brandbook
Introduction
About Crocs
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Market Analysis
4P SWOT Target audience Persona Competitor Analysis
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Brand Visual
Color Scheme Logo & Lock-up combination Photo Direction Art Direction Tagline Sub-brands
27 28 31 33 35 37
Conclusion
Recommendation 1 Recommendation 2 Overall References
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Brief Introduction Crocs Inc. was born in Boulder, Colo. in 2002 as the maker of a simple, comfortable boat shoe. The company was given the name Crocs after the multi-environment, amphibious nature of Crocodiles. Today, Crocs™ footwear is available in more than 90 countries around the world in more than 300 four-season styles for men, women and children. In 2011, the brand celebrated reaching $1 billion in annual sales for the first time. It is today amongst the fastest growing brands and companies in the world.
Objectives Building momentum with a shoe unlike any other, Crocs™ provided consumers with innovative, fun and comfortable footwear that could be worn for a variety of lifestyle occasions. The Crocs™ brand name started to build a feel-good physical and emotional experience with a life of its own. Crocs™ has quickly evolved to cross-cultural boundaries and now leads a global consumer movement of over 100 million pairs of shoes sold to date.
Mission Bring profound comfort, fun and innovation to the world’s feet.
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Brief 10-year-timeline of Crocs™ Company.
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4P PRICE
PRODUCT
Average Flips Sneakers Boots
hk$300 - 500 hk$200 - 300 hk$600 - 800 hk$900 - 1200
Product range Crocs™ offers their products in a wide range of vibrant solid colors. Bright oranges, reds, pinks, and yellows to grab attention and capture shoppers’ imagination. In the current years, Crocs™ has stepped out from the clogs and is offering a whole new range of footwear including loafers, canvas sneakers, leather boots, heels and sandals.
Packging Crocs™ offers a different direction and feel when it comes to packaging. Crocs™ stays away from the conventional shoe boxes but instead, displays all its shoes on hangers. Thus Crocs™ retail shops usually do not have a store room to store their stock as all the shoes are displayed outside. Experiential touchpoints All Crocs™ shoes have Croslite™ material inside, a proprietary closed-cell resin
Crocs shoes with wide varities of colors displayed on hangers
that gives each pair of shoes(including canvas sneakers, leather boots, heels and sandals) its soft, comfortable, lightweight, non-marking and odor-resistant qualities.
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PLACE
Location Globally, Crocs has more than 500 retail locations and continues to grow. Their headquarters is situated in Niwot, Colorado, United States. There are 26 stores in Hong Kong.
For retail customers Crocs changed the game by allowing them to order as few as 24 pairs and stock them in a matter of weeks, not months.
For consumer customers Crocs designed a broad and extensive distribution system so its shoes were available in a variety of retail outlets from specialty stores to department stores and large shoe store chains. Crocs discouraged overstocking and the subsequent clearance sales allowing consistent pricing in long run.
PROMOTION
Method Crocs™ used creative merchandising (out-of-box vertical displays) and word-of-mouth marketing to build buzz and momentum without having to spend as much as traditional manufacturers on advertising or paying celebrities for endorsements. Mascot Key feature of promotion was Croslite in animated form as a lovable, kind-hearted foamy friend of the feet.
Above-the-line Crocs™ advertises their products through media such as prints in magzines and newspapers.
Below-the-line Crocs™ uses in-shop and shop-front activities/promotions and display boards to promote to passing customers. They also promote their products through EDMs, DMs, and facebook. 9
An example of above-the-line, magazine promotion by Crocs.
Crocs’ Mascot, “Croslite guy”
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SWOT STRENGTHS Sustaining Differentiation While competitors were stressing on fashion or functionality, Crocs™ was able to adopt a dual positioning as an extremely comfortable option on account of its unique properties ,as well as a revolutionary fashion statement.
License Agreement The company entered into a host of licensing agreement with NHL,NFL,NBL in order to control over the youth market. Crocs™ also got into a license agreement with MARVEL, giving an access to the likes of Captain America, Fantastic four, Spider- Man, and X-man. Similar agreement made with Disney, Nickelodeon, Nascar. The acquisition of Jibbitz was another feather in crocs cap.
