Where Napoleon Perdis Retail Strategy Went Wrong
Troy McKinna is the co-founder of Agents of Spring and Calm & Stormy and author of the just-released Brand Hustle. In this guest post, McKinna (pictured below) casts an expert eye of the recent failings of Australian cosmetic king, Napoleon Perdis…
Napoleon Perdis entered into voluntary administration early this year to “right size” the business. Poor retail conditions, declining shopping centre traffic, increased competition and a long-term shift to online sales has exposed the organisation’s high-cost base.
As part of the administrative proceedings, the Australian beauty brand closed 28 of its concept stores. The brand has also recently ended its long-term partnership with David Jones in favour of a distribution arrangement with Priceline.
This is not the first time the brand has had to right size the business. In 2015, Napoleon Perdis exited the USA market after ten years of building its own store network and partnering with retailers. At the peak, Napoleon Perdis had 3,500 points of distribution across the USA.
Over 25 years the founder and namesake, Napoleon Perdis, has built a strong prestige beauty brand by associating it with the fashion industry and releasing innovative products out into the market. But Napoleon Perdis brand has struggled to build a sustainable and profitable route to the consumer.
In most consumer categories there are two types of retailers – curators and dealers. Curators go to great lengths to ensure the shopper has a rich experience. They carefully select the right range, create store ambience, attract and train great staff and find the best retail locations. In contrast, dealers are focused on the deal. What is the best price we can offer the consumer, to bring in traffic and drive sales volume?
Curated retail environments facilitate sales, but they also help enhance the brand value. They nourish the brand making it desirable and memorable. Owning concept stores is the best way for a brand to create a bespoke sales environment. The challenge of owning stores is the high cost of running them. Retail environments are expensive to open and also very risky in the current retailing environment.
It appears that Napoleon, the creative force behind the brand, has been guilty of being too passionate and bullish with his expansion plans. Did the brand simply have too big a retail footprint for its turnover?
The recent shift from partnering with David Jones to Priceline makes business sense. David Jones has been struggling to find their place in this new retail environment. Department store sales have been declining and don’t appear to be offering any growth soon. The retail footprint of Priceline and the growth potential that it can offer is much more attractive. It would be safe to assume Priceline will move more units than David Jones, but at what cost. By ranging the brand in Priceline, Napoleon Perdis is risking the long-term value of the brand. The retail environment lacks the experience of shopping in a concept store or premium outlet like David Jones.
Napoleon Perdis was also slow to adapt to online retailing, with a low reported rate of 3.5 per cent of turnover coming from e-commerce. Instagram has changed the fundamentals of building and selling beauty brands. A generation of young women is growing up on social media, introduced to and influenced by the new breed of beauty brands. E-commerce offers the opportunity to have a direct dialogue with customers, building a great experience, but without the expensive bricks and mortar footprint.
Napoleon Perdis’ retail history is a great case study for all brand owners. How do you connect your brand’s retail strategy with your business model? Branded concept stores are great for building brands, but they are expensive. What existing retail partners can you supply that offer fantastic customer experience without the overheads? The digital disruption has and will continue to change the retailing landscape forever. How can old brands adapt to online retailing environments quicker? The last lesson will be an ongoing one. How can brands survive ranging in price led retailers and high experience concept stores at the same time?
Latest News
Voting For B&T’s 30 Under 30 People’s Choice Awards Is Now Open!
The entries for B&T‘s 2021 30 Under 30 Awards have, tragically, closed for another year. Now though (drumroll please), you can vote for our People’s Choice award! In the time-honoured tradition of award shows across the globe, we’re handing over voting power to you, the people. Use it wisely. The People’s Choice award is exactly what […]
Enero Group Snares 10’s Carla Webb-Sear For CFO Role
Enero Group has announced the appointment of Carla Webb-Sear as its new chief financial officer, effective 8 March 2021. Webb-Sear joins the Enero Group from Channel 10/Viacom CBS where she held the CFO role for more than two years. She has also spent 11 years with Fairfax Media in a variety of senior financial roles […]
For International Women’s Day, Look Back At B&T’s Past Women Leading Tech Winners: 2021 Applications Close Today!
