Crocs - Analysis on Consumer's and Designer's perspective

crocs

Analysis on Consumers and Designers Perspective

Eeshani Juthani & Hansa Hatrote NIFT Mumbai FC16-20

Consumer’s Perspective

A little about Crocs Crocs, Inc. is a world leader in innovative casual footwear for men, women and children. Born in Boulder, Colo. as a simple, comfortable boat shoe, today Crocs footwear can be found across the globe and in more than 120 styles for men, women and children. With distinct collections, Crocs offers colorful, lightweight comfort for any occasion and every season. In India, Crocs, Inc. sell their products online at shopcrocs.in. and in several stores across the country.

The Crocs company was founded in 2002, by Samuel Thompson, Lyndon “Duke” Hanson, and George Boedecker, Jr. to produce and distribute a ‘foam clog’ design acquired from a company called Foam Creations. This design was called ‘the beach’ and sold 200 pairs.

Since then the company has come a long way and sold over 300 million pairs of shoes all over the world.

The shoes are produced in an array of colors depending on the model. There are different styles of Crocs that are made so they can be worn in any season.

Crocs also sells other fashion accessories. Jibbitz are decorations that can be clipped to the ventilation holes in the shoes.

The signature colour of the brand is a bright striking green which is used in multiple ways in the store. The logo is a black and white illustration of a crocodile which has created a great impact in the minds of the customers. Crocs as a brand tends to attract customers because of an array of colours and designs suitable for both children and adults. The idea of crocs as a breathable and comfortable foot ware has helped it create its own niche in the enormous market of shoes and is loved by people from all over the world

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Their vision as a leading shoe wear brand is “We know that smart doesn’t need to mean complicated; we achieved our status as a global leader in the casual footwear category by taking an inherently simple approach to uniting style, modern comfort and value.Every day, we make a choice to have an open mind and look on the bright and colorful side of life. We embrace and celebrate the uniqueness in everyone, inviting the world to Come As You Are.”

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Floor Plan of Crocs store at Phoenix Market City, Kurla

“It could have been a better location”- Anonymous With under 10 stores in Mumbai, Crocs has stores in all major malls and shopping hubs but still fails to reach a few customers.

On visiting Crocs store at Phoenix Mall, Kurla, we felt the store was at a convenient location of Lower Ground Floor with close proximity to the lift. The mall is also a hub for most of East Mumbai customers.

“The store is an open layout with all products stacked on the wall, I like that”- Sonia The store has an open layout and good amount of aisle space which makes it free to walk around. It also features adequate amount of seating in all four zones of the store. The layout is such that everything is visible and easily accessible from one corner to another. The store is also easy to manouver.

FIG: MAP OF STORES IN MUMBAI VICINITY

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“THE LOGO OUTSIDE THE STORE IS VERY ATTRACTIVE WITH THE LED” - HANSA “Crocs” written in bold with bright LED lights instantly catches the eye. Throughout the store there are LED backlit signages with catchy taglines and new product features with photos.“Come as you are” is written in bold and feels very inviting. The tags on the shoes had a “How to care for crocs” guide which the customers would find very informative.

“I think the brand needs to declutter a little and focus on few products because I just get overwhelmed by the amount of stuff displayed on the fixtures and end up putting more time in finding the products I like�

The fixtures help in maximizing the amount of merchandise displayed. Could have been a little less cluttered at a few places. All products were easily visible but not accessible. It was easy to remove the products and keep them back in place.

Crocs usually has a big centre-store display and a small window display

The Brand opts for its entire store to be visible through clear glass and no window displays. The customer focuses on the new collection of products placed in the centre display.

As a customer this helps in giving them an illusion of a bigger more inviting store. The merchandise is clearly visible and itself acts as a form of display which attracts the customers to come and take a look!

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17/22 people liked the ambiance and lighting of the Crocs Store.

15/23 people disliked the choice of Music.

The ambiance of the Kurla store was better than that of both Panvel and Infinity. There is usually no music playing in the store and murmurs from the crowd in the mall are not a pleasant addition to the ambiance. We’d prefer some fun and light music at an adequate volume.

