We interrupt our short series on the near-term direction of the U.S. economy (see part 1 here and part 2 here) to highlight a big story from yesterday’s business press.
You might have heard that Best Buy plans to:
- close 50 of its big-box stores
- cut 400 corporate jobs
- open 100 more mobile-only stores
Most important was this decision:
“Best Buy will be deploying…its new Connected Store format…remodeled big-box stores that focus on connections, services and multi-channel experience through a total transformation of both the store and the operating environment.”
Translation of that last line of corporate-speak = “out with the toasters, in with the focus on Interwebs stuff.”
So, why a pat on the back? In our most-read post ever, December 1, well before anyone could have known how Holiday Season 2011 would finish, and therefore what Best Buy management should do in 2012, we said this:
“This is not a marketing communications story, nor a ‘branding’ story…This is one of those big ‘P’ stories – ‘Place' and ‘Product.’ Best Buy is spread way too thin in both for focused growth in sales and operating profit.”
Place and Product. Exactly what Best Buy management is going to fix. And not a single mention in its new plan of any branding, marketing, or social media communications.
By December, of course, just about anyone could have pointed out Best Buy’s problems. And many business journalists did, as well as pi**ed off customers who flamed the comments section of any article about Best Buy.
But we humbly believe Lairig Marketing was the only one to (A) look at Best Buy from a business/financial perspective (as well as a marketing one, of course) and (B) prescribe a strategic solution, and (C) have it match what Best Buy announced yesterday.
Show us Seth Godin’s Best Buy post.
Show us Guy Kawasaki’s Best Buy post. Or tweet. Or “speaking engagement.”
Exactly.
Time to go pick up a Mega Million ticket…
