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Dive Brief:
- As part of a brand refresh, Best Buy on Tuesday announced that it has changed its tagline to “imagine that” and is giving its brand a modern look that “will be phased in over time.” The electronics retailer is also updating its color palette to include magenta, teal and red alongside its iconic blue and yellow colors.
- The company unveiled a new hologram spokesperson named Gram as well. Gram “will quickly become a familiar character in our ads,” and is part of the retailer’s new back-to-school marketing effort across TV, online and social media platforms, according to a company press release.
- As part of the brand refresh, this summer and fall the company will introduce more experiential spaces in its stores to highlight tech from brands like GoPro, Tesla, Lovesac and Starlink. Best Buy is also adding personnel in the computing, appliance and home theater sections of its stores.
Dive Insight:
Best Buy is refreshing its brand and creating personalized features in part because it wants to play a more significant role in guiding shoppers toward new technology.
Best Buy recently introduced shopper and product discovery features on its mobile app including a personalized homepage, tailored push notifications, a Shop with Videos feature with customized video content, digital wallet payment and rewards, among other features. The company is rolling out over 500 videos by the end of the year on its YouTube channel, website and app to aid in product discovery and education, and a partnership with CNET will give shoppers “unbiased editorial advice” across Best Buy’s channels.
The retailer said that customers do their own research and are familiar with technology. The company therefore wants to position itself to help shoppers discover new tech and learn how to apply it in their lives.
“We’re embracing this change, and we’re excited about it, because we know it’s where our customers want us to go,” Jennie Weber, Best Buy’s chief marketing officer, said in a statement. “This new world of discovery is personal to every customer, their passions and the moments in life that matter most. They want technology to level up their lives — to help them do more of what they love — and there’s no one more passionate and better positioned to do that than Best Buy.”
The rollout of Best Buy’s personalization and discovery features come as overall sales in the electronics category have struggled in recent months. Electronics rose 1.3% year over year in June after being under pressure for months, according to data from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Census Bureau.
The lukewarm demand for electronics has impacted Best Buy’s bottom line. In its Q1 earnings, the company said revenues fell 6.5% year over year to $8.8 billion, a decline it credited to difficult macroeconomic conditions. Comparable sales declined 6.1% for the quarter.
“Inflation is still high, mortgage rates are high, and consumer confidence scores are trending lower,” CEO Corie Barry said on an earnings call with analysts at the time. “This, in combination with the pull forward of tech purchases into the early years of the pandemic and lower levels of material innovation, has led to continued lower demand for higher-ticket consumer electronics and a focus on value and deals for current purchasers.”
The retailer this spring stated that it right-sized resources to align with its revenue outlook for fiscal year 2025. Those efforts resulted in layoffs, though the company declined to confirm how many workers were let go. As a result of its layoffs, the company incurred $169 million in Q4 restructuring charges.