Brand Heritage In its founding year, 2002, Crocs™ introduced an innovative shoe made of a revolutionary material called Croslite™. Croslite™ technology held unique characteristics that allowed it to perform on both land and in water, characteristics new to the footwear industry. The material also had special properties that made the shoes lightweight, cushiony and very comfortable to wear, odor-resistant, non- slip, skid resistant, easy to clean, and waterproof. Compared to traditional materials used by the industry such as leather, Crocs™’ material was inexpensive, less variable in terms of quality, longer lasting, and required minimal manual labour for production.
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kids love crocs. crocs comfort with their favorite characters.
Crocs’ License Agreement with Disney, The Little Mermaid
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WEAKNESSES Oversupply Crocs™ was once a fashion trend. However, flooding the market with a product may result in phenomenal short term sales but in long term it is likely to adversely impact the brand’s appeal. Costly Line Extensions Crocs™ stretched itself too wide thereby diverting from its core positioning of comfort and functionality, product line swelled to over 350 styles catering to men , women and children across categories.
Acquisitions Crocs™ made considerable investments buying up companies that provided possibilities of line extension. It bought EXO Italia and Fury Hockey and Ocean Minded.
OPPORTUNITIES Free Marketing Celebrities like Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, Nicole Appleton, former U.S. President George Bush and many others were seen wearing the clogs. Once the media caught on, Crocs benefitted from significant free, viral marketing.
THREATS Love to Hate Crocs An entire community of people has emerged that ‘love to hate Crocs’. So much so that there exists an I hate Crocs dot com website that sells t-shirts spoofing the brand with slogans like “ Friends Don’t let friends wear Crocs”. The anti-Crocs page in Facebook boasts of 1.5 million fans.
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Celebrities wearing Crocs
ihatecrocs.com
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Due to the loose-fitting nature of the clogs, Crocs™ could also produce fewer sizes than was typically required. Crocs™ didn’t focus on particular demographics or segments. It designed for broad appeal across income brackets, ages, and genders. However in Hong Kong, customers that purchase Crocs™ products are mainly mainlanders. Over 50% of revenue in Hong Kong comes from mainlanders.
Persona Existing User Profile Zhang Si Pei Housewife. Regular Shopper.
QUICK STATS Age 29 Occupation Living Location Shen Zhen, China Marital Status Married Education Ba(Hons) in Management Hobbies Shopping / Eating / Travelling Shoe style Youthful, Sports shoes
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“Even when I might not need the product, or I have a similar product, I will still have the urge to buy it.�
BACKGROUND Si Pei is a Shanghai-nese living in China. She is mother of two as well as a housewife. She prefers to shop with her friends than family. She often travels down to Hong kong simply because products are cheaper in Hong Kong and there are more styles available in Hong Kong. Si Pei also enjoys "yam cha", hi-tea in Hong Kong.
SCENARIOS
Her Kids loves Crocs shoes Si Pei has 5 pairs of Crocs shoes in her household itself, owned by 4 of her family members. She does not really enjoy shopping in Crocs shops because she finds the plastic smell wierd. However, her children loves the bright colors and the jibbits that the shop offers. She likes the interior design that makes her feel relaxed and she likes the concept whereby she is able to browse all the styles and colors all at once.
Compared to other shoe brands However, as compared to other brands, Si Pei is more willing to pay for the shoes instead of Crocs because her heels, shoes and slippers will actually wear and tear very quickily. While Crocs shoes seems to be always new. Hence, her purchase rate of other shoes is still much higher than purchasing Crocs shoes.
CONCERNS "If I see that my shoe is still not worned out, I have a less urge to buy another same pair"
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Persona Potential User Profile Jason Yip Student. Dancer.
QUICK STATS Age Occupation Living Location Marital Status Education Hobbies Shoe style
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24 Student, Part-time Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Single Ba(Hons) in Social Work Travelling / Dancing / Sports Comfortable Shoes, Loafers
“Comfortability is my main priority. Style and color is important as well. I want to look fashionable and presentable at the same time.�
BACKGROUND Jason started dancing since she was 12. He is currently in the last year of her degree in City University in Hong Kong. In his freetime, he prefers to go hiking with friends. Jason loves to buy shoes, the first thing that comes to his mind when he is choosing a shoe, is comfortability, followed by fashionable.
SCENARIOS Semi formal & casual occasions Jason likes casual shoes that can be worn with both long and short pants, and for both semi-formal and casual events.
