IADS Exclusive - Boyner: when a retailer differentiates differently

Brand differentiation through a strong and relevant positioning is commonplace. The leading brands are built-in with clear added value and customer promise, meaning that the best-in-class are often pre-empting a whole category in the minds of customers. For example, Louis Vuitton is linked to “the art of travel” (a phrase which encapsulates its origins as a trunk manufacturer, its positioning as a luxury brand, and connotes an idea of freedom of movement), Nike relates to sports and performance, and Emirates Airline with the notion of travelling in style. This is true as well for branded retailers: Apple’s appeal is all about uncompromising quality high-tech lifestyle, Zara about high fashion at affordable prices, and The Gap about quality apparel at the right price. 

For brands and branded retailers, such differentiation in the minds of customers is achieved through heavy marketing investments, allowing them to establish a clear positioning which is at the core of their business. 

Third-party retailers, such as department stores, are in a different position, especially for the larger ones. For a long time, they were seen by both businesses and customers as “houses of brands” and, as such, able to talk to anyone, proposing “everything under the same roof” (JCPenney was promising in 2006 “It’s all inside. For all the sides of you”, and well before that, Harrods’ motto was “all things for all people, everywhere” in Latin). For that reason, they were positioning themselves as being a crossroads (in Paris, well-known slogans like “everything can be found at La Samaritaine” and “there is always something going on at Le Bon Marché”), places of constant discovery (Manor’s slogan is “Special Everyday”, Isetan Shinjuku’s promise in the 1960s was “everyday is new. Isetan is for fashion”), or pre-empted the authoritative position of being the leading fashion destination (Harvey Nichols slogan in the 1950s was “London’s leading fashion house”, Peek & Cloppenburg was “House of Fashion” in 2000, and Dillard’s “the style of your life” in 2009). The notion of price was also important: in 2001 Arnotts was promising to be “the heart of style and value” while John Lewis has long committed to “never knowingly undersell”.  

However, a brand promise based on being the place to be, at the edge of fashion, or at the best price, is quite difficult to sustain in the digital age when the Internet precisely allows the creation of massive digital marketplaces, giving access to the most obscure fashion in a millisecond, and always with the possibility to compare prices with retailers across the planet. 

Some department stores have resisted thanks to their historical advantage: Harrods or KaDeWe’s reputation about luxury is universal (KaDeWe’s slogan in 2004 was “the fine art of first-class shopping”) while Galeries Lafayette is recognized as a place where fashion is much more than a mere promise, by giving access to every trend from across the planet.  

But what happens when the goal is to pre-empt a new market, far from the historical moneymakers that luxury, fashion, cosmetics, or home categories have represented for department stores? 

Last September, for the first time, IADS member Boyner, in Turkey, hostedtheir “Boyner Dynamic” event: 3 days of outdoor activities and gatherings to establish Boyner as the leading lifestyle destination in the country. The catch? Nothing was to be sold. It was all about gathering people together and animating a community. Let’s review it.  

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