The Beginning Of Staples

✘ First Staples store opened May 1, 1986 in

Brighton, Massachusetts.
✘ Large warehouse formats with wide range and
everyday low prices (EDLP)
✘ Focused on driving low costs and volume
✘ Dominated office-supply industry in the
Northeast and Mid-Atlantic
The “Staples Boom”, 1997–2007
✘ Opened 170 new stores in 1996 and 1997.
✘ Seven years to reach $1 billion revenue
✘ Two more to double to $2 billion
✘ Doubled again in one year to $4 billion in sales.
✘ Expanded services, especially print and copy
✘ Shifted emphasis small business → home, school, &
home-office segment
✘ 2002 Sales: $11.6 billion (1,300 stores)
✘ 2007 Sales: $19.4 billion
1998: staples.com launch
 Post “Staples Boom”
✘ late 2007: senior management expands Staples’ international presence as
rapidly as possible.
✘ total debt: $350 million in 2007, $4 billion by November 2008 because of fast
expansion
- global financial crisis September 2008, Staples’ debt-financed deals came
at the worst possible time.
✘ 2008–2011: U.S. recession - flat North American revenues
✘ international businesses lost almost a half billion dollars in revenues
✘ dramatic shift in its merchandise strategy away from office supplies toward
general merchandise
✘ 2014 - 300 stores were closed
✘ Sales and gross profits at Staples have fallen for each year for 4 years (2013-
2017)
✘ 2017: Sycamore Partners acquires Staples for $6.9 billion
✘ 2017: $10.6 billion of sales delivered, $6.6 billion sold in stores.
✘ 2018 revenue $16B
 1995 2003 2014 2017

“Yeah, we’ve got that.” “That was easy” “Make things happen” “It's Pro Time.”
✘ whatever office ✘ three simple & ✘ More products ✘ Concept that every day people
supplies they memorable words ✖ Staples.com go to work and strive to be true
needed, they ✘ signified stores are ✖ Shop by industry professionals at what they do,
could find at about more than just ✖ Product no matter where they work.
Staples wide selection Concierge ✘ Address complete spectrum of
✘ about the easiest ✘ More ways to shop Staples customers: from
shopping experience ✖ Mobile App consumers to small and mid-
possible ✖ Easy reorder sized businesses, and
✖ Automatic restock enterprise customers.
✘ More ways to save ✘ “Summon Your Pro”
✖ Staples Rewards ✘ Shine the light on the
program business-with-business
✖ Online coupons ✘ Delivering services and
updated weekly expertise to the “pros”
 SWOT Analysis
Strengths Weaknesses
✘ Sustainable brand ✘ No differentiation
✘ Can enter new markets and be ✘ Slow adaptation to innovation
successful through joint venture and
the European Contract
✘ Use omni-channel marketing to offer
the best experiences for their
customers

Opportunities Threats
✘ Growth model ✘ Competition is strong
✘ New consumer trends ✘ Currency fluctuations
Porter's Five Forces

Bargaining Power of Threat of New Entrants:

Supplier: Somewhat Low
High ✘ Economies of scale
✘ Private label brands ✘ Retaliation
✘ Suppliers have brand ✘ Saturated market
equity ✘ Brand equity
✘ Brand loyalty
✘ More concentrated
industries
Porter's Five Forces (cont.)

Bargaining Power Threat of Rivalry

of Buyers: Low substitution: High
✘ Amazon,
✘ Small ✘ Many Walmart,
companies and substitutes Office Depot,
individuals Target
✘ Undifferentiated ✘ Competitors
and are large
standardized ✘ Direct
products substitutes
✘ Industry
growth is slow
The “New” Staples

✘ The “New Staples was revealed as a rebrand of the store. It was

announced on April 2nd 2019.
✖ Staples revealed a brand new logo, a social media campaign as
well as multiple new in house labels.
✘ “Work Life Fulfillment Company
✖ As stated prior, this is Staples new vision. As a Work Life
Fulfillment Company, they want to be a partner, a co-worker,
instead of a place to buy things and dread through work.
Staples Is Focused On Its 2020 Business Strategy

✘ Staples continues to focus on its Staples 2020 strategy,

which includes:
✖ Grow the mid-market in North America
✖ Remain profitable in North American stores
✖ Cut back on costs throughout the company
✖ Remain focused on North America.

