Office Depot or Office Max: No Diff

This is about as mundane and dry as brand differentiation comes.  One would think that after a competitor already stormed onto the market some 50 years earlier that the new guy would have the sense to really differentiate himself from his predecessor.  Instead he just confused the market.  Though Office Depot, the “new guy," is by far the more successful of the two office supply chains it isn’t by skill.  Instead it’s about increasing the number of locations compared to Office Max.  The only trouble is, when consumers want to buy office supplies, they could care less where they shop.  More often than not they are asking, “Where’s the nearest Office Depot or Office Max?”  Even so, they are mixing up the two brands when talking about them while the store is right in front of them.  It might have been the norm back in the 1930’s to be generic with general retail shops like Office Max, but by the 80’s the world was getting more creative with brands that use of a generic name like Office Depot is pathetic and lazy.  Enter Staples.

A simple, generic name? Yes, but that iconic symbol of the workplace is a fun, easily recognizable “staple” (pun very much intended) of businesses around the world.  The office may be boring and dreary, but Staples makes it exciting.  It’s no wonder why they are the world leader in office supplies with over $24 billion in sales last year alone while Office Depot only managed to generate $11.6 billion and Office Max continues to make a puny $4.3 billion a year.  Here is why:

1. Office Depot and Office Max have no real brand recognition.  They are bland, unconvincing, and without identity or personality.
2. Staples utilizes a simple yet sophisticated wordmark logo with a paper-clipped “L” and staple-ized “S.”  The other two try to get away with stock photo logos such as a Rubik’s cube and a ball of rubber bands.   Doesn’t matter which uses which.
3. Need I say more?
4. Staples is a superstore that offers just about every product a business could ask for to supply and then a wide range of other services.  Office Depot and Max offer pretty much the same kinds of products, many of the same brands, and even comparable services.  However, their stores are like boutiques by comparison.  When you don’t have much else to offer or differentiate yourself, sorry guys, but then size definitely matters.

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3)      In order for a company like Office Depot or Office Max to compete with the likes of Staples they need to do more than just sell virtually the same products and offer the same services, not to mention incorporate the same colors.  Even slight differentiations in those areas won’t do much to circumvent Staples’ massive market share and sales revenues.  Instead they should target a niche, grow with it, and own it.  Or even so, merge, then divide and conquer by cornering the small business supply and service market, making Staples pee their pants – or worse.  

Because in the end when a customer needs a pen, they’ll go to either Depot or Max and get a pen – usually a more expensive pen, but a pen nonetheless.  However, when a customer goes to Staples for a pen, they get a whole experience.  It’s primarily due to the great big red building that bears its name, much like Best Buy and their use of blue and yellow on their stores.  Bold, exciting, fun – those are the marks of a successful brand.