dixons.co.uk – The Last Place You Want To Go
While waiting for a train on the Underground late one night, I was intrigued by the an advert for Dixons, a high street retail brand. The creative takes pot shots at  well known department stores, advises shoppers to do all their browsing there, and then go to the Dixons site to purchase. The campaign ends with the tagline “Dixons.co.uk – the last place you want to goâ€.
I am split about the creative message and about the potential negative connotations, especially if you miss most of the creative that precedes it. However I hold judgement, though it would be interesting to see what the results are.
In my usual fashion, I asked twitter and they came up with their opinions:
Thoughts please: if I say a place is “the last place” I would go to buy anything, what does that say to you?
- jaamit: @kevgibbo @rishil exactly my thoughts, complete slogan #fail. what did they reject on the way “dont even bother” / “pull the other one”…?
- kevgibbo: @rishil that’s an awful strapline, although it’s probably true – they’d be the last place I’d try!
- willcritchlow @rishil I actually really like that campaign. I love the use of colour & font so you know who they are talking about
- LordManley: @rishil That place is slightly better than another establishment where you would buy nothing at all, but still not great.
- seobegincom: @rishil all the others were overpriced?
- searchpanda: @rishil is this related to new dixons ad? ‘last place you go’ – i thought it was quite well thought out. recession etc.
- IngoGuava: @rishil That means that at least you know the place as a relevant resource. But only as a resource of rubbish.
- SharkSEO: @rishil I know! The Dixons adverts, right? They’re fucking terrible!
- 101holidays: @rishil it means you wouldn’t buy there. But I see Dixons.co.uk are using it as a sales line. Fine line between clever/stupid
- richardbaxter: @rishil that you’re going home, and that’s the last shop on the way?
- cyandle: @rishil that they suck ass?
- ismepete: @rishil it says to me that you could get the *anything* there, but would try everywhere else before them, presumably cos they r rubbish
- RichardShove: @rishil That you’d only buy it from there if there were no other alternatives
- swerveball: @rishil you wouldn’t buy from there.
It would be interesting what others feel about this campaign, especially those involved in online marketing. The mixed reaction to it is really intriguing.
Post category: Marketing Tweet
Rishi Lakhani is a Search Strategist who works with a range of Big Brands on SEO and Online Marketing. He Guest Blogs for Blogstorm and other UK Marketing Blogs and takes active interest in the UK and International Search Community. You can find Rishi on Twitter, or at his blog Explicitly.me.
Comments
Read the 27 comments below, or add your own!
To me, saying “the last place you want to go” means that it is a place you want to avoid unless there is no where else to go.
Intresting to hear what other people think about this.
Personally I think the other format of ad works much better – I’m guessing it’s related to this –
http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/939077/Ad-suggests-people-shop-Harrods-buy-online-Dixons
In which case it works better, but on it’s own I’m not really clear as the message it’s trying to deliver. With some extra wording and information I think it could have been quite effective, but on it’s own like this holds no real strength
Yep, far too negative. Perhaps “DON’T CLICK HERE!” would have been more effective?
Definitely a failure as far as I’m concerned – partly because, like tweeps and commentors, I consider Dixons to be a last resort!
Reinforcing that message is probably not the best idea.
This had me thinking too on the underground – at first I thought “pointing gun at foot and fire!” but the more I thought about it I have to say it’s not as negative as you first think.
Shoppers are becoming more savvy online and know to shop around, so it makes sense in some respects. It made me think about it but i’d have to say it’s a risky way of targeting people.
Seems to me that this is poor no matter which way you cut it; go elsewhere to browse (because Dixons don’t give you enough information) go elsewhere for a demo (because dixons colsed all their stores) go elsewhere to let piers give you a sales pitch (because Dixons don’t have that level of service).
It wouldn’t be so bad, but the very first product I price compared, an Acer 531 netbook at £229 on Dixons, wasn’t the cheapest price I could find.
I can see the creative agency getting sacked over this campaign when it dies a painful death. What an absolute load of tosh!
Was it meant as a viral marketing exercise? ‘Let’s make the worst advert ever so people talk about it?’ Damn, that’s what i’m doing now!
