The last place you want to go?

I know I’m coming late to the party on this but I picked up a copy of Sport this morning and the new Dixons’ campaign really stands out.

It’s great to see an innovative and bold message coming from a retail business, particularly in the current climate.  For that they should be applauded. The ads are provocative and well written. They should help raise awareness of Dixons.co.uk and start to drive more traffic to the website.

But what does it mean for the Dixons’ brand?

Well, the work certainly hits on a very relevant customer insight about brands in a recession – the comfortable surroundings and high customer service standards of Selfridges and John Lewis may help customers choose but when it comes to getting the best price smart customers know where to go…

But I’m less sure this approach captures anything special about or unique to the Dixons’ brand. It’s not very easy to defend an approach that (kind of) celebrates the service of your competitors and bases your message on ‘cheap’…Put simply, what’s stopping me heading to Google product search or moneysupermarket.com to really do my research and make the right purchase?

If Dixons are really serious about succeeding online in the long term – I’d like to know more about what the online experience is like… Is it easy as it sounds? What’s the after sale support like? Is there any reason I might shop exclusively online with them?

A great campaign but Dixons still have work to do to convince me that they’re a great  online brand.

(Richard Houston)