If it ain’t broke, why fix it?

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: If you go by its sheer performance, there seems very little to worry about. Shoppers Stop has recorded a net profit of Rs 6.97 crore for the year ended March 31, 2008. The retail turnover in fiscal 2008 was close to Rs 1,207 crore, up 34%. As things stand, the K Raheja Group-promoted 17-year-old chain has 1.3 million sq ft of retail space across 24 stores in 11 cities in India.

Yet it wants to “start something new”.

So earlier this month, the country’s pioneer retail chain changed its corporate look for the first time in two decades. This re-branding came after its research showed that customers in the 18-to-25-year age bracket, who frequented Shoppers Stop, didn’t really associate with the brand.

To reinforce its association with the youth, the company has launched a series of print and television commercials. While the TVCs encourage customer to try out something new, the print campaigns are quite tongue-in-cheek. And guess what, they also carry an environmental message.

The new logo, which takes forward Shoppers Stop’s black and white legacy, has been designed by Ray+Keshavan and the creatives have been executed by Contract

Advertising. Says BS Nagesh, managing director, Shoppers Stop, “Our brand iconographic study revealed that the whole relationship of customers was with the name Shoppers Stop and its deliverables. And the biggest point of identification was the black and white colours and not the shape of logo.”

Alongside, the company will also launch an in-store FM radio station in association with Blue Frog, a sound lab and production house. The channel will have two radio jockeys and nine hour of programming. The radio station will play various genres of music including regional language chartbusters.

The jockeys have a bigger role than you anticipated: they will also dispense gyan on lifestyle and wellness. Shoppers Stop now has a company anthem—penned by Gulzar and rendered by Sonu Nigam—the music for which has been scored by Ram Sampat.

As part of this re-branding exercise all the employees of the company now have a new dress code and they have been specially trained to handle customers, who are more demanding now, with ease.

The spend on this exercise: a whopping Rs 20 crore.

So what led this premium lifestyle house to change its positioning and adopt a new corporate philosophy?