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October 25, 1999 - Strategy Magazine
Special Report

Retail Marketing
World's Biggest Bookstore touts utilitarian roots
Rather than renovate, this no-frills bookseller champions its distinct lack of ambience

by David Todd
page B 16

So let's say, just hypothetically, that you're a large-format bookstore somewhere in the heart of downtown Toronto.

For years now, business has been humming along quite happily. True, the place has never been terribly fancy - in fact, it has all the atmosphere of a high-school cafeteria, and the décor to match. But so what? You've got more selection than anybody else in the local market, and better prices. And customers keep streaming through the front doors - occasionally stepping over homeless people on their way in - so you're obviously doing something right.

Then one day, everything changes. New players enter the market - big-box chains with frou-frou names like Chapters and (are they kidding, or what?) Indigo. These guys don't just sell books. That's so over. No, they're into offering all kinds of extras. Readings and concerts. In-store cafes selling fancy-ass java with foam and crap on top. Big cushy sofas where people can lounge around and read - all day, if they want to. Without even buying a book. Needless to say, this sort of thing goes over big-time with the minivan-and-Labrador-retriever crowd.

So what do you do here? (Bear in mind that one of these big players just happens to be your corporate parent.) Do you add some wood paneling to the walls, get IKEA to ship over a dozen plush couches and start pricing industrial-strength espresso makers?

Nah.

If you're World's Biggest Bookstore, anyway, you don't change a damn thing. You don't fret about your lousy ambience. In fact, in the spirit of sheer perversity, you launch a campaign celebrating your lousy ambience.

"We're not going to renovate this store to create a Chapters or Indigo style of high ambience," says Fred Schofield, general manager of World's Biggest Bookstore, a Toronto landmark since 1980. "That's just not going to happen. So we decided to come up with advertising that would poke fun at ourselves a little. We wanted to say things along the lines of, 'If you want to sit on a comfy sofa, go see a therapist. If you want to save money on books, come to World's Biggest.'"

The campaign, created by Toronto-based TAXI Advertising & Design, broke around Labour Day of this year. It includes wild postings splattered all over Toronto's downtown core, as well as ads in local alternative weekly NOW, and point-of-purchase material.

With Chapters and Indigo making a great deal of noise in the category, World's Biggest was in danger of getting lost in the shuffle, says Maxine Thomas, account director with TAXI. The store needed to reinforce ties with its target customers - predominantly students and people who work in the downtown core - through a campaign that would build awareness and strengthen its brand identity.

Rather than downplay its utilitarian atmosphere, World's Biggest decided to treat this as a point of distinction, Thomas says.

"They've never been an atmosphere kind of place," she explains. "They don't put their money into atmosphere, and the people who work there are actually proud of that fact. So we said, 'OK, you're the originals. The market has changed, but you haven't. Let's celebrate that.'"

The theme line for the campaign is: "Great Books. Fantastic Prices. So-so environment."

All of the ads play variations on this motif. The wild postings, for example, feature headlines such as "We occasionally have soft mood lighting. But then we replace the burnt out fluorescent tubes," and "Like other bookstores, we have places to sit. But why aggravate your hemorrhoids?"

The look of the ads is deliberately rough and ready. The copy appears haphazardly stamped on, and the illustrations on the wild postings are nothing more than Polaroids shot hurriedly in the store.

"When the Polaroids came back, the art director asked who we should get to do the actual photographs for the ads," recalls Zak Mroueh, associate creative director at TAXI. "And I said, 'Well, why do you need to hire a photographer? These are fine. They actually lend themselves better to the creative idea.'"

While the postings serve the larger branding objectives, the newspaper ads are intended to drive traffic to the store by promoting discounts on current titles. But the print work has the same visual style, and the same self-mocking tone. ("Buy any of these books at a great low price and get a plastic bag free.") Scan the fine print at the bottom of the page, and you'll see this cheerful call to action: "Hurry, we want your money."

The creative team at TAXI (copywriter Avtar Takel and art directors Helen Pak and Daniel Andreana were the lead players) even extended the creative concept into point-of-purchase materials. Signs posted throughout the store read, "No fancy sofas," and "No cappuccino." Coins have also been glued to the floor near the exit; when customers bend over to scoop up the loose change, they see a message stamped on the tiles: "Haven't you already picked up enough savings?"

Building a campaign on one's shortcomings in this fashion is, admittedly, not textbook strategy. But Thomas says World's Biggest was convinced that the approach would score with the hip, knowing urban types who represent its core customers.

"Bookstores, by nature, have a pretty intelligent group of people coming through their doors," she says. "People who are able to appreciate that kind of humour."

Mroueh agrees.

"There are a lot of people who are really loyal to World's Biggest, and what we're talking about in the ads is exactly what they love about the store," he says. "People see the ads, and they love the no-bullshit attitude. The advertising is giving the store a stronger brand personality. It's making it cool again to go there."

(It's also, he adds, more than a little "ballsy," given that World's Biggest Bookstore is owned by Chapters.)

While the approach may not sit as well with the folks who like to settle into a sofa with a latte and the new Frank McCourt, Schofield says he's not terribly concerned with courting that crowd.

"Our objective isn't really to steal customers away from our competitors," he says. "It's to get more of the kind of customers we already have."

For this reason, Schofield says, World's Biggest has resisted the temptation to jazz the place up with furniture or a coffee bar, lest the store be forced to cut back on selection. Instead, the title count has been increased to 150,000-plus.

At this early stage, it is difficult to gauge the campaign's impact, but Schofield says the newspaper ads, in particular, appear to have had a favourable impact on sales.

Both client and agency view the campaign as a long-term proposition - one that may, in the near future, expand into other media such as transit.

"The budget is really limited, so we've had to work hard to make it stick out like a proverbial sore thumb," Thomas says. "And so far, it has been doing that."

Also in this report:

- Shoppers gets a makeover: Drugstore chain tests dramatic new look in an effort to better appeal to time-starved customers p.B12

- Contemporary by design: How Anne.x, Baskin Robbins and Swiss Chalet have managed to tailor their environments to the 21st century shopper p.B14

- Zellers goes Truly private label p.B17

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