Thorntons’ woes are darker than the weather - brand analysis
High street retailer Thorntons has had a tough time of things during the recession, and has recently blamed the good weather for a less than healthy Easter too. But are its fortunes more to do with the brand than it has previously accepted?
The poor old weather, it can’t get anything right. Blamed by George Osborne for slow economic growth and now Thorntons are on its back for ruining their Easter and causing them to halve their profit expectations.
But Thorntons’ troubles run deeper than the weather; they’re a 100 year old brand without a position or strong perception in the mind. They’re now paying for the brand mistakes of the past which have left them floundering, preventing their marketing team from being able to answer the fundamental question ‘What is Thorntons?’
Up until the early 90s, Thorntons were a 20th century success story, having brought chocolate to the high street better than anyone else, but then things started to go wrong. So what happened? What always happens: success followed by a bad brand strategy. What is Thorntons? It used to be premium chocolate sold on the high street, but that’s not what it is now.
Instead of maintaining its narrow focus, Thorntons extended its brand into the likes of coffee shops, desserts, body lotion, tee shirts, hot drinks, ultra premium chocolates, pastries and its distribution network into supermarkets, interactive TV and mail order. So what is Thorntons today? A brand struggling with low net profit because it owned a position, lost it and hasn’t found a new one. Which begs the question why didn’t they just accept the seasonality of their product and try to be first to mind when anyone thinks ‘premium chocolate’? If that’s not enough then create new brands to deal with seasonality.
This lack of brand cohesion allowed Thorntons to be caught cold, having recently been flanked at the top end most noticeably by the sleeker, chicer and more focused Hotel Chocolat. That’s left them stuck in the middle, neither classy nor trashy – the worst place for a brand to be, compounded by their still wide distribution, happily putting their brand next to Tesco’s finest for little extra cost.
Their now revolving CEOs keep on coming out with statements from the book of things to say when you’ve no strategy, such as ‘we want to take a customer focused approach’ but what happened to things like a strong iconic visual or a great slogan? In fact Thorntons had a decent slogan, or at least one that contained their credentials – ‘Chocolate heaven since 1911’. But it was replaced in 2000 by the totally insipid ‘the art of the chocolatier’. The funny thing is on Thorntons’ website it even says,”our old strap line ‘chocolate heaven since 1911’ will be remembered by many”. That’s right, a whole lot more than will remember your current one.
With newer and fresher brands dominating at the top end giving the younger chocolate buyer a more vivid brand experience what should Thorntons do?
The answer in my opinion is to put the focus back on traditional chocolate. Thorntons would be better served pulling back their distribution network, closing their ranks, re-focusing and channelling their authenticity credentials into the more traditional end of the market where it matters. Get back to what it means to be the chocolatier that has been around since 1911 and make their brand feel like a chocolatier who is steeped in history, tradition and artisan products. Give their brand back the focus that made it great. That, and stop blaming the weather.