The Staples you know (rather, the Staples you think you know) is pretty much a thing of the past. It was once the go-to for all things office supplies in addition to providing various business services, including branded promotional items. Staples—after a tough stretch that included a failed merger with Office Depot, shakeups in senior management, and now the reported exodus of its private equity owner—still wants to do those things. But it wants to be even more than that.
That's why Staples just rebranded, giving itself an aesthetic makeover and billing itself as "The Working and Learning Company." It has a new logo, with the staple now front and center. It's all very 2019 and very Silicon Valley buzzy.
At a concept location in Montreal, Staples is utilizing its new logo as well as incorporating the trendiness of co-working spaces. At its Toronto flagship as well, customers will see new branding throughout the store. Retail Insider detailed "discovery areas," where customers can get a hands-on look at products like staplers, pens, paper, electronics and more.
There's even a "pen bar" and "journal bar," and customers can custom-package a set of 24 Crayola crayons.
Basically, Staples is embracing the millennial vibe by giving people full access to products without the stuffiness of big shelves or glass display cases, and giving them a chance to even relive childhood nostalgia a little bit.
In short, it's a lot of reinvention, very suddenly. In a story published in Forbes, Joan Treistman, president of market research firm The Treistman Group, called it a "complex solution to a simple problem."
“Searching for business supplies and/or furniture is a product-focused effort," Treistman said. "Branding is no longer the major factor (was it ever?) in business product purchase decisions. If Staples’ strategy is to build brands that deliver, it will be expending a lot of energy and dollars and miss connecting with potential customers.”
Staples believes that this refreshing new look could be enough to steer the ship in the right direction, though. Chief marketing officer Marshall Warkentin told Forbes that the whole "Worklife" brand is designed to be more than something that sells office supplies.
"Our solutions for Worklife extend well beyond business essentials," he said. "We have expertise in furniture, technology, pack and ship, and facilities. And we are partners to our customers every step of the way."
It sounds promising from a wholesale perspective, but for Staples to stay afloat, experts say their services in these brick-and-mortar locations, which look like they double as startup incubators, need to reflect the flash and modernity of the new logo. Otherwise, the company won't be able to shake its reputation as a brand struggling to find its identity.