We have seven candidates for this year’s Brand Award: Boden, Clarks, DietChef, Graze, Lego, Made.com and Ted Baker. Please read through their commendations below before submitting your vote at the bottom of the page. Choose your favourite from the list or select up to three in order of preference.
“ Soup-to-nuts selling Brands create products, desire and demand for their products, and increasingly move from supplying retailers, wholesalers and licensees to direct retailing under their own brand. From concept store to showcase experience, via pop-up, to a vibrant multichannel immersive brand experience, today’s global, authentic and connected brands are vertical, integrated and focused. This Award recognizes a brand that has embraced all aspects of multichannel retail, connecting in a profitable, sustained and market-setting way with their customers, distributors, retailers and international partners.”
Criteria
- Product or service brand that sells only their own products (perhaps with limited curated supplementary lines)
- Active in multiple channels – online, store, catalogue – direct to customer
- Integrates direct selling with an indirect channel
- Brings a distinctive, brand-led experience to the way they operate
- Adoption of, or excellence in, multichannel retailing has increased brand status and value.
Nominees
Boden [show-irdx rbod]
Before ASOS came along, Boden was the proof that you didn’t need stores to build a large clothing business. Boden has continued to reach customers in the omni-channel age, ensuring that the customer experience is top notch at all touch points.
Clarks [show-irdx rcuk]
The sign of Clarks’ success is that you don’t think of them as a brand, but a retailer. But this is one brand that has conquered at home and abroad, selling that idea of trusted shoes, now funked up for the 21st century.
DietChef [show-irdx rdtc]
Diet Chef sells meals customised for diet plans. Customers buy food chosen from their diet menu of choice. The company was founded in 2008 by Kevin Dorren and achieved rapid growth winning 3rd place in Fast Track 100 in 2012.
Graze [show-irdx rgrz]
Graze is getting everywhere these days – online, on Amazon, sending out vouchers and in magazines. For a box of nuts and a choc bar, it’s a way to send love for less than a fiver and the customer feels personally catered for. A gimmick? One-trick pony? With £40m in sales and profits of £9.5m the company’s doing well with its 100+ snack range. Customer advocacy? Just try grabbing a colleague’s Graze box in the office and see the reaction! A characterful, disruptive, digital-age business that’s become a brand.
Reference: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/10439490/Families-snack-on-graze-boxes.html
Lego [show-irdx rleg]
In recent years Lego has expanded into the complementary areas of direct retail (high street and eCommerce), films and games. More, now, than simply plastic bricks, the company has become a high street and retailing force, a licencing and merchandising giant as well as fully multichannel.
Made.com [show-irdx rmac]
Made.com was a disruptive new entrant on the market, cutting out the expensive middle steps including high street shops importers and vast warehousing. The brand developed an augmented reality app rated 4/5 by the Sunday Times which allows customers to visualise its furniture and has seen 100% year-on-year growth in the past three years.
Ted Baker [show-irdx rted]
In the 26 years since it was founded, Ted Baker has broken all the rules and has steadfastly maintained a unique and quirky attitude towards marketing, product and store design. In the last five years alone sales have increased by 40% to £250m and profits are up over 70%.
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Last but not least – the Best Retailer Award as chosen by the judges.
