Too Trendy? An update on Boden
Boden, a British clothing retailer selling primarily online and by mail order and catalogue, was founded by Johnnie Boden in 1991 as a mail-order business. Boden, educated at Eton College and Oxford, put enormous sacrifices into getting his business off the ground in the early 1990s. Boden told the BBC in 2014 that his initial offerings were ‘clearly pretty amateurish’, a narrative that would quickly change. By 2002 Boden turned over £48m and 4.5m in gross profit, securing its position in the households of the British middle-class. Boden marketed the business as label for people who didn’t want to wear labels, for those who were interested in fashion but didn’t want it to consume their lives. Boden, who has names for his target buyers, Kate and James Richmond (the surname taken from the London borough closely associated with the geographical location of the brand’s original clientele) was able to successfully dress the middle class — a term now considered outdate and cliche — in their own image. Boden advertised through reminding families of the ‘nice things they can experience without it being a total fantasy’, so models were shot in the countryside or on beaches in the southeast of England — the area that 60% of Boden buyers lived in during the 2000s. By 2017 Boden’s gross profit hit £26.2m. This growth was supported by an expansion into the US, market that Boden himself was familiar with through work in the early stages of his career on Wall Street. In 2017 the company said that almost 40% of its revenues now come from the US. Growth has also been supported in the US by the consistent devaluation of the pound reflected by the decline of interest and stimulation within the British economy post Brexit.
In 2017 the CEO, Jill Easterbrook said that part of its success recently had come from the company adjusting efficiently to the change in customer behavior whereby customers have begun to buy little and often rather than in bulk at the beginning of the season. The firm shifted to a more nimble supply chain enabling it to respond faster to trends and to drop new products more often. As Easterbrook put it ‘there is significant opportunity as we focus on new customers, distribution channels and new markets’, an enticing sentiment. Last week however, Johnie Boden released a statement saying that he had ‘effed up’ and was a ‘complete nitwit’ for trying to make the brand too trendy. Boden, was regretful of recent decisions to cut back on its physical seasonal catalogue and its conservative, but colorful style in favor of more fashionable silhouettes and colors. According to the Times, the company recently recorded an annual gross loss of £4.4m a number that can be explained by Boden who suggested that the label ‘forgot who we were’, ‘we had the sorts of products that were on trend, which is not very us’. Reassuringly however, Boden suggested that ‘these things happen’ pointing to Apple almost going bust, Gucci struggling during the early ‘90s and Britain’s richest man, James Dyson’s failed launch of an electric car intended to rival Tesla. A likely re-branding shouldn’t be too challenging or require the presence of expensive consultants. Marketing speak is not necessary. Boden should simply refer back to his own family life, values and sense of style that has been appreciated by so many in the past.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2003/may/14/fashion.shopping