Reinvent Thyself

Reinvent Thyself

A glance at Hastings Entertainment Inc. Redesign and Refurbishment

By: Joseph M Hiebert

"Research, re-analysis of brand makes retailer more relevant to consumers, ups experiential factor." This is the headline of an article in the April 1, 2007 edition of Marketing News describing the transformation Hastings Entertainment Incorporated is undergoing to incorporated better consumer visual appeal, improve the experiential factor of an entertainment store shopping experience and to implement a new growth strategy.

Hastings Entertainment Inc., a 153-unit chain of entertainment supercenters, likes to be everything to everybody when it comes to fun. Hastings has rooted its business model in opening store locations in markets of less than 50,000 people mostly in Western and Southern states. Over time, the cities and towns grew up around them drawing larger retailers such as Best Buy to enter into the market. Along with the Internet phenomenon that allows consumers to order an entire household of entertainment items just by clicking a few buttons all in the comfort of their home and have it show up on their doorsteps the next day the combination means serious competition and loss of market share within their target markets.

Company executives understood that while they were still maintaining a steady annual revenue in the mid-$500 million range that they were going to continue to lose their market share unless they could make their experience more tempting. So during fall 2005 they did an A-to-Z analysis of the brand and looked at all the equities of their brand and their customers. With help of Gilmore Group, a consultancy firm that has helped such companies as Walgreens and Bank of America, they conducted focus group research in four states analyzing present and potential customers feelings of Hastings and how they shopped there. The results of this research highlighted the consequences of trying to be everything for everybody. Nobody really thought the stores were designed for them and thought the layout of the stores were very confusing.

From the gathered research came a plan. To make a more direct impression on all customer segments the company developed

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