One step ahead

The longevity of any business depends on it continuing to give its customers what they want. And that means keeping a close eye on their market to make sure they are in line with, or one step ahead of, the competition.

Play the RMtv video above to hear an industry expert and colleagues in Warrington Mail Centre and North West Distribution Centre, discuss how former iconic high street names such as, Kodak, Woolworths and Toys ‘R’ Us went under because they didn’t change quickly enough in a rapidly changing market.

For years Kodak was a mainstay of the film and camera market. At its peak, the company employed almost 150,000 people worldwide and had two-thirds of the film market.

Kodak had an enormous research and development team and, by 1975, they had developed the world’s first digital camera. But the company feared that digital cameras would have a negative impact on the film market. However, when Kodak’s competitors launched their own cameras to consumers, they changed the world of photography overnight.

In its heyday, Woolworths was a world-renowned British brand giving consumers the chance to buy toys, stationery, clothes and the latest chart-topping releases. Woolworths’ main appeal was that it became a one-stop self-service shop from buying the latest records at the weekend, to students buying their first kettle and dining set for their university accommodation. Its downfall was a failure to adapt to a new online -savvy customer.

More recently, Toys ‘R’ Us was considered a kid’s paradise - wall-to-wall retail spaces full of toys, games and more. But much like Woolworths, Toys ‘R’ Us became too reliant on their shop-floor. Once exclusive products were now readily available to consumers online through other retailers at a much cheaper price, while rising rental rates and wage costs meant Toys ‘R’ Us was simply unable to remain competitive in an extremely tough market.