The lighting of the store was sufficant. It was brightly lit. All the merchandise in the store was clearly visible, even the ones that were a a little too high or a little too low (away from direct light) The content written on the tags of the shoes was legible

buying behaviour of customers who visit crocs:

“Please don’t set the price high, you’re in an Indian market-you need to survive!” Sughosh, 19 “Not a lot of variety” Sharvil, 20 “Good for kids” Anonymous

Here are a few quotes on the product appearance of Crocs from our survey: “It’s a comfort based brand which tries to incorporate some about young energy” Meghana, 20 “Not so fashionable but multipurpose and comfortable” Nida, 19 “Comfort and works best during the rains” Eeshani, 20 “Different, long-lasting, investment.” Nikita, 20 “Colourful, Sassy and Durable.” Yash, 19 “Styles can be better” Abhiruchi, 21 “It’s very expensive” Vaishali, 45 We believe that Crocs do not suit everyone’s aesthetic. The brand has surely got a lot of new and better styles now and is more attractive for adults and kids alike. The products seem of great quality and show promise of durability.

What Customers experience at Crocs:

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Most Customers spend roughly 10-20 minutes in the store, they don’t complain and aren’t displeased. We experienced a neutral feeling of satisfaction from the brand and stores

“Light weight, Comfortable and long lasting” “Over - priced and not stylish enough” The Kurla Phoenix Mall store experienced 2 sets of potential customers enter the store in the duration of 45 minutes. a) A Mother of age around 70 and Son: Mother denied liking anything and did not want to see products beyond the centre store display. b) A Young couple: Entered the store, spent roughly 2 minutes with a quick browse and exited.

We ourselves tried a couple of pairs but decided to buy when the expensive yet durable pairs of Crocs would hit the discounted sales.

“Nice, good, can do better” – Anurag, 20 “The Very Best”- Vedant Giri, 19

Designer’s Perspective

Location Positive

• The mall is located at a central location, attracting customers from all of mumbai.

• The store was at close proximity to the elevator and the escalotor • The size of the store was adequate comapred to the other shoe stores • The neighbouring stores of crocs in phoenix kurla are other shoe stores like FILA, Peter England, Oxford, thus pulling in more potential customers looking for shoes

Negative

• The store was located on the lower ground level of the mall which is slightly inconvinient for the customers as one would generally go a floor up than a floor down while shopping.

• A lot of other brands that sell monsoon footwear are concentrated in the same area of the mall, increaing the competition for crocs • Kurla Market city has 600 stores thus decreasing the possibility of a customer visiting the crocs store.

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Layout Positive

• The free flow layout of the store enables maximum customer experience in minimum time • The convinience of the seating arrangement in the four corners of the store is systematically arranged.

• There is a lot of allowance for browsing and wandering freely • The free flow of the store gives it a good opportunity to create unique • displays

Negative

• The size of a single ottoman seating is not sufficient for multiple people to sit on, which makes it difficult for large crowds • Free flow of the store encourages loitering of the customer who can end up more confused by the end

lighting Positive

• The store had both yellow and white lighting at appropriate places. the yellow lights helped in highlighting the crocs and while the white lights made the store bright enough to increase visibility • For accent lights on shelf displays LED strip lights were used • The lights on the ceiling were arranges in a geometrical and systematic pattern

Negative • Spot lighting (flush recessed fixture) was used above each row to throw focus on the shoes but was unaligned and did not fall correctly on the product.

• The White light over empowers the yellow light in the store • The products on the lower half of the racks dont recieve much light

Music and ambience Positive

• The crocs store atmosphere leaves a very plaful and casual impression in the minds of its customer • The music accompanies the shopping experince subtley and soothes the • conusmers Negative • The store does not leave a long lasting impression in the minds of the • cutsomers • The stores ambience leans more towards unpleasant than pleasant due to the chaos of the products • The music in not relatable, as they dont play a specific genre or even recognisable songs which creates a sense of discord between the customers and the store

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Display and WINDOW DISPLAYS Positive

• The type of display used is called “line of goods” and enables the brand to showcase all its products • The centre store display is a huge focus point for new arrivals and • immediately catches the eye • The clear glass at the store front enables higher visibility of the products through the facade • The brands preffered shade of green breaks the monotony of all the products displayed.

Negative • The display as a whole is very overwhelming to the eyes due to excessive number of products • Theres no colour cordination in the products displayed which does not grab the eyes of the customers.

• The centre store display could have benn made more attractive • The racks in the corner of the store had overlapping products

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GRAPHICS AND SIGNAGE Positive

• The name of the store written outside was very attractive due to the san serif font which is in sync with the brand image and also due to the LED light it was visible from far • The graphics iside the store are very minimalistic and to the point which makes them universal • The colour scheme is pleasing with high usage of white and other bright and fun colours.