✗ Focal Strategy: Staples’ history focused exclusively on business customers, the office
supplies retailer is launching a major rebranding effort to position itself as a ‘’ work life
fulfillment company’’ with a new logo and five private label brands. Staples will also
enhance its digital efforts with The Loop, an online product solutions guide, plus a website
redesign and amped-up social media push using the hashtag #WorkLifeSolutions.
 Is this Strategy Poised to Succeed?
What Changes Could Have Been Made?
✘ The “New Staples” has a lot of potential to succeed, but some worry it has not
done enough to really make the strides it is looking for.
✖ It gained attention from the logo reveal, and the in house brands have been
doing relatively well.
✗ Has not truly capitalized on the new generation of people.
✘ “A Complex Solution to a Simple Challenge”
✖ Quoted by George Anderson, a writer for Forbes.com
✖ Staples idea to rebrand stemmed from them believing they needed to make
a change to succeed.
✖ The idea is that Staples did either a little too much, or not enough.
✘ What could Staples have done different?
✖ Overall, two options:
✘ Do More
✘ Do Less
Two Potential Options for Staples
When it comes to the rebrand, it seems Staples did not commit enough, or
committed too much with this move. They’re spending a lot of money to withhold
the same brand image.
Do More Do Less
Staples could have On the other side of the coin,
expanded more so out of Staples could have spent less
the office supplies industry money by adding the private
and given themselves an labels and the social media
entirely new brand image, campaign. Instead of having
instead of spending money to spend money on changing
to, by the public perception, the logo for all Staples stores
be the same brand
Thanks!
Any questions?
PREPARED BY:

Natalie Yee
Dylan McCarty
Ece Eser
Eric Lopez
Jessica Lewis
References 16

Anderson, George. “Staples' Rebrand Seen As 'Complex Solution To A Simple Challenge'.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 10 Apr.
2019, https://www.forbes.com/sites/retailwire/2019/04/10/staples-rebrand-seen-as-complex-solution-to-a-simple-
challenge/.

Corrigan, John “Staples Undergoes Massive Rebrand.” ASI, 24 May 2019,

https://www.asicentral.com/news/newsletters/promogram/may-2019/staples-undergoes-massive-rebrand/.

Durham, Christopher. “Staples Dramatically Reinvents Itself and Its Private Brands.” My Private Brand, 2 Apr. 2019,
https://mypbrand.com/2019/04/02/staples-dramatically-reinvents-itself-and-its-private-brands/.

Hudson, Matthew. “What All Retailers Should Know About Staple Goods.” The Balance Small Business, The Balance Small
Business, 24 Apr. 2019, https://www.thebalancesmb.com/what-are-staple-goods-2890220.

Oliveira, Michael Wiggins De. “Staples Is Focused On Its 2020 Business Strategy.” Seeking Alpha, Seeking Alpha, 17 May
2017, https://seekingalpha.com/article/4074204-staples-focused-2020-business-strategy.

“Staples Reinvented: Digital and Delivery Business Launches New Brand Centered on Being The Worklife Fulfillment
Company.” Staples.com, https://www.thebalancesmb.com/what-are-staple-goods-2890220.

Strong, John S. “How Staples Lost It's Way.” Babson.edu, Babson College, 2017,
https://www.babson.edu/academics/executive-education/babson-insight/strategy-and-innovation/how-staples-lost-its-
way/.

“Staples on the Forbes America's Largest Private Companies List.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 2018,