Whole Foods May Launch Tattoo Shops: Will It Win Millennials?

Whole Foods grocery chain is the latest business to announce its intentions to bank on millennials as their next wave of customers with high purchasing power.

The Austin-based chain is considering adding tattoo parlors, body care product shops and record shops inside their new chain of stores called 365, slated to launch this year.

That’s right, you may soon be able to get inked with your favorite design while shopping for milk.

Related: Marketers cash in on millennials’ love of organic coffee, craft beer

If that strikes you as a bit odd, that’s because it is. Yet the question on everyone’s mind is, will Whole Foods be successful?

It’s worth looking at other retail companies to get a full picture, some of which have similarly tried to reach millennial shoppers with bizarre marketing initiatives only to fail. Yet there is good reason for this trend targeting millennials. Research from the PEW center in the U.S. shows that in 2015 millennials overtook baby boomers as the largest living generation.

When looking at the brands that failed with this younger demographic there is one thing they have in common. They didn’t stay true to their core brand values and messaging, and in return they alienated their current customers.

Here are three examples of brands that initiated major changes targeting millennials and were woefully unsuccessful:

JC Penny

In Aprill 2013 it became clear that discount clothing store JC Penny had failed at their attempt to target millennial shoppers by doing away with coupons and dirt cheap prices. The U.S. department store tried to go after a more affluent demographic of millennials who were believed to spend more money for higher quality products.

Ron Johnson, a former Apple executive, was supposed to change the JC Penny landscape when he was hired as their new CEO in January 2012. But just over a year later Johnson was fired, blamed for driving shares down 51 percent.

JC Penny’s challenge was that they didn’t have millennial shoppers inside their stores to begin with, and their core messaging of offering rock-bottom prices was removed from their marketing arsenal because it didn’t align with high spending millennials. And in return, current customers became disinterested with the brand and moved on.

Related: Why Snapchat is growing among businesses

Fiat

The Italian car manufacturer Fiat released a strange ad campaign in June 2014 called “Endless Fun”. Their commercial for the Fiat 500 used 7-year-old GIFs and was supposed to appeal to millennials with the hopes that sales for the car would soar.

Err…sales didn’t rise. In fact, sales continued to decline for the Fiat 500 for the next couple months after their millennial campaign launched.

And when you watch their commercial below, you’ll understand why. It’s borderline delusional to think that the strobe fest below would make anyone want to buy this car.

Pizza Hut

In November 2014 Pizza Hut launched was was said to be the largest brand overhaul in the company’s history called “Flavors of Now”. The pizza chain intended to target millennials with gourmet toppings like Peruvian cherry peppers and fancy crust options like Ginger Boom Boom.

The problem? Sales fell into June 2015, at which point the company admitted their problem was focusing too much on millennials at the expense of their mainstream pizza customers, and then started with aggressive pizza deals in an attempt to win back old friends.