Perspective towards Crocs changed Jason was shocked when he entered a Crocs shop the last time. He was surprised to find much more interesting and new styles of shoes designed by Crocs, different from the classic clogs. Currently he owns one pair of Crocs loafer shoe. He is very satisfied with the comfortability and design. In addition, he does not mind getting another pair from Crocs.
CONCERNS “The shoes from Crocs are a little expensive for young adults, students like me.�
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Competitor Analysis Crocs
Company includes sport-inspired products that offer active end uses like boating, walking, and hiking as well as for recovery after workouts. includes sporty and relaxed design. Hence, Crocs™ main competitors include most mainstream athletic wear companies. They include:
Nike
is the largest seller of athletic footwear and apparel worldwide by sales. The company specializes in the development and sale of athletic footwear, apparel and equipment.
Timberland
designs, develops, markets and distributes, premium quality footwear, apparel and accessories products for the outdoors, with added focus on hiking and trekking activities.
Deckers Outdoor
seeks to offer footwear that is distinctive and appeals broadly to men, women and children. Its products are sold through domestic retailers, international distributors, and directly to end-user consumers through its websites and catalogs. The company’s products are sold under Teva, UGG, and Sanuk brand names. Teva is primarily an outdoor sandal, Sanuk is primarily casual footwear (clogs, sneakers, and sandals).
Columbia
Sportswear Company designs and manufactures outdoor apparel, including sportswear, footwear, and related accessories.
Havaianas
designs and manufactures only outdoor sandals for beach activities. The comes in all varieties of colors, similiar to Crocs’.
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Positioning / Repositioning young
casual
formal
old Target audience VS Shoe style As mentioned above, Crocs™ actually has a very large range of target audiences, whether they are adults, teenagers or children. On the overall, Crocs™ shoes are categorised as casual because of the fun shape of the shoes and the bright colors. In this positioning graph, the competitors all lies on the casual side of the graph as many manufacture shoes for hiking, sports and beach activities. This shows that Crocs™ can move towards the direction of formal. However, we do not want to move towards the younger side as our main target is teenagers and young adults.
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indoor
(office/casual)
dull
lively
outdoor
(sports/hike)
Usage VS Shoe color Crocs™ products are as lively as havaianas products because both comes in many colors and are able for beachwear. In this positioning graph, we can see that none of the competitors lie in the dull-indoor section. This shows that Crocs can move towards the indoor direction, however, we do not want to move too much towards the dull side because we want to retain the liveliness and youthful feel of Crocs™ brand.
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Color Scheme
CMYK 0,0,0,100
CMYK 52,0,100,5
Crocs™ coporate color consist of black and green as shown above.
Crocs™ shoes comes in almost every color you can possibly think of.
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Logo & Lock-up Combination I find that the Crocs™ logo is very well designed. The combination of both the symbol and logotype looks and feel modern and most importantly it brings out the fun and comfortability of the brand. Although many people in Hong Kong often mistake Crocs™ brand as Crocodile brand, I find that there is no problem to that because Crocs™ is still a new brand as compared to Crocodile, which has a rich history. Hence, I find that there is no need to change or modify the logo.
Iconic/Symbolic
Crocs™ created a crocodile face logo to build a light-hearted brand image.
Logotype/Wordmark
Crocs™ logo type is based on the typeface, Gotham Rounded Bold. The company was given the name Crocs™ after the multi-environment, amphibious nature of Crocodiles.
Combination Marks
Together, the Crocs™ brand stands for innovation, fun and comfort for people who want shoes that conform to their personalities and lifestyles, as well as to their feet.
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The Crocs™ logo can be seen arranged in many ways, arrangements differs from different countries.
Top & Bottom
Left & Right
Different sizes
Logotype
The Crocs™ logo is usually just recognised as just ‘Crocs™’ at retail stores as shown below.
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With slogan
walk in comfort wear in style
Background color
These three background colors are most commonly seen. Whenever there is a background color, the logo color will be changed to white.
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Photo Direction Till today, Crocs™ still stay with their direction of being fun, youthful and comfortable. Its photo direction towards being comfortable, fresh and fun.
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Critical evaluation However, I realised that almost all of the models in the photo direction are westerners. Hence in Hong Kong’s context, using western models might not necessary win the hearts of Hong Kong shoppers. It might give off the feeling of a western and high end shop, however I feel that it will be interesting to see Asian models appearing in Crocs™ photo direction.
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Art Direction Typeface: Gotham Rounded Gotham Rounded is a technical letter that goes from friendly to hightech to cheeky with ease.
