DFS Sales and Market Share Case Study

Background

We had been tracking market share for DFS in Hawaii for almost 10 years, tracking its gradual erosion as fewer and fewer Japanese visited Hawaii on group tours and as more and more competitive options for buying luxury goods opened in Hawaii.

Finding this erosion unacceptable, DFS decided to make a concerted effort to arrest it and win back some of the lost market share.

Our Approach

Consumers were obviously voting with their feet. When they had the flexibility to decide on their own where they wanted to shop more and more of them were choosing the competitive locations, even paying higher prices for exactly the same goods.

To understand why we recruited a small number of shoppers and accompanied them as they shopped both places, asking them questions as they went.

Following the shopping trips they were questioned at length about the differences between the two places.

The RIGHT Answer

The right answer in this case involved considerable capital investment in renovating the multi-storey store operated by DFS. After a two year systematic program of renovating structures that the research suggested were responsible for the consumer perceptions of the store, DFS’s market share decline had been arrested and was climbing again.