Title Text
ABOUT Oliver Bonas is a British company founded in 1993. Founder Olly Tress was inspired to launch the company after his friends would ask him to bring back eclectic gifts from his travels to Hong Kong (About Us: Oliver Bonas, 2018). In 2018, Oliver Bonas has 63 stores in the UK and ships worldwide (Store Locator, Oliver Bonas). In 2016, turnover at Oliver Bonas increased 28%, leading to sales of £42.6 million. This suggests that the company is in a prime position for expansion (Geoghegan, 2016). The company also gained significant media attention for being the first high-street store to offer the living wage to its 500 store employees (Willis, 2015). The company sells homeware, furniture, womenswear and accessories. All products are designed by an in-house team of designers, with new products launching online and in-store every week. (About Us: Oliver Bonas, 2018).
Touch Points Brand touchpoints are “those points through which a user comes into contact with a brand” (Abbing, pg 170). Oliver Bonas has both in-store and online touchpoints. In-store Emphasis on friendly customer service- greet customers as soon as they walk in store Bright store spaces Products grouped together but racks are scattered around store in no particular order 30 day returns policy Online Full range of products available at www.oliverbonas.com under clear headings Social media accounts on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter Largest following on Instagram (182k followers) and tends to post at least once a day
STRENGHTS
• The brand sells both in store and online, therefore more profit is made and a wider range of people is reached.
• Oliver Bonas sells a wide and diverse product range covering a variety of marketing including homeware, fashion gifts, accessories, jewellery and furniture. This allow the brand to have a large product range that will appeal to more than one market.
• A good range of social media platforms is used, and are constantly update in order to have a good promotion. The different platforms used are Instagram, Oliver Bonas own blog, Twitter and Pinterest.
• The quirky designs make them the brand stand out on the market against competition causing more buzz around the brand.
• The products are fairly and reasonable priced therefore will be affordable to the mass market.
WEAKNESSES
• Oliver Bonas does not have as many chain stores as competitors therefore they are reaching less potential customers.
• The brand design is often quirky and may not always appeal to the masses therefore Oliver Bonas is limiting its customers base.
• The brand also has its own catalogue of products, so this generates a lack of promotion in mainstream magazines.
OPPORTUNITIES:
-
The brand does have a kitchenware range, but it does not appear to have any kitchen textiles such as oven gloves or aprons for example, therefore there is a gap in their market for a kitchen textile range. -
Oliver Bonas can consider relocating some stores in the future to cover more of the UK rather than focusing solely on London and a few other areas to widen their customer base. -
Getting more features or small magazine inserts in mainstream fashion and interior home magazines to increase brand awareness.
THREATS:
-
Competitor department stores such as John Lewis and BHS are more well known by the masses as they are on the high street in the majority of cities and towns whereas the majority of Oliver Bones stores are in London therefore they may be less well known.
Oliver Bonas in Melbourne In Melbourne, they have quite a prominent coffee culture and are said to have the best coffee shops in the world (Good Food, 2017). We want to take advantage of that by taking Oliver Bonas furniture and rearranging a Melbourne Coffee shop. We have chosen Dukes Coffee Rosters as our location as it is in the heart of Melbourne and their social media presence is quite high with 23k followers on Instagram. We also want to use Oliver Bonas homeware such as mugs for coffee and other hot drinks, bowls, plates, books and wall art as well as their unique tub chairs. On tables we will have furniture menus with the coffee shop menus.
What we also will have an in-store event in style of a launch party night that we would name the Oliver Bonas ‘House Warming’. We would like to get local Melbourne interior designers involved @heckerguthrie (47.4kfollowers) at the event as well as having. Him as an incentive for customers to buy from Oliver Bonas by offering them a chance to win a free room makeover when purchasing a Astratto set of four teacups and saucers.
Oliver Bonas
By Victoria Chen
Oliver Bonas
Melbourne B1
