It's no news to anyone that people's buying habits have changed, what with more and more people shopping online. Many retail brands we have been familiar with for decades are coming under pressure as a result. At electronics stores like Media Markt and Saturn, the issue of their raison d'être is even more glaring. Their entire business model is being put to the test.  

What brands need first and foremost is a coherent strategy on how to use online channels effectively and develop retail space into an experience trump card. What is completely irrelevant, however, is the artificial division into a brand for the “suburban electronics store” – Media-Markt – and an inner-city offering – Saturn. Because location is irrelevant online, this positioning also no longer plays a role.  

Their joint campaign merges two brands with completely different looks, even though they both want the same thing. Aesthetically it's a Frankenstein's monster, and content-wise it's full of empty phrases. The tagline, “Let's go!” seems like a minimal consensus, and is presumably directed inward, to hold the company together.  At least the communicative message now places a higher priority on personal service, which is sure to become the differentiating factor in the marketplace – whereby there's always the question of whether people trust the company to provide sales advice, after years of seeing the brand focus almost exclusively on low prices. In my opinion, instead of confusing their customers like this, they should make a radical new start as soon as possible! Looking at this campaign, I can't help thinking they've already made their decision about which brand they'll use in the long term. It certainly looks like the Saturn brand will be phased out. The next logical step would be to replace the blue shirts and send this Frankenstein's monster back to the realm of horror fantasy. Still, I'll award it two stars, because the business strategy is the right one – and in terms of budget it was probably a bargain.

You'll find the full german article at HORIZONT online (H+ account required).