I feel that whilst a few people may think ‘hmm that’s a clever ad’, the majority of the target audience that see it will probably read a negative message.
Does the man in the street want to spend time thinking about what the advert means or does he just want to know in an instant that he can buy a cheap TV at Dixons?
Dixons probably thought they were being clever with the “play on words” aspect of the campaign and in context it’s not too bad: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-business/article-23748723-war-of-words-on-high-street-over-dixons-advertising.do
But just having a board with that on it, shows incredible niaviety and expects a certain campaign awareness of the consumer (which they haven’t got). Also the joke is on them, because for most electrical consumers Dixons ARE the last place to get what you want to go!
Thanks for the information, well i think that viral marketing is must now a days but not that much extent which looks like spamming.
It’s a tricky one.
Will work for some and others will hate it.
I suspect it is not aimed at web savvy techno geeks that mostly know that Dixon’s is the last place to go for a bargain.
More likely at late adopters that are still getting into the buy online (yes there are those out there that still don’t shop much online) and are still looking for a brand they recognise, even if it is associated with a failed business model.
It certainly seems to creating a stir and getting some air/binary space time. Which generally isn’t a bad thing.
I think those that aren’t fans of it were never going to shop at Dixon’s anyway, so they’ve lost nothing there.
Those that would consider Dixon’s might just think it’s a clever idea and be won over with the idea.
I personally don’t mind the idea as a concept, my only issue is with the location as a shopping venue and service and for that reason it’s unlikely to convince me to shop there.
aside from my twitter comments above, i think this is interesting beyond the obvious slogan own-goal from dixons (they clearly thought they were being clever):
a) it points to a potential move for dixons to go entirely online – the “last place you want to go” and the entire campaign is dixons saying, dont go into a store, go online. well they do still have stores – are they preparing people for a future where Dixons is no longer a fixture on the high street?
b) as people have commented above, if dixons really were the cheapest online this might not have backfired so much. but online electrical sites (including giants like amazon) have been underpricing dixons online for years. So as Richard Vaughan says above, for the online-savvy electrical consumer we’ve already ruled out dixons.co.uk in favour of cheaper sites. So are they trying to get their traditional shop-going consumer base to look online? In that case they could be setting themselves up for a more significant fail down the line – Dixons brand faithfuls will look online, and then find somewhere even cheaper! For me this is more dangerous for them than the short term failure of this ad campaign.
Yeah, I’ve seen this all over the underground and almost blogged about it too. I think the slogan is poor but my main problem is the message. Being an online marketer I should find the idea of people coming online to buy products they’ve looked at in Shops, but the idea of rubbing the storekeepers nose in it doesn’t make me warm towards them at all.
Exactly what virtue are they trying to attach themselves to and who is the target audience? people with enough ruthlessness to waste a shop assistant’s time asking for a demonstration on a product they have no intention of buying there, would almost certainly find somewhere cheaper than Dixons when they log on to complete their purchase.
Yes… don’t under estimate the power of suggestion with language. Their is another one that I find irritating at the moment and that’s the tag line for Belgravia Hair Loss Centre on their TV ad…”…Specialising in nothing,…. but Hair Loss.”
I like it. The phrase: “last place I’d want to go…” is well known enough to entice interest when viewing this creative.
I think the ad definitely works better if the viewer is aware of the other creatives in the campaign such as this one: http://inspirationalgeek.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/dixons1.jpg present on the London Underground.
Meh. I still like it
It is an interesting choice in words they have used. “last resort” tends to come across as negative in most instances. In passing conversation, saying something is a last resort could be either desperate or bad, depending on how the rest of the conversation or statement. Without the clarification, it tends to be negative.
Just seeing the tweet in the feed this morning, sounded like something was going wrong with Dixons with that tagline. People don’t always read the full story, there are those that scan/glance (user patience decreasing etc etc)
As a business owner, i would prefer to be the first resort for any shopper, why would i want my potential clients shopping around, at the chance they may perhaps find something better (not simply on the price tag). There are always different types of clients, those that are concerned about price, some about quality, then those that are brand focused.
