The news that Thornton’s will this year close its entire estate of shops is undoubtedly another blow to the High Street but let’s be honest, this particular demise has been on the horizon for a long time.
No-one can deny that Thornton’s ever-changing senior management has had its ups and downs over the last quarter-century. The company famously had to issue a profit warning in 1999 after running out of Easter eggs....at Easter. The following year, they overcompensated by making too many Easter eggs and ended up having to remainder £1.4m of unsold product at a loss.
Mismanagement aside, Thornton’s other big problem has always been The Perception Gap.
The Perception Gap is a business phenomenon where a company believes that it occupies a particular space in the market and acts accordingly, without realising that its customers’ view is completely different.
Thornton’s originated as an artisan Georgian sweetshop, with master chocolatiers producing hand-finished individually-wrapped confectionery. The company's marketing portrays it as a premium luxury brand, a purveyor of indulgent and exclusive products with a pedigree stretching back for more than a century.
The reality is, you can buy a big box of Thornton's chocolate in Asda for £7 where it usually ends up as someone's slightly disappointing Secret Santa gift.
If you wanted to buy confectionery that would impress someone and give them a little taste of luxury, where would you go? Thornton’s had convinced themselves it would be their shop you'd visit first, but I bet you thought of at least two better options just reading that last sentence.
Therein lies The Perception Gap.
A couple of Christmases ago Mrs G – who loves her chocolate - opened a box of Thornton’s she’d received as a present from a work colleague. After looking at the menu card for quite a few minutes, she put it back in the box and replaced the lid.
“If someone had told me that one day a big confectionery firm could produce a box of chocolates that I’d open and not fancy a single one, I wouldn't have believed them “ she said mournfully. “Yet Thornton’s have somehow managed to do it.”
The writing was truly on the wall.