Negative

• Since the brand image is fun and casual the signage comes off as a little to serious • The signage was not complimenting the products kept in front of them and were rather distracting

FIXTURES Positive

• The fixture used in the stores is called state bar or slatwall and enables customizing the display and addition of newer displays.

• The brand refrains from the use of Gandola Displays and prefers all products spreadout across the walls of the store.

• The use of small shelves with new arrivals is kept which attracts attention beyond the usual display.

• The full size mirror adds to the purchase experience • The centre store display was creatively used to store the paper bags

Negative

• The slatwall display is overused as all the products are put on the wall and maybe it cwould preferable if they reduced a few racks.

• The circular ottoman blocks the vision of the footsize mirror placed at the bottom, causing inconvinence

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ZONING zoning by movement: Primary Section: Areas of display, the window display and centre store feature display comprise of Primary section and they are the focal point that attract customers and are the first thing visible Secondary Section: The Merchandise displayed on the walls with slatwall strips are second in visual hierarchy and thus come under secondary section. The merchandise section visited will depend upon need of consumer.

Tertiary Section: Post selection of product comes billing, thus the billing area comes under the last section of tertiary. In the event of no selection of product, the tertiary section is ignored.

Zoning by product: The store has been zoned into product categories of : Footwear for men, women, children and a unisex category. The children’s section features bright coloured products with croc charms.

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7 steps

14 steps

Cone of vision Seating

Rack

Display Scale 1 cm = 1 step

Storage

Billdesk

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12 steps

CONE OF VISION The field of vision radiating outward from the eye of the viewer in a more or less conical shape along the central visual axis is called as the cone of vision. For the Crocs Kurla store, this cone of vision works best as: on standing at the entrance, the viewer first sees the lit up centre store display which features all new arrivals and hot-sellers. next the viewer sees the big green wall with crocs written on it and then sees the products which surrounds him/her on either side that he chooses to see. The simplicity of the store layout and the maintaining of visual hierarchy in terms of size of the centre store display with the merchandise and the wall: enables a good view of products for the consumer.

Revised Design

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window display For the Window Display, keeping in mind the theme of Monsoon Playday: we designed a larger than life sized yellow Croc with a huge water splash in the background.

The strategy behind the design was to create conversation or thought in the minds of consumers from outside the store itself. The yellow Croc against a blue/transparent backdrop will add emphasis and attract people while the water effect with the splash is an interesting backdrop that adds the mood of the season and the event.

Materials used to make the mock-up were: glass colours on dried glue gun patterns for water and Fevicryl Shilpkar painted yellow for the Croc. The base glass is acrylic sheet.

Materials suggested for life size model: moulded acrylic sheet with glass/ photo colours and paper clay for yellow Croc.

store desig

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Store design mockup labelled with suggestions

1

Category graphics

We created Graphics to bifurcate Men/ Women/ Unisex and Kids distinctly in the store for better navigation

3

Shelf Display

The Shelves were decorated with raised coloured clouds to add colour and emphasis to the new arrivals displayed.

2

Backlit Poster

We upgraded the Backlit Posters to add People using or enjoying the products rather than just the product alone to add life to the posters.

4

Standee Poster

The Standee was used behind the glass with event details instead of outside the store to balane the window display.

5

Interactive Water Mat for Kids

6

Since Kids are also targetted as consumers, a play mat with water effect is installed to lure them in the store during the event.

7

Long Seating with Dividers

Seating arrangement was changed from a round pouffee to a bench style to accomodate more people comfortably and provide storage underneath along with diniveds for customers to keep belongings while trying shoes.

Attractive Window Display

A bright yellow oversized classic Croc was placed in the centre of the splash to create emphasis and drag people to the store. The window display depicts water and monsoon in a fun way with colours and textures.

8

Colour Coded Decluttered Merchandise

The consumer surveys depicted people disliking and being overwhelmed by products in the store so we minimized products and colour coded them to make it look aesthetically pleasing and easier to shop from.

9

Sale/ New Arrivals Tag

Event appropriate tags were created to differentiate from New Arrivals and Sale Merchandise.

10

Long/ Short angled Mirror

The existing store had one long and 2 short mirrors, these were replaced by 2 long and 2 short mirrors both of which were placed at an angle to be perfect for people of all heights to see themselves and the products properly.