My wife and I were enjoying a stroll down Regent Street in London. I had client meetings in the city and we decided to expand the trip and make a little vacation out of it as well. If you’ve ever been to London, you know the city is magnificent – every square foot seems filled with history. We really enjoyed the beautiful architecture and I am sure we heard at least a dozen languages spoken as we walked together for a couple hours. As we walked along, a colorful toy store caught my eye. We went inside.
We quickly found out this wasn’t just any toy story. This was Hamleys. The store is known as the finest toy store in the world. And it was celebrating its anniversary. It’s 250th anniversary.
I was standing in a toy store that was older than the United States of America.
That’s right. 16 years before the American Revolution William Hamley launched his dream. He wanted to have the best toy store in the world. He opened his shop (called “Noah’s Ark” back then) and sold rag dolls, tin soldiers – and everything else. His passion for toys and relentless pursuit of the best things to play with launched a company that would last for more than two and a half centuries.
Why? I wondered. Why did this particular brand last so long? What makes a company last for two-and-a-half centuries, anyway? I did a little looking into the company’s history when I got back home and I think there are five reasons Hamleys and its brand has lasted for such an incredibly long time.
Success According to Hamleys (or)
Five Qualities That Can Build A Brand That Lasts For Centuries
1. Passion
Willam Hamley loved toys. Really loved toys. He loved what he did and it was a consuming passion. This passion meant he had a toy store everyone wanted to visit. It also meant his customers kept coming back to see what new joys he had managed to find to sell to them. There is no substitute for passion like this in a business – and it always seems to start at the top.
2. Perseverance
Every business has its setbacks. In Hamleys case, the Great Depression and being bombed five times during The Blitz in WWII slowed the company down quite a bit. I am sure there were many other successful businesses that allowed issues such as these to stop them. But Hamleys kept on going. And going. And going. This perseverance built their brand. Perseverance like that also comes from the top as well.
3. Consistency
The customer experience at Hamleys was consistent over time. That’s why Queen Elizabeth II was a fan of Hamleys. Her grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, introduced her to the toy store when she was a little girl. The store she loved as a little girl was the store she also shared with her children. For generation after generation Hamleys delivered the magic to great and small alike. Consistency like that doesn’t happen by accident. Generations of leaders focused on making the toy store the same excellent experience over and over again. Now that’s branding.
4. Successful Succession
Not only was Hamley’s passionate, long-suffering and consistent. The company was also adept at developing the next generation of leadership and handing the reins of the company over at the right time to the right leaders. Think about it. For 250 years one generation of company leadership has handed the baton to the next. And no one ever dropped it. Impressive. If you want your brand to stand the test of time, you are going to have to be a good leader. And a good developer of leaders.
5. Promotion
When Hamleys celebrated their 250th anniversary – the party itself – there were many celebrities present. And the press was there in force. That’s a lot of free advertising. By creating a culture of theater at the store itself (there’s always something going on at the store from toy demonstrations to new product roll outs, etc.), the store ended up being very skilled at promoting itself. Now, the brand has become such a powerful force the rich and famous stand in line to be associated with it.
Interestingly, four of the five qualities that built Hamleys into a 250-year old company come from the fountainhead of leadership. Good leaders build good companies. Really good leaders build really good companies.
