Primark case study

Primark

A white caption on a black background, saying ‘Success in the High Street,’ comes up and fades.

Woman’s voice says, Soon Barnsley will have its very own Primark, a new shopping experience that combines up-to-the-minute styles with down-to-earth prices. Join Mick McCarthy for the official opening…

The video continues with bagpipes playing:  Inside a store, a group of teenagers, wearing white T-shirts and white caps, and holding red and green balloons, is smiling and laughing. One girl is being struck lightly with a balloon on her cap. She is laughing.  At the entrance of this store, people are standing, waiting to come in. The camera closes in on a blond boy with brown eyes aged about four. The boy is looking up and right, to where someone with a green bag is walking among the crowd giving out sweets. The Primark logo is printed on the bag. The logo is composed of the word ‘Primark’ in white capital letters.

The camera moves away to reveal a crowd standing behind a stretched green tape. The camera focuses first on a little girl and then on the teenagers holding the balloons.

Crowd yelling, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. (cheering, applause)

On a black screen, the words ‘Primark opens its 97th store’ are written in white.

Huge scissors cut the green tape and everyone applauds and smiles.

A shot taken from inside the store captures a crowd of people who begin to enter the store. These people are photographed from different angles.

Violet Pearce, Store Manager at Hammersmith, stands and talks at the centre of the store. She is a white woman, in her forties, her hair is cut short, and she is wearing glasses, a white shirt and a black suit. Behind her, some sweaters are neatly folded on a table, other clothes are hanging on rails. The folded sweaters are light blue and above them, there is a price tag of £6 and a sign saying ‘new.’

Violet Pearce – Store Manager Hammersmith says, When we first opened, people were asking us was it an opening offer? Were our prices an opening offer? Were they going to go up? They couldn’t, they couldn’t understand that this is actually the price we sell the goods at.

The video continues: A blond customer is looking at clothes hanging on a rail. The price tag reads £3.

Woman#2 says, I think there’s a lot of retailers that are still doing very good jobs but they’re expensive and I think what we give is very great value, affordable prices.

The video continues: Another customer, who is also blonde, walks along with her daughter, and stops next to the price tag marked £4.

A girl holding a balloon is walking around the shop with her mother. A woman with black hair drawn back into a pony tail, is examining socks in a rail with many pairs of socks hanging on it. The price tag above says £2.

Paddy Prior, Financial Director, stands in the store and speaks directly to the camera. He is a grey-haired man, who is wearing a black suit, white shirt and a dark tie. In the background, customers walk around the store.

Paddy Prior – Financial Director says, We always say, the right garment in the right place at the right time at the right price. So the price is very, very important.

The video continues: Next speaking is, Peter Walsh, Menswear Controller, UK. He is a young man with ginger hair and eyebrows, wearing a white shirt and a blue tie. He stands in front of a rail of men’s shirts and sweaters.

Peter Walsh – Menswear Controller UK says, It’s critical. It’s absolutely critical.  There’s no way you could sell at our prices and get customers coming back again if the quality isn’t going to stand up to what they expect it to be. Just because they’re paying less doesn’t mean they want a cheaper style or a cheaper quality. They want the same quality as they can buy in the value stores in the high street but they want them at our prices.

The video continues: The camera focuses on the arms of a customer who is carrying on her arm a large quantity of clothing.

Now the camera moves in to focus on different items of clothing. First, an unidentified red garment. On the white label, the letter Y is marked inside a circle and below it, the words ‘Young Dimension’ are written in capital letters.

Second, a folded light blue men’s shirt. The shirt has a thin, cardboard label wrapped around it. The label has three lines written on it. One says ‘cedarwood’, the next line says ‘state’ and the final one, at the bottom, reads ‘easy care shirt.’ Out of the shirt collar the label is visible, on it are written the same things and in the same order.

On the back pocket of a pair of jeans, there is a light brown cardboard label. It says: ‘denim, jeanswear.’ The letters are dark brown.

An unidentified black feminine garment has on its top part colourful ethnic embroidery in tones of purple. From the back part of the garment, the label is visible. It reads: ‘atmosphere.’ The numbers 12/40 on the label indicate the size.

The camera moves on to focus on price tags. A price tag on a shirt at the forefront says £5 and two others, further away, read £6 and £8. The £8 tag indicates the price of men’s cargo pants.

Now the camera focuses on white socks in packs of 3 and 5. They are hanging on a rail, and each pack is wrapped with paper in either blue or grey, indicating the quantity in the pack. Above the rail the price tag reads: ‘5 pack for £2.’

Arthur Ryan, Chairman and MD, sits in an office and speaks to the camera. He is a middle-aged man, his white hair is combed sideways. He is wearing a grey suit. On the wall behind him, there is a wooden display on which a collection of women’s swim suits are hung. The swim suit at the centre of the picture is divided into three horizontal stripes, each in another tone of pink.  The other bathing suits are each in a different colour.

Arthur Ryan – Chairman and MD says, Lots of us could be buying it at the same price but not ending up selling at the same price, you understand? But the public have got what they want. I’m not interested in the march. I’m interested in the public. What is the biggest compliment  we can get from our customers? One word: that they trust us. The customer, they’re coming back week-in, week-out. No gimmicks. There it is. You like it or you don’t. And they’ll tell us soon enough. If they don’t like it, we get rid of it. We don’t have annual sales because we don’t hang around waiting for January if we get a problem in October.

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