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Waterstone's is looking at a "rejuvenation" of its brand to reflect the changes made to its range under the retailer's new management team. City analysts got a sneak peek of what the chain's branding could look like on Friday morning (26th March).
During the HMV Group presentation, Waterstone's m.d. Dominic Myers showed a slide of a Waterstone's window display, with a new lower-case logo and the tagline "feel every word". Speaking to The Bookseller after the event, he stressed that both the design and slogan were at very early stages and had not been finalised.
However">http://www.thebookseller.com/news/114992-waterstones-starts-buying-makeo..., the retailer is working at a "rejuvenation" of the brand, which is expected to be introduced in May, when its new buying approach is introduced.
Myers said: "It's important that we re-engage with our customers in a much more impactful way. We would like our new approach to do that by rolling out a new brand through all of our stores in terms of promotional activity and improved branding and messaging."
However, he added stores would not be completely refitted but said some needed "pragmatic issues" changed like improved lighting or bays.
He said: "This is about the core of the bookshops themselves and making the brand reflect the variety of our stores through the books we are choosing to show customers." He added that the bestseller charts seen in stores would now reflect the bestselling titles in those individual stores.
At the presentation Myers told analysts that its stores had suffered from "stifling homogeneity", and that customers had voted with their feet. He also said the chain had been impacted by its "hub inflicted lack of availability", which had undermined its reputation as a range bookseller. But he added that the hub was now delivering, with stock in stores since January at pre-hub levels.
Ben Drury, chief executive of the digital business 7Digital, which HMV purchased in late 2009, said it was developing a new ebook store for Waterstone's that would allow publishers to deliver content straight to its e-commerce site. He added that the group was also "doing a lot of work" on delivery direct to devices.