Publishing News catches up with David Roche, Chief Executive of the company, during its annual conference. Not surprisingly, he had quite a bit to say. “We’re not talking about a few licks of paint here,” he told PN in between the conference sessions. “It’s partly about better merchandising. We have fabulous stores, staff and a great range, but we have had a front-of-store offer which is too similar to everyone else’s and some store sections have been inconsistent.” So deep discounting is still not in the cards, and Roche doesn’t want to have to rely too much on the 3-for-2 model, either.
So then what? “If you put the right book in front of someone, they will buy it. The key is bringing it to their attention. I saw a great example here at the conference, a £40 book on Concorde from Octopus [Concorde by Frederic Beniada (Cassell Illustrated)]. If you are mad about the subject and you’re in the store admiring the book, you are going to want it. We can also cross merchandise and I want to see more suggestions made along the lines of ‘If you bought this album, you’ll like this book'”. The first big test of these, and other plans to increase brand awareness, will be this Christmas, when it goes up against the Wottakar’s juggernaut.