Apple, adidas, Nespresso or Nivea: getting closer to the consumer with company stores

More and more brand manufacturers choose the direct approach to reach the customer – on one hand due to the fact that manufacturers want a better market coverage, on the other hand in order to strengthen the brand.

Brands like adidas, Puma or Nike or Geox have decided a long time ago to operate their own stores. Thus adidas has more than 400 shops worldwide and Geox more than 1 000, from which around 250 are operated in personal responsibility. Apple and Nespresso are further examples which succeeded in positioning the brands on the market due to an optimal combination between ingenious marketing strategy and distribution in company stores. Thus Apple operates around 300 shops and Nespresso around 200 boutiques worldwide.

More and more shops are opened and operated by manufacturers mainly for image reasons. Thus Nivea opened more than 20 shops in Germany and a flagship store in the Dubai Mall in the Emirates. Here the focus lies on the exclusive presentation of a broad assortment and on service. Also Lomo, the producer of analogue photo cameras known until recently only by photographers and by the web-community, has opened around 50 stores worldwide, of which 10 were openend especially for image reasons and are operated in personal responsibility.

The fact that brand manufacturers are increasing the number of their own shops is to be ascribed also to the decline of department stores. Some of these stores try to react to this trend: Japanese department stores for example are offering only selling spaces without personnel, equipment and advertising and see themselves more and more as real estate companies and less as retailers.