It's hard not to acknowledge that the world is changing rapidly.... and for the worse it seems.
The traditional cycle of creative destruction seems to have become a cycle of... well... destruction.
Last week Best Buy announced it was axing 400 jobs and closing 50 stores in an effort to save $800M.
It's hard to find a success story as good as Best Buy. I mean, they are in every city and town selling the latest in technology, who would have thought they'd be falling apart as they are? I remember years ago, if you wanted something technology related, you went to Best Buy.
The truth is that they have become uncompetitive with Amazon. Just the other day I bought a Logitech keyboard. The price at Best Buy was $89.99. The price at TigerDirect was $89.99. The price at Amazon? On sale for $45.99 (although today it would cost you $79.99).
Not to mention with Amazon I don't have to get in the car and go to the store. I was also amazed at how they delivered the keyboard to my door in three days (I took their regular, no-cost shipping option and it still arrived that fast!).
From a PR perspective, Best Buy has entered the worst brand position you can possibly be in - when your very name contradicts your business. "Best" Buy is anything but the best price or selection, hence it is by definition not the best buy.
How does Best Buy get itself out of this mess? The answer unfortunately doesn't come from PR, because there is little PR can do at this point. The role of PR in this mess was to have identified that the company's brand and its actual business reality were beginning to diverge at some point. That's your biggest warning sign that troubling times are ahead, when what you are saying does not match up with what you are doing.
Best Buy needs to completely overhaul its business and start asking itself what do customers want? The answer is they want the best price and access to the latest and greatest in technology. Currently, Best Buy offers a truly pitiful selection of technology almost all of which is over priced.
Even the keyboard I bought, if I had gone to Best Buy (assuming I was willing to pay twice as much) odds are they wouldn't even have had it in stock in the store.
If Best Buy cannot transform itself in to the Costco of technology then it is doomed and Amazon will eat its breakfast, lunch and dinner over the long run.
The traditional cycle of creative destruction seems to have become a cycle of... well... destruction.
Last week Best Buy announced it was axing 400 jobs and closing 50 stores in an effort to save $800M.
It's hard to find a success story as good as Best Buy. I mean, they are in every city and town selling the latest in technology, who would have thought they'd be falling apart as they are? I remember years ago, if you wanted something technology related, you went to Best Buy.
The truth is that they have become uncompetitive with Amazon. Just the other day I bought a Logitech keyboard. The price at Best Buy was $89.99. The price at TigerDirect was $89.99. The price at Amazon? On sale for $45.99 (although today it would cost you $79.99).
Not to mention with Amazon I don't have to get in the car and go to the store. I was also amazed at how they delivered the keyboard to my door in three days (I took their regular, no-cost shipping option and it still arrived that fast!).
From a PR perspective, Best Buy has entered the worst brand position you can possibly be in - when your very name contradicts your business. "Best" Buy is anything but the best price or selection, hence it is by definition not the best buy.
How does Best Buy get itself out of this mess? The answer unfortunately doesn't come from PR, because there is little PR can do at this point. The role of PR in this mess was to have identified that the company's brand and its actual business reality were beginning to diverge at some point. That's your biggest warning sign that troubling times are ahead, when what you are saying does not match up with what you are doing.
Best Buy needs to completely overhaul its business and start asking itself what do customers want? The answer is they want the best price and access to the latest and greatest in technology. Currently, Best Buy offers a truly pitiful selection of technology almost all of which is over priced.
Even the keyboard I bought, if I had gone to Best Buy (assuming I was willing to pay twice as much) odds are they wouldn't even have had it in stock in the store.
If Best Buy cannot transform itself in to the Costco of technology then it is doomed and Amazon will eat its breakfast, lunch and dinner over the long run.
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