BARNES AND NOBLE DALLAS PLUS
The ability to innovate is immense. Oh, and dare we mention that growing your internal growth and innovation engine is a huge plus too! Perhaps they invite in a local Tik Tok personality who, in turn, would value the opportunity to connect with their followers. Imagine the Calabasas, CA Barnes & Noble hosting an evening group (when we can get back together again!) with a surfing legend.
Fundamentally, the team who manages every local Barnes & Noble store knows what their community is talking about, what they are interested in, what the local issues are and who the influencers are. We are seeing more and more “Buy Local” campaigns targeted to smaller communities, whether through Facebook or other platforms, and there is strong support for the local service provider or restaurant owner who remembers our usual order. Dolly Parton did that for Squarespace in a Superbowl commercial a few nights ago.Ĭontrary to a lot of decisions coming out of corporate HQ, consumers across the nation are looking to support their local businesses during the pandemic. This past year has forced many of us to experience more isolation than ever before, opening up an opportunity for companies to connect on a deeper level with their customers-to show them their humanity and offer them products that more meaningfully connect to their needs. The challenge was to walk the line (or perhaps push the line) between what to centralize/standardize and what to leave to the discretion of the store/branch manager in doing what was right to delight the customer. Similarly, I worked with a large bank who was determined to increase their customer satisfaction and loyalty results. Fast forward to the introduction of one national set of processes and the permission for local leaders to do what they thought necessary to appeal to their market, and the results were transformed. This created an operational management nightmare-a challenge when trying to delight clients-and allowed competitors to find easy ways to chip away at their market share. The prior operating model for this 50+ year old business did not have a strong balance between local autonomy and standard processes across all locations, which meant clients did not have a consistent experience. With the benefit of standardized processes, technology and tools, the local operators were able to focus on what mattered most: making powerful and personal ‘sticky’ connections with their clients, building loyalty and creating community. It’s a big change, but I’d suggest that sometimes we need big changes to get big results.Ī former client of mine in the automotive industry pursued a similar strategy, where a high degree of local autonomy led to increased client engagement, market share and operating margin. Daunt’s strategy is a smart one that flies in the face of conventional thinking around centralization, standardization and efficiencies. Maybe he’s even wondered how Barnes & Noble could become more like those thriving indie shops-how a bookselling giant, a household name, could feel “smaller” in order to become more of a community for readers, a place of authenticity, a place of reality in a world of filters and Instagram and TikTok. Daunt has asked himself these same questions. Why is it that these indie bookstores are defying expectations? If success were just about getting books quickly and conveniently, we’d just go online to buy them, wouldn’t we? The assumption, particularly with the quarantine and lockdowns, was that small independent stores were doomed. And while some stores are indeed no longer in business, others have emerged with strength. Yes, a lot of stores have experienced tough times recently, yet indies have been working hard to set themselves apart. What The Independent Stores Can Teach The Mega One-Stop Shops
As we navigate the Covid-19 pandemic and start the long process of recovery, what will bring shoppers through Barnes & Noble’s doors may not be the desire to simply purchase a book, but the desire to be a part of something in the community. I would suggest that is something shoppers will remember, talk about and that will bring them back.
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