It's the oldest company in Canada, with one of the most distinctive names, and yet its top brass have been investing for years in branding Hudson's Bay Co. simply with the acronym HBC.
Now, under a new U.S. owner, the 338-year-old department store retailer is set to refashion its identity by going back to its roots. It plans to rebrand itself with its full name, original crest and signature multicolour stripes.
It's part of a wider repositioning that the new executive team is stitching together to try to revive the flagging retailer, whose major chains are the Bay and Zellers. The company has such a strong heritage that it wants to cash in on the Hudson's Bay name, Jeffrey Sherman, chief executive officer of parent Hudson's Bay Trading Co., said.
The name HBC "doesn't connect with the customer," said Mr. Sherman, who has worked in top jobs at Bloomingdale's and Polo Ralph Lauren. "Customers shop at the Bay. They shop at Zellers. They don't shop at HBC," he said at a Retail Advertising and Marketing Club luncheon.
The rebranding should be well in place by next year's Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, when the company will be in the spotlight as the official outfitter of the Canadian Olympic team.
Don Watt, a top branding expert, said he never understood why Hudson's Bay steered away from using its full name. "It destroyed all that wonderful equity and replaced it with a bunch of anonymous initials," said the founder of retail consultancy DW+Partners. "It was amateur night. HBC sounds like 1960s corporate thinking where you added initials that were impersonal, that weren't designed to communicate with the public. Any time you can add personality, it's better than taking it away."
More than five years ago, the company adopted the HBC acronym in a bid to build business by persuading customers to shop among its various banners. It figured that if the chains were linked under the HBC umbrella, shoppers would head for an HBC store rather than a rival's outlet.
When the company was acquired and taken private a few years later by a U.S. businessman, it continued to use the acronym. Last summer it was bought by a U.S. real estate magnate.
Hudson's Bay isn't the first company to try to return to its branding roots in efforts to revive itself. The iconic fashion brand Burberry managed to stage a comeback by going back to its heritage, said Lynn Fletcher, an executive vice-president at ad agency BBDO Toronto. Burberry was a fading label before it refocused on its signature black and beige plaid pattern while dialling up its fashion flair.
And particularly in a time of economic uncertainty, consumers look for authenticity and a connection with a brand, she said. "In a downturn, brands that are true to themselves tend to do better." She pointed to Loblaw Cos. Ltd. which is investing in its tried-and-true No Name and President's Choice private labels. "You do turn to the people you trust."