"Why did you close down your Boat Basin branch?", asked one of my audience after I completed my speech on Winning the War of Brands.
Apparently, there were 2 thoughts behind this query:
A. Was the decision a result of a need to stop bleeding as a brand?
B. Was it caused by a shift in consumer behavior?
The actual was of course far from both.
Boat Basin had been our flagship store for quite some time and had laid the base for much of our expansion throughout the country. Such was the association that customers had that although we recently replaced that store with 3 new options closer to their homes, they still wanted to keep coming back to the original.
Memories!!! Sigh......
The Boat Basin Pizza Hut had been designed by the best architect and interior designer, Mr. Shahid Abdulla, and everything else, from menus to people, had been carefully crafted to give a unique experience to the customers. That care is what defined everything that flowed out later and it seemed to have left such an effect that customers still rue the fact that there is no longer that branch for them to go to.
Sadly, the entire retail industry in Pakistan hasn't matured enough to realize how important these initial efforts are. In their quest to make quick money, they fail to "invest" long and hard enough to make it count. Interestingly, that's what makes the eventual difference. Pizza Hut is a huge brand in Pakistan and is inshaAllah destined to remain so for years, but then there are these myriad retail concepts that never get to establish themselves beyond being just-another-neighborhood store.
This, in my opinion, is one of reasons why many retail businesses in Pakistan can never hope to "make it large". I just hope they can have this paradigm shift and think beyond just making their kitchen run in the short run.
Apparently, there were 2 thoughts behind this query:
A. Was the decision a result of a need to stop bleeding as a brand?
B. Was it caused by a shift in consumer behavior?
The actual was of course far from both.
Boat Basin had been our flagship store for quite some time and had laid the base for much of our expansion throughout the country. Such was the association that customers had that although we recently replaced that store with 3 new options closer to their homes, they still wanted to keep coming back to the original.
Memories!!! Sigh......
The Boat Basin Pizza Hut had been designed by the best architect and interior designer, Mr. Shahid Abdulla, and everything else, from menus to people, had been carefully crafted to give a unique experience to the customers. That care is what defined everything that flowed out later and it seemed to have left such an effect that customers still rue the fact that there is no longer that branch for them to go to.
Sadly, the entire retail industry in Pakistan hasn't matured enough to realize how important these initial efforts are. In their quest to make quick money, they fail to "invest" long and hard enough to make it count. Interestingly, that's what makes the eventual difference. Pizza Hut is a huge brand in Pakistan and is inshaAllah destined to remain so for years, but then there are these myriad retail concepts that never get to establish themselves beyond being just-another-neighborhood store.
This, in my opinion, is one of reasons why many retail businesses in Pakistan can never hope to "make it large". I just hope they can have this paradigm shift and think beyond just making their kitchen run in the short run.
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