The Warehouse, the Warehouse

From a single store in Wairau Road, Takapuna, Auckland in 1982 to 89 stores throughout the country, The Warehouse has recently celebrated its 30^th birthday. In 2005 The Warehouse changed to the above logo, this year the yellow in the Logo has been changed to white. Coupled with an ever subtle gradual change in the colour of the red. The Warehouse Limited PR Manager Gretchen Lowe explains:

The Warehouse’s logo, cleverly crafted by our in-house design team has recently been modernised to a simple , clean, and modern look of red and white, removing the yellow. This new contemporary look is reflected in the design of our mailers, print advertising and within a new TV ad campaign ‘What Kiwis Want’.

The Warehouse has been a large part of the New Zealand culture, a part of Ron English’s recent visit included a stop at the big red stores as part of a New Zealand cultural component. Just read over the title of this post and try not to think of the jingle used to sign off the Radio and TVC spots. The difference in the way it is being sung to much earlier versions communicates the Warehouse’s ‘changing brand position — and this tagline is set to be added to.

…The Warehouse’s core purpose and tagline of ’where everyone gets a bargain’ has remained consistent, what started out primarily as a ‘treasure trove’ with a surprise and delight factor, has evolved further and had a complete refresh both inside and out.
“While ‘where everyone gets a bargain’ still is and will always be The Warehouse’s mantra, we have further developed our positioning to also include ‘where everyone gets their essentials’. We are in a unique position in that we are both a variety store where kiwis shop for a treasure trove of bargains, parallel imports and fantastic WOW deals as well as a department store where kiwis shop for everyday essentials that their families need.

While in design school, the combination of the two colours red and yellow, were explained to me by a tutor as conveying ‘Cheap, quick and easy’. This maybe down to the fact that we associate the combination of colours to the many Fast Food chains who use them, but the combination creates strong attention grabbing signage that is often brash. The Warehouse originally fit into this category of having items that were seen as ‘Cheap, quick and easy’. Since then many changes have occurred from adding in Designer ranges like ‘Republic Revolution’, selling high-end electronic consumer goods to adding Cafes and Garden Centers to stores.

All these changes has seen The Warehouse evolve. Have opinions in New Zealand changed of the store or do the concrete floors, high shelving and earlier advertising / ephemera keep the same brand image in your mind?

Tweet