The UK’s most successful music and movie chain HMV has opened its first in-store cinema...
HMV Group's conversion from main street music retailer into multi-format entertainment operator is a combined music store and cinema in London.
HMV was on the ropes in 2007, struggling to stay relevant in a music market hit by cost-cutting, the growing consumer trend towards buying digital music, and copyright-breaking file sharing. So it embarked on a major restructure which saw it broaden its portfolio of retail brands and formats. It shed many music retailing assets outside its core markets of the UK, Canada and Hong Kong (although it still has two stores in Singapore), to focus on a network of 692 stores in seven countries, including specialist English language bookstores in Europe and the Waterstones book chain.
While rival Borders UK went into administration, HMV returned a healthy profit, opened new stores and explored new opportunities, such as February's purchase of venue owner Mama Group. It's all part of a strategy blending new brand positioning and store design and driving many other initiatives, such as gaming websites, music streaming, ticketing, live entertainment venues, a revamped loyalty program and a stronger online presence.
Amongst new formats being trialled by HMV Group is an in-store cinema concept, the first of which was opened in the London suburb of Wimbledon.
David Wright, partner with Dalziel and Pow Design Consultants in London, which designed the concept, says it fits the new HMV ‘Get Closer’ marketing statement, with the company aligning itself more closely with people’s emotional relationships with music, films and games.
The instore cinema follows Dalziel and Pow’s design of HMV’s ‘next generation’ store concept, launched in 2008, now being rolled out rapidly, with great results, including in Westfield London.
"The Wimbledon store concept creates a compelling, multi-channel shopping experience that becomes a destination ‘social space’ for people to visit, spend time in and, ultimately, shop," says Wright.
The first HMV Curzon is a 263-seat, three-screen cinema on top of the HMV store. This will not only enable HMV to venture into the as yet largely untapped arena of in-store cinemas, but the retailer will also be able to do more cross-marketing to promote the latest DVD or games releases, using the cinema screens as a base where fans can interact. HMV claims that music now represents just 28 per cent of its UK and Ireland sales, while DVDs bring in 45 per cent and games/technology comprise 24 per cent.
Consumers reach the cinema by entering the front of the store, which will advertise the films on show, and then taking the stairs or lift to the second floor. An entrance at the front of the store allows direct access from the street, which is open during store trading hours and also for evening shows.
Once in the cinema, the multifunctional lobby has a club-like vibe, there is a bar selling food and drink and space to hang out. Customers are encouraged to buy their tickets online and print them out beforehand – a service only offered at the moment in London by two Showcase cinemas – but there is, of course, a box office too.
The screens will be traditional in feel but modern in execution; each named after their colour (red, blue and green) rather than a number.
"The HMV customer in Wimbledon is beginning to see their local HMV as an entertainment venue – as an alternative to the local Odeon, but with so much more to offer. All of this supports the brand vision: to create experiential spaces, not just another transactional space," says Wright.
Project: HMV Curzon
Location: Wimbledon, London
Size 200sqm (500sqm incloding screens)
thanks to insideretailing.
