Archive for 7 October, 2009
I’m giving GIVe the thumbs down
I’m having a couple of days off and went to the local big shopping centre/ mall/ retailtainment destination Meadowhall today. Incidentally, having sat through a lot of local shopper focus groups over the years, I can report that most people round here call it MeadowHell…
Aaaaanyway, Meadowhall had a shiny new branch of GIVe open, so I popped in to have a look. GIVe is the brand new retail offering from George Davies, the man behind Next, George at Asda and M&S’s Per Una. There is a philanthropic element to GIVe in a percentage-of-profits way, but the G stands for George, the IV for his fourth womenswear brand and the e for the online element, apparently.
I had really high hopes for GIVe as a new source of smart-clothes-for-work and some of the items on the GIVe website looked lovely but once inside the store I was really disappointed.
The fabrics were obviously of good quality and the shop floor staff were very smiley but the actual designs were Far Too Fussy, like the worse excesses of Per Una (womenswear brand venture #3). I’m sure there were probably some lovely basic pieces hidden in there somewhere, but all the middle aged frill and fuss (or if we’re bring kind, ‘embellishment’) gave me unpleasant flashbacks to fashion crimes I found inside a mail order catalogue aimed at women of a certain age when I was trying to reposition it.
I was out shopping with my Dad, who spent all his working life in fashion retail and his opinion was that the shopfit was so basic, off the shelf and modular that they could clear out the stock and fixtures overnight to empty the unit if they had to. Which doesn’t really inspire confidence either…
The evidence. I rest my case.
September’s Posts of the Month (vote me!)
My post a brief message for European Marketing Directors has been very kindly nominated by Charles for Post of the Month for September over at Only Dead Fish.
My post shares illustrious company with:
How To Be A Better Brand Planner by Julie Cottin
This is Not The Time For Big Lazy Brands by Helge Tenno
Why Not Take A Moment To Define Success Before You Pursue It by Alex Bogusky
When The S**t Hits The Fan, It’s Time To Innovate by Alan Moore
Kate Moss & Me by Neil Perkin
Is Social Media Measurement Really Meaningless? by Michael Litman
They’re all well worth a read and if you wanted to vote for me, here is where to do it… :)
