The BBC reported yesterday (
here) that “collapsed retailer BHS is to relaunch as an online shop”. This would seem to be the new commercial option for former high street stores (and indeed banks – e.g. plans to relaunch the Midland Bank brand) though usually this is by way of a downsize and move to online only rather than appearing to have disappeared completely and then re-emerging like a phoenix from the ashes. Last year there was much talk of reviving old brands in the form of the potential revival of The Midland Bank name (
here). The BHS “brand revival” has similarly extra aspects of interest to a trade mark geek. Firstly, as mentioned in the BBC article, one of the key cards for this “new” business is an existing “iconic brand” and also a news-ready story to tell of rebirth and overcoming adversity. But the brand name itself is interesting inherently. The trading name British Homes Stores is akin to British Airways (and The Midland Bank) in being a descriptive term but one that has acquired distinctiveness over time (Wikipedia tells me it was set up back in 1928 as a rival to Woolworths – a high street store which has shared a similar fate to BHS). Also on the inherent nature of the name, it would seem that with this move to online only retail, the “home” part of the brand has yet another meaning as the place you actually order the goods from. I also note that as the time of writing, the relaunch site holding page (
here) also uses the tagline “the British Home Store” perhaps both playing on that meaning in this mark as well as a clever statement of intent.