Critical evaluation
I find that this typeface suits the direction of Crocs™ of being fun, innovative and comfortable. It brings out the cheeky and casual side of the brand. In combination with the crocodile logo, this typeface makes the whole logo interesting and attractive. Hence, I find that there is no need for a change in typeface as changing the typefaces means that the logo type has to be changed.
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Visual Merchandising: Shelves/Window The visual of Crocs™ retail shops changes every season and sometimes, per month. This is to keep the retail shops and the products fresh, as well as to introduce new models to the customers. I find that the shop design of Crocs™ very interesting and creative.
One of the most interesting things that I find is that Crocs™ always has new idea of creating new shelves with regards to different season and festivals.
The shoes are displayed in different ways to keep the visual interesting. Photo direction can also be seen everywhere in the shop
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Tagline Past
Current
walk in comfort wear in style Critical evaluation I find that the current slogan is better designed than the previous ones. There is a bold and light slogan, making the overall more interesting. Furthermore, it focuses on Crocs comfortability and at the same time, stylish.
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Specific product taglines
Protection you can wear
As soft as its name
Slip off. Slip in.
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Sub-brands by Crocs
Ocean/beach-based lifestyle footwear, apparel and accessories sub-brand.
Recovery footwear-line
Golf footwear-line
A fashion line, focused on women footwear, consist apparel and bags.
Work shoes designed for healthcare and hospitality workers
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Shoes designed for specific medical conditions
Recommendation 1 Semi-formal footwear line From the positioning graph seen in page 26-27, I have recommended Crocs to move from a more casual side to a semi-formal approach. This is because few of its competitors touch on that area of expertise. Furthermore, I found that Crocs actually do offer a more semi-formal set of footwear as seen below. However because of other focuses, Crocs have not been doing well in its advertising for these type of semi-formal shoes. The target audience I proposed is for young adults and adults. As teenagers become more matured, their choice of shoes and styles changes as well. At this age, they will want to try out more matured style of shoes, at the same time, they can be worn to casual occasions. However, since Crocs already has a fashion line that focuses on women footwear, YOU by Crocs, as seen on the left, I would propose to focus on Men’s shoes.
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Proposed logo Logo 1
men Advantages - Directly targets single sex customers, like “G2000 men, Topshop men...” - Simple, direct, links obviously to mother brand
Disadvantages - Loses opposite sex interests - Carries Crocs’ plastic shoes image on customers
by crocs
by crocs
Logo 2
Advantages - Removes Crocs’ plastic shoes image from customers - Customers will trust this brand because it is still linked to Crocs
Disadvantages - Risky because it is a new fashion line
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Crocs models are mainly westerners, a local celebrity or model might have more appeal to Hong Kong customers
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Recommendation 2 Photo Direction To appeal more to Hong Kong’s consumers, I feel that there should be a change in photo direction. I propose that Crocs might want to consider using more asian models or get Hong Kong celebrities for photoshoot or sponsor Hong Kong celebrities Crocs shoes to start a trend. This is because the Hong Kong’s fashion trend connects deeply with how and what celebrities wears. Hence, to strike deep into Hong Kong’s fashion culture, I find that Crocs should use the same method of free, viral marketing like they have used in other countries as mentioned.
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Overall
On a whole, I would consider Crocs as a very successful brand till date, being one of the fastest growing companies today. I find that it is very challenging to do rebranding on such big and successful company. However, these challenges also forces me to think more indepth and more creative ideas to help the brand. Every company has an for improvement because there will be new competitors and new ideas everyday. If companies do not spend the time and resources to research and create new ideas, they will eventually get overtaken by their competitors. As a design student, I find learning marketing skills on how to analysis competitors and the company itself very useful. This is simply because I have worked with the marketing team during my internship and I find that as a designer, I need to know more about marketing knowledge as we will often needed to work with marketing team.
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References
News http://www.businessinsider.com/crocs-is-breaking-into-high-fashion-2013-9 http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2009-07-16/business/36885322_1_ crocs-croslite-shoes
Interview http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/why-crocs-wantsconsumers-feel-love-107238 http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/story/2012-03-29/crocs-john-mccarvel-global-reach/53873038/1
Data & Facts http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Crocs_(CROX) www. crocs.com www.ihatecrocs.com
Researched, designed and arranged by Samuel Tsang, 12077597D The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, School Of Design