Brand overhaul for Littlewoods

The Littlewoods Organisation is to run a slide rule over its entire retail brand portfolio as part of its drive to become more customer-oriented.

The group has not yet decided if it will use its in-house design team or appoint an external consultancy to work on the strategy and design.

The project will be the first major task for the new group marketing director, a new post for which an appointment has yet to be made. He or she will be responsible for marketing the group’s newly formed retail division, as Littlewoods looks to consolidate its various home-shopping and retailing brands. These include Littlewoods Stores, Littlewoods Home Shopping Group, Index and catalogue brands Janet Frazer and Burlington.

A Littlewoods spokeswoman says the review will look at all its retail interests and could include the introduction of a new parent retail brand, the alignment of existing brands under one identity or the introduction of new brands.

“We will be exploring every avenue, but mainly focusing on the consumer. We need to get a more outward focus, to get inside the customers, find out about their aspirations, their shopping needs,” adds the spokeswoman.

“It may be [best to target customers] through improving our home-shopping service, or our store interiors, or through television channels – or whatever it might be. But first, we need to appoint the group marketing head,” she says.

Littlewoods is trialling a new concept for sports betting over the telephone in Scotland. The identity for Bet Direct has been created by DMB&B Design.