Another 🇬🇧 expat and I were discussing the demise of Boots UK in Sweden.
Boots is a British chain of pharmacies that many Brits love for its quality (= trust) and its product range. There were 4 stores in Sweden, now there are none.
The trouble is - Boots isn't a pharmacy to many UK customers (albeit based on a non-statistically valid group comprised of me asking a few other Brits!).
It is so more than that.
🥪 It is where you get lunch.
💄Get make-up.
💊Vitamins.
🪥A new hairdryer, razor, foot bath toothbrush.
🎁A gift for someone. Gifts for everyone.
🧸Baby most things.
You can pop in without needing anything and come out with a bag full of useful stuff 😆
Everyone in my sample group reported being overjoyed to discover a Boots store here, only to be really disappointed at the contents of it.🤷
Boots seemed to want to compete with the numerous chemists (apotek) in Sweden and sold plasters🩹, paracetamol and prescription services.
Where were the Boots products? Electricals? Baby cutlery and plates, make-up, travel-sized anything, ...chocolate bars???!
Nothing that makes Boots what it is in the UK made it to Sweden.👎🏼
The result was a nothing-special not-Swedish apotek with nothing to pull customers in, sitting in a marketplace full of better-known local competitors.
Swedes value Swedish things and trust Swedish chemists (understandably). Without Boots' amazing product selection, it offered very little incentive to Swedes to choose it over a chemist they knew. It wasn't going to survive.
💡Companies that understand what it is their customers value and market to that value succeed.
➡️ It is even more important for a small business to connect their market with the value the can bring it.
For example, Stockholm-based small business Piipll sells 'time' ⏰️ to tired, time-poor parents while actually providing child-minding and household chores services.
Time in this case IS the product and time-saving pervades their messaging. 👍👍👍
What is the true value of your products/services and have you ever actually asked your customers what they get out of buying from you?
🗓️ Today at My Own Marketing Team we're going to be working out a value-based customer journey with a new business owner so they know how and where to market and how and where not to.
✨️ Please share this with your network if you agree and it could resonate with them 💡
Beauty Buyer
4moCongratulations my love 🌸💕