Never alienate your core audience
Hunter Boots Ltd alienated its core (niche) market - Farmers. They had decided to make the brand “trendy” and make cheaper versions of the product to appeal to a wider market so the farmers left in droves.
Hunter Boot collapsed owing £112m
I fear Barbour may go the same way. Barbour have done what Giorgio Armani did and relabelled their cheaper products with sub-brands. While this helps, the core brand aficionados see through it and end up leaving.
This strategy often has initial highs meaning company growth becomes unsustainable in the long term. They have a huge sale upsurge, invest in more people, more office space and all the other expenses that come with growth, which then tails off then drops off a cliff.
The product becomes common. The trendsetters look for the next niche and with the core customer base gone the company ends up folding. Once that core market is gone they are done!
So how could they have done this differently? Audi drivers don’t stop buying Audis just because the group also make Skodas. If Audi had called Škoda’s Audis and sold them £20K+ cheaper with Audi badges on, their core buyer would likely stop buying them!
Skoda is such a well-respected and brilliant brand in its own right aimed at a different audience. I have owned two Skodas (still do) and worked with the brand.