For this year’s International Women’s Day, B&T is looking back at some of the women we’ve celebrated in the past. The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is ‘Women in Leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world’. Last year, women were disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. A report by Kaspersky called ‘Where are […]
LEGO Revises Its Iconic 1981 Ad ‘What It Is Is Beautiful’ In Celebration Of International Women’s Day 2021
Ever wanted to see your kid on that famous LEGO ad from 1981? Now you can, says the company, thanks to a new ad campaign. To mark International Women’s Day, LEGO is launching a new ad campaign focusing on young female builders. The print campaign is based on LEGO’s now iconic 1981 “What it is […]
Taboola To Give $500,000 In Free Advertising To Women-Owned Businesses As Part Of International Women’s Day
Taboola, a global leader in powering recommendations for the open web, helping people discover things they may like, today announced the launch of #RecommendHER, a new global initiative to run during March 2021, that will provide $500,000 of free advertising on its network to women-owned businesses. This initiative empowers women-owned businesses to make a larger […]
Clarins Launches #LiveBeautifully Series Of Films To Celebrate International Women’s Day
The French skincare experts since 1954, Clarins is proud to celebrate all women at all stages of life. Listening to women is a key company motto and has always had an important role. Women inspire us: we invent, create and innovate for them. According to our founder Jacques Courtin-Clarins, women carry all the beauty of […]
BWS & M&C Saatchi Celebrate Mardi Gras With Store Makeovers & Drag Queen Deliveries
This Mardi Gras weekend, BWS celebrated by bringing the glitz and glamour with store makeovers and drag queen drinks deliveries. Together, BWS and M&C Saatchi brought this project to fruition in three of the retailer’s Sydney stores near the Sydney Mardi Gras precinct – BWS Paddington South Dowling Street, BWS Paddington Oxford street and BWS […]
DDB Marks International Women’s Day By Recreating Iconic Phyllis Robinson Speech
In honor of International Women’s Day, DDB has recreated Phyllis Robinson’s, the agency’s first female copywriter, most iconic speech using the voices of women from around the world. Dubbed the first lady of Madison Avenue’s creative revolution, Phyllis was a foundation employee of Doyle Dane Bernbach back in 1949. She was a pioneer known for […]
Sunday TV Wrap: Ultimate Tag Premieres To Play Chasey With The Competition
Sunday evening saw the premiere of Seven’s new game show Ultimate Tag which, as you might expect from the title, is an elite game of tag where every day Australians try to outrun ‘pro-taggers’ in a range of different obstacle courses. Ultimate Tag secured 447,000 viewers, cementing it as the eighth most-watched TV of the night. […]
Sportsbet Goes In-House For Latest Lunacy
Sportsbet has unveiled its latest campaign featuring the Elite Average Games and the ever-popular Aussie larrikin Gary Flynn, the Wheelie Bin Sprint champion. Developed by Sportsbet’s in-house team, in collaboration with production partner Palomina, the latest campaign features 6 x new sporting events and locations and is the second iteration of Sportsbet’s Elite Average Games […]
Double J Shares The Fifty Game-Changing Women Of Australian Music For International Women’s Day
For International Women’s Day, Double J has released their list of the fifty game-changing women and gender-diverse artists in Australian music. The list includes artists like Biftek, Courtney Barnett, Jess Mauboy, Julia Jacklin, Julia Stone, Kasey Chambers, Kylie Minogue, Meg Mac, Missy Higgins, Olivia Newton-John, Thelma Plum, and Tkay Maidza. To celebrate the list, which shares the […]
Samantha Armytage To Leave Sunrise
Armytage, co-host of Seven’s morning show Sunrise, has announced her intention to depart the role, which she has held since 2013. According to a press release from Seven, the decision comes with the network’s “full support”, with new projects announced at a later stage. Armytage said, “the time has come for the sun to set on […]
Foxtel Doubles-Down On Women’s Sport For International Women’s Day
The Foxtel Group today marked International Women’s Day with a series of new initiatives to increase the visibility and accessibility of women’s sport on Foxtel and Kayo and through the Foxtel magazine. Foxtel Group chief content and commercial officer Amanda Laing said: “As Australia’s largest and most experienced producer and broadcaster of elite sports, we […]
UN Women Australia Ask ‘When Will She’ll Be Right?’ In New Campaign, Via The Monkeys
To rally the country to get behind the UN’s goal of achieving equality for women globally by 2030, UN Women Australia has unleashed ‘When Will She’ll Be Right?’, a powerful campaign that focuses the spotlight on gender inequality in Australia. Created by The Monkeys, part of Accenture Interactive, the campaign hijacks our popular saying, “She’ll […]
WPP AUNZ Women Talk International Women’s Day
WPP AUNZ has a long-term commitment to welcoming and supporting diversity and inclusion across all its teams. It says it cannot truly deliver upon our commitment to providing the very best solutions to our clients without ourselves being reflective of the wide-ranging variety of individuals that make up the rich cultures of the countries we […]
Compare The Market’s Meerkats Take Centre Stage With Meerkat Mondays
In its first major creative work in 12 months, Compare the Market went to extraordinary lengths to bring audiences its latest TVC.