Marketers should always avoid words in tagline that can be misunderstood or be interpreted the wrong way, least of all seen as a negative. Probably a great idea during the marketing meeting and the team pitching the idea along with the concept, yet all of that is lost in translation by the time it lands in front of the potential client.
I agree with Shark SEO.
It might be clever… but largely I think it wasn’t a great idea. I meant… what? I don’t think oh yes, now I’ll check dixons.co.uk after a long slog of searching for an item already, and now I definitely won’t!
This campaign does tap into the way many people shop these days (they’ve clearly researched their target market well) but the execution of the final tagline is very, very poor. As has been commented above, the viewer really needs to have seen the other ads to understand where Dixons are coming from with their ‘last place you want to go’ slogan. I saw the above advert before any of the others and just laughed and thought ‘yeah you’re right, it is probably the last place I’d want to go… amazon is much cheaper’ closely followed by ‘ad campaign: fail’. The word ‘last’ has so many negative connotations, IMHO simply swapping it for ‘final’ would have made a lot more sense… perhaps it was getting late though.
I really like this advertising campaign. Dixons have obviously completed a lot of brand research and what, at present, defines Dixons as a brand on the high street. Coupled with the fact that of the credit crunch and Brits tightening their belts this Christmas, they have engaged with the savvy shopper who will be looking to seek out a bargain.
This ad campaign would translate very well online should Dixons want to support this campaign with an online voucher code strategy to support their price-conscious focus
I agree that it could be very misleading indeed if you only saw a tiny snippet of it but the very fact that the message was so controversial will mean that the Dixons brand has registred in your brain where ther normal ads would not have. Also it is pretty obvious but the fact that we are all on here debating Dixons is another sure sign that the message has worked very well indeed. I don’t think they would run the campaign all the time but for a short burst it seems to have done the job it was set out to do I would imagine!
I dunno gang. It’s certainly a risky campaign, but you know what they say about high risk bringing with it high reward potential.
I’m personally not familiar with the brand, so if I were to see it on an advert in the tube, I’d make a mental note to check the url out when I got back to my computer.
But maybe that’s just me.
I’m personally not familiar with the brand to .
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY, http://www.dixons.co.uk! I would like to give them a 0 rating but it’s not an option on this site. I placed an order for two items which were shown as in stock. The next day, it was showing as no stock. I waited for a week and there was no sign of my order. I emailed and was told it would take 7-10 days for new stock. Two weeks later and no sign of the order so I emailed again and there was no response.
I ended up ringing their expensive 0844 number and was told there were severe stock delays. I asked to cancel my order and they assured I was ablee to do this and that a refund would be issued. A week later, I emailed to ask for confirmation that my order had been cancelled and to ask how long the refund would take. I got a response saying my order had been cancelled but, conveniently, not addressing the second question. I rang and was told a fast-track refund would be issued (allegedly it usually takes 7-10 working days for a Paypal transaction!) and would be in my account in three working days. Over a week later, there was still no refund and no response to my email.
Nearly 30 days after the cancellation, I sent them an official complaint reminding them of my legal refund rights under the Distance Selling Act (2000) and threatening to take steps towards legal action if they did not respond within 48 hours. Finally, the next day my Paypal account was credited (what happened to the 7-10 working day turnaround! Or is that just an excuse to keep the money for a bit longer in the hope I’d forget?). They are claiming it was an ‘administrative error’. Erm, twice?!? And what about all the ignored messages I sent them?
What a battle! I am never using them again and do not recommend them. The staff are very unfriendly and unhelpful on the phone and speak with heavy foreign hard-to-understand accents and do not follow through with their promises. Emails asking for refund information are not responded to. Customer service is shoddy. Avoid at any cost.
That strap line might have made a bit more sense had they said ‘the last place you NEED to go’, but the last place you’d WANT to go makes it sound like you’d rather buy a computer from the guy down the street who talks to his own feet. Terrible advertising. Great post though!
Great article. Just another example of a high street retailer trying to fit into the 21st centuary. Used to love Dixons when I was kid 30 years ago, but these days it just does not deliver