Resuscitating a brand, confusing another

Four years ago I wrote a blog called 'Brand suicide' in which I spoke of the madness of a UK retailer who owned both a technology brand (Dixons) and a largely white-goods brand (Currys) and who combined them under the name 'Currys.digital', apparently so they could use the Dixons brand online without price conflicts (although they kept the Dixons store names in airports, for some reason). Wonderful. Rename your tech stores with a white-goods brand name.

It hasn't helped that the online Dixons experience hasn't really kept up. Just compare the Dixons front page with that of Amazon. They are also selling white goods through Dixons online. Presumably hoping to learn, they bought upstart Pixmania. This site used to be quite jazzy but now, though better than Dixons, is steadily becoming more corporately plain.

And guess what? The news today said they're bringing back the Dixons store name! Sales are softening and someone had the bright idea to use a name associated with technology to sell technology. Mind you, it won't be that easy. Just bringing back the brand name won't immediately bring back sales. First of all, it will confuse the socks off shoppers who were getting used to the idea of Currys.digital. It will also likely need a good advertising campaign to get the message across. In the run-up to Christmas, and with online sales soaring, they'll need all the help they can get.

And then just to keep things confused, the group also owns the 'PC World' computer stores in the UK, where they are going to rationalize out of town stores by housing Currys and PC World under a single roof, 'dual-branding' the stores. Uh oh. Washing machines and computers. I'll have one of each, please. Or just give up and go online.

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