Augustin had big ideas for his company – big ideas that, at face value, make sense and look good. For years, his company had had trouble keeping up with discounts and was largely viewed as a store for matronly women to buy clothing for themselves and their families. So, Augustin decided he would get rid of discounts and totally redo Emilia’s stores to attract a younger audience. The problem is that Augustin never tried to validate his ideas by, for instance, talking to his current customers or talking to the customers he wanted to attract. Emilia’s current customers had come to look forward to Emilia’s sales and promotional deals. So, when Emilia stopped having deals, they stopped coming to buy product. Had Augustin spoken with Emilia customers to understand why they valued Emilia, perhaps he would have understood that part of the fun of Emilia was feeling like they’d found a good deal. Additionally, it appears that Augustin never spoke to younger customers he was trying to attract. When his friend Maria, the mother of several teenagers, criticized parts of Augustin’s idea (for example, by telling him that teenagers spend more time online and rarely go to the store), Augustin did not back up his idea by citing conversations he’d had with or experiments he’d run with teenagers, he just reiterated his own assumptions as to why he believed teenagers would like coming to Emilia’s new stores.
If I were to advise Augustin, I would advise him to start by renovating just one store, marketing it to teenagers, and seeing the reaction before massively revamping all of their stores. Or, even before renovating a store, he could try hosting some of the kinds of events for teenagers that he hopes to host in his new stores. He should also bring back some of the sales and discounts his customers love (at least for some items). Perhaps for some items, he can keep his “hablar claro” policy, where he tells people the “true” price of a product, and for other items, he can continue to run sales and discounts to give his customers the sales rush they love.