Digital News Sites Up 8% YOY, With SMH Retaining Top Spot
Latest emma figures show news brands continue their digital growth trajectory with an eight per cent increase for the 12 months to December 2020. The latest release of emma (Enhanced Media Metrics Australia) for the 12 months to 30 December 2020 shows an eight per cent increase in digital readership compared to the same period […]
ghd Appoints GrowthOps Digital As Digital Marketing Partner
Global hair styling brand, ghd has today announced the appointment of GrowthOps Digital as its digital marketing partner.
Prahran Market Announces Masterchef Grand Finalist Simon Toohey As ‘Sustainable Simon’
Prahran Market is excited to announce Simon Toohey as the Market’s new sustainability guru ‘Sustainable Simon’
Xandr Shares Comprehensive Approach To Identity
Xandr today shared insight into its multi-faceted approach to identity solutions, to facilitate high-value transactions for buyers and sellers following the deprecation of third-party cookies and device IDs.
Bolster Group Launches Regional Tour ‘Small Town Big Sound’, For The Transport Accident Commission’s Vanessa
A nod to the colourful, late 70’s Aussie pub rock scene, Bolster Group has created the Small Town Big Sound campaign; collecting a handful of the nation’s locally adored bands to tour regional Victoria in the latest campaign for TAC’s Vanessa.
When It Comes To Brand Building, Less Isn’t Always More
In this guest post, Hulsbosch’s creative director Marcel Wijnen, casts his design eye over what truly makes a brand and says it’s all about being true and essential… To do simple – and to be original – is a truly tough task. Not impossible, but not easy. Naturally, we can get lost in ‘striving for simplicity’ […]
Seven Victorian Charities Join Forces To Light Up Thousands Of Lives With ‘Power Up’ 2021 Campaign
Seven Victorian charities are uniting for a month-long virtual fundraising challenge - Power Up 2021 - between 28th February and 28th March. There’s no denying that 2020 affected everyone, but small charities experienced a huge drop in much needed donations and it is hoped the Power Up campaign will bring fundraising back to life.
South Australian Supermarket Chain Foodland Launches ‘Mighty’ New Campaign, Via KWP!
South Australia’s largest independent supermarket chain, Foodland – with its unforgettable jingle “Foodland, the mighty South Aussies, yeah” – will launch a new campaign on 7th March. The campaign coincides with the chain’s $251m expansion program to open twenty-five new stores, revamp fourty-seven and create 2,500 new jobs over the next five years. Agency KWP! […]
AFG Launches Brand Refresh From The Works Ahead Of Tech Launches
Ahead of major new technology launches, AFG (Australian Finance Group) has unveiled a new brand design, logo and campaign created by The Works.
Client Retentions Boost Carat’s Billings And Solidify Growth
Jim Groves, Managing Director of Carat Perth, announced today a significant growth period for the agency with the retention of three existing clients.
Julie Bishop, Thelma Plum And More: Klarna’s First Aussie Smoooth Session
A-listers turned out to Klarna's Sydney party last night. It did move significantly down the alphabet on B&T's arrival.
The Future Of Post-Pandemic Advertising Or Plain Gross? People Are Freaking Out Over This Racy Menswear Campaign
B&T warns this contains imagery of attractive people in various states of undress. And by "warn" we mean "encourage".
A Win For Privacy Or For Google? Ad Tech Industry Weighs In On Tracking Changes
Here, B&T asks "a win for privacy or for Google?" & you'd pick the splinters out of our arse such was the fence-sitting.
72andSunny Announce New Narratives: Mapping Modern Masculinity Event
72andSunny announces plans for a masculinity event, adding it's not compulsory to do donuts in a ute before attending.
