Staples Pivots Its Marketing Strategy Away From Retail

For quite some time, office supplies retailer Staples has been struggling to stay afloat.

As we’ve reported over the past year, Staples has seen its CEO step down, the closing of 70 stores, and talks about a potential sale.

In the office supply retailer’s latest effort to save face, it has made the move to shake up its marketing strategy. Rather than focusing on its core business of selling low-priced office supplies, it’s rebranding to focus on how the company enables professionals to enhance their work. To match this new promotional push, Staples has also changed its slogan from “Make More Happen” to “It’s Pro Time.”

Staples’ chief marketing officer, Frank Bifulco, commented on this new approach. He said “We wanted to tell a new Staples story. It’s going to convey to all audiences that Staples is much more than a retail office-supply company.”

With this, Staples is hoping to get the word out about its delivery business that gives its customers access to a sales representative and online ordering. The company is hoping to completely flip the way in which its revenue comes in. By 2020, Staples is looking to make 20 percent of its revenue from its retail locations with the remainder from delivery and e-commerce sales.