Millions on makeover as stores try to fight off Amazon

JOHN Lewis and Waitrose are spending millions of pounds on new names and logos to deter customers from defecting to internet rivals such as Amazon.

An outside team of ‘identity experts’ has come up with the idea to add ‘& Partners’ to the names of the two chains.

However, critics have warned that the expensive revamp could end up making the stores look foolish.

Bosses believe the rebranding will remind shoppers that the businesses are owned and run by their own staff.

TV adverts highlighting the change show children in a school play singing their own version of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody to a group of stunned parents.

Meanwhile, Debenhams is changing the font used in its name to make the store look

‘The cost can be outrageous’

more modern. Industry experts claim the amount the three stores will have to spend to promote their new styles and change branding and livery in stores and on carrier bags, packaging, websites and vans ‘will easily surpass seven figures’.

They warned that staff training and advertising campaigns will make the cost ‘spiral up from there’.

Marketing expert Professor Mark Ritson said: ‘The cost of rebranding, even when the change is relatively cosmetic and minor, can be outrageous.

‘Time after time senior executives at newly rebranded companies go to the media and try to explain why they have spent millions changing the colour or the shape of the logo and end up, almost without exception, looking foolish.’