Barnes & Noble: The Brand Revival

Bookstores are somewhat of a dying breed. While I myself am a lover of reading, the crushing burdens of adulthood have suspended most of my leisurely activities, so in a sense, I am guilty of contributing to their slow death. I suppose the only way I can atone for this sin is by contributing my skills to a brand revive campaign for one of long-time favorite stores.

To summarize our extensive research on Barnes & Noble, we developed the insight that people still enjoy the bookstore experience, but prefer the convenience of online shopping. Directly competing with the digital juggernaut that is Amazon would be suicide, so we decided to enhance the one strength Barnes & Noble has against their competitors: being a real bookstore.

Our research helped us discover that consumers feel that the store’s look appears ugly and outdated. From an art direction standpoint, we decided to update the look of the store, giving it a sleeker, more modern look.

Unfortunately for me, this wasn’t exactly a copy-driven campaign. Thankfully, being able to think is half of what being a copywriter is all about, so our other executions were developed in a manner that was both creative and strategic. The Nook isn’t given as much of a push from an advertising standpoint as we’d like for them to have. Luckily, we implemented a way to have the Nook be more useful by using it as a search tool to look up other books in the store. This way, it cuts down the traffic in the customer service lines, and folks get a better chance to get more acquainted with the Nook instead of having it just sit there at the store. Much like how we love food trucks, we also created bookstore trucks. These are vehicles that house books for people to buy and read while they’re out and about. They will usually be parked in public areas where there exists space to read. Tables and chairs will be laid out for people to relax and engage in some outdoor reading.

College students were one of the major audience members we were targeting in this campaign. Quite a few of them don’t appear to pay attention to the bookstore unless they are rushing to grab a textbook at the beginning of the semester. We decided to create nap pods in the bookstore and charge students to take naps in a more comfortable setting on campus. The purchase of books will grant students a specified amount of time to sleep for free. Speaking of discounts, we also decided to take advantage of the periscope app to allow people to access author readings and other events at the Barnes & Noble bookstore. This way, people can see their favorite authors while at home, but they also get the chance to earn a discount. This will entice them to go to the store and buy a book at a price other retailers likely wouldn’t have.

Overall it was quite a collaborative effort from myself and the rest of my team members. While not a lot of heavy lifting took place from a copywriter or even an art director’s standpoint, there was a lot of creative and strategic thinking behind this campaign and I believed we all excelled in that regard. It was truly a pleasure to come with an idea that could possibly contribute to the resuscitation of Barnes & Noble.