Today is 7/11 and what better day than to pick on our favorite convenience store 7-Eleven than today?
Recently they redesigned the stores, both outside and inside. The outside design is significantly different but inside the stores I didn’t notice anything that is really worth mentioning or at least much different than I last remember.
The outside design is the reason I decided to blog. Is it better? I don’t think so. Let’s take a look.
I live nearby a few 7-Elevens and while it was being worked on, I drove by and noticed the construction. I have to say… I didn’t think it was done yet! First of all, I wasn’t paying much attention and really looking closely yet. With the new design I didn’t realize it was done until I saw another 7-Eleven that looked the exact same way! You see, I think the new design looks incomplete. At first glance, the top part looked to me like a part of hanging roof, I thought there was atleast 1 missing section for a while.
Was the designer going for the ripped away missing section look? Also the stripes are now wierd with having 3 sections of stripes. Why have a smaller set of stripes in the middle of two large sections of stripes? It does not seem to flow to me. It does not look modern, it does not look classic, it does not fit in any design category I can think of. It just looks like a thrown together mess with no real plan.
Without spending much, a quick fix to the new design is to give some color to the new wave on top of the building.
I think the old design (see below) should of just been slightly modified for a new fresh modern look. Keep the stripe but pop out the 7-Eleven logo and slant the white square slightly. Give a little more… only slightly more personality to the logo itself. Right now it looks so stiff and straight and it needs to be a little… just slightly looser personality. By poping out the 7-Eleven logo, it will give more depth and say This is 7-Eleven and here we are! We are cool and come here to be cool! This modification I describe would of cost a lot less than the new design.
I found one 7-Eleven I went to today that still seemed to have the older design, which do you like better?
On the smarter side of 7-Eleven, today is FREE Slurpie day (while supplies last). I think that is marketing genius. Today on my trip shopping for things for our dog, I passed by two 7-Eleven’s and I passed by another on the way to work. Two out of three of them had huge, inflatable, can’t possibly miss, giant Slurpees in front. This is genius and attention getting. Something note-worthy, however, is I would not of known about the free Slurpee offer if my wife had not told me, so they failed to get the word directly to me. There was no obvious signage of the offer with the giant Slurpee that I noticed.
With a Redbox movie in hand to return (Redbox locations are at 7-Eleven), and going that direction anyway to pick up stuff for the dog, it was a perfect formula for an excuse to stop for the free Slurpee. I enjoyed it, they delivered on the promise, so then on the way to Walmart, I noticed another 7-Eleven and stopped for another free Slurpee. At the 2nd 7-Eleven I noticed something interesting, a whole family by the Slurpee machine, but not getting the little tiny free one, but getting the large size for each of them. I was thinking that maybe they didn’t relize about the free Slurpee cups – but they were sitting right there. Then I thought, maybe they think its any size Slurpee, but then they happily paid. I thought to myself, there is a great example of this Slurpee marketing working! Later on the way to work, I went for another free Slurpee (different 7-Eleven, and yes I am aware of my little freebee problem) , anyway, I noticed something similar to the previous, there were 2 groups of people one family and another couple getting the large size Slurpees and going to the counter to pay. Genius 7-Eleven! Pure Genius! On the other hand, the new signage on your building… well it sucks, but I don’t think its hurting your Slurpee sales.
Jared Farnum
UPDATE 1 10:37 PM – I attempted to contact 7-Eleven to tell them about this blog post and went to the website to find contact information. I clicked on “The Company” > “Contact Us” which brought me to
http://corp.7-eleven.com/ContactUs/tabid/184/Default.aspx , then I clicked on “Non-Store Specific Customer Comments Form” and the page did not work! I tried both on my work computer and on my iPhone with no luck. Dear 7-Eleven, this is a HUGE FAIL if your customers can not easily communicate with you.
UPDATE 2 (July 20th 12:20 PM) – Over the last week I kept at attempting to submit this blog post to 7-Eleven, each time with the same error as before. Today, however, it actually worked! Hoorah for 7-Eleven! Request Number: 1007200503