teen fashions are sold.
     Instill in the minds of consumers characteristics of your business that are associated with the name, logo, tag lines, and even celebrity endorsers of your store. Do your branding competently and the images will be indelible.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

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Assume Multiple Personalities to Merchandise 
Burn In Ethical Branding of Your Store