Stationery cataloguer Viking Direct has revamped its logo and
dropped the word Direct from its name to make it more
appealing to consumers. As part of the rebrand, Viking mailed
catalogues featuring the new identity, and improved functionality
on its website. Among the enhancements are simpler navigation and
an improved experience for existing customers through
recommendation technology and purchase history.
“The rebrand is a reflection of how diverse the customer
base is,” says commercial director John O’Keeffe.
“We’ve always been a supplier to SMEs and a significant
minority of our customer base has been consumer accounts. Our
research, and speaking to our customers, tells us that what we
sell is purchased by big businesses as well as by home workers
and students.”
After 21 years in business, O’Keeffe explains the rebrand will
help Viking appeal to a new, dynamic audience who work
on-the-move, but will not alienate the company’s established
base. He points out that Viking still has a telephone account
team of 50 staff and a growing field sales team. “We’re not
going ‘consumer’,” he stresses. “We’re simply going
where the customer is-being as flexible as possible.”
Although the business has seen a migration from catalogues to the
web, O’Keeffe says catalogues and direct mail still account for
the majority of business. He explains that the catalogues will
retain their focus on targeting office workers, while the Viking
website will be able to showcase items that have a more
“consumer” slant-such as iPads or cameras. Further,
the website makes use of time-of-day marketing, explains
O’Keeffe: “We’ve noticed that when customers are shopping
for their business, they are also shopping for their home. So in
the daytime, when the customer base is likely to be at work, the
offers on the website are tailored toward office products. In the
evenings and weekends the offers become more
consumer-focused.”
The Office Depot-owned cataloguer will also introduce a mobile
shopping app in the UK and Europe later in the year to take
advantage of the growing take-up of smartphones and mobile
workers. This year will see further improvements made to the
Viking website too, but O’Keeffe was tight-lipped about upcoming
initiatives. He also wouldn’t be drawn on the increase in sales
Viking expected to achieve, but says that after 18 months in
development, and an extensive multimedia campaign including
national TV and radio advertising, the company is aiming for a
sizeable return on its marketing investment.
Share