Integrated Marketing Communications Project
BMGT 450F Integrated Marketing Communications, Spring 2014
By,
John Anthony, Zack Marlin and Aaron Schacht
Part I: Overview (Executive Summary)
The product which we will be developing an integrated marketing communication for is
athletic shoes (running or jogging shoes) manufactured by Skechers. More specifically, our
product is the “Go” shoe line from Skechers. This line includes the GoBionic, the GoMeb, the
GoRun, the GoRun Ride and the GoRun Ultra, all of which are athletic running shoes.
Currently, our target market is comprised of men and women who are looking for the
most comfortable athletic shoe on the market. We do not target our product to the “hardcore”
athletes who are looking for high performance sneakers. Rather, Skechers’ core target audience
is comprised of middle class, 20-40 year olds who enjoy an active lifestyle.
Skechers was founded in 1992, however the Go line is a relatively recent addition.
Skechers as a company is mature as we have been competing in the shoe industry for over
twenty years. Obviously, the Go line is less mature, but it is quickly becoming one of the more
popular choices for athletic shoes amongst consumers.
The competition in the athletic shoe industry is fierce with many companies offering their
own variations of the athletic shoe. The industry is very large with 53.7 billion dollars in revenue
in 2013. Nike is the industry leader, dominating the market by encapsulating almost 50% of the
market share. Adidas and Asics are second to Nike with about 20-30%, while Skechers has about
5% of the market.
After some preliminary research, our team learned that athletic shoe buyers are very loyal
to their brands. Someone who only buys Nike shoes, for example, will not be willing to switch to
another brand without a really good reason for doing so. Part of our job is to find the right
strategies that will entice those customers to try our products and hopefully become repeat
purchasers.
Currently, Skechers is seen as an “uncool” brand. People are aware that the company
exists, but are not as eager to buy our athletic shoes as they are to buy a pair from Nike or
Adidas. By heavily advertising our Go line athletic shoes, we hope to change the perception of
our company and to make Skechers a brand that our customers will be proud to wear.
Because Nike and Adidas are such dominant forces in the industry, overtaking some of
their market share is not feasible, nor do we have the resources to do so. Instead, our marketing
objective focuses on our sales as we would like to increase our total sales by 4% in 6 months. We
believe that heavily promoting our athletic shoe line will help us achieve the above mentioned
goals.
Part II: Situation Analysis
Current Advertising for Competitors and their Products:
Currently, the athletic footwear industry is cluttered with a plethora of brands fighting for
market share and sales. Each brand brings its own unique advantages and focuses its advertising
campaigns on what they believe gives their products a competitive advantage over the
competition.
There are many different types of athletic shoes. Minimalist shoes are designed to feel
like you are not wearing a shoe at all. Targeted at frequent and advanced runners, it is a very
light shoe and fits tight around the foot. Cushion shoes are designed for comfort. Not focusing on
weight or performance, cushion shoes are built to provide the runner with comfortable support.
Cushion shoes are targeted to all level of runners who require extra comfort to enjoy their run.
Lastly, race shoes are designed for performance and to make the runner faster. These shoes are
manufactured for the competitive runner and focus heavily on technology and research.
Below are current advertising campaigns for the 3 top competitors of Skechers:
Nike
Nike is currently running several television campaigns/commercials for their newest
running shoes. The new Flyknit Lunar1+ commercial features a woman running barefoot
through a park. As she runs the shoes begins to build around her feet. The woman, who began
the commercial running barefoot, ends the commercial running in a pair of Nike Flyknit Lunar1+
shoes. The ending tagline for the commercial is, “The perfect fit, for the perfect run.” This
commercial is stressing Nike’s ability to design what they believe to be the best minimalist
running shoe (Exhibit 1).
The second commercial Nike is running is for its new Nike Free 5.0. This commercial is
showcasing all the different color variations of the Nike Free 5.0 while also showing the extreme
flexibility of the shoe. The ending tagline for the commercial is “Free Your Run”.
Lastly, Nike is using a third commercial to promote their new Flyknit. The commercial
features Allyson Felix, Olympic gold medalist in the 200 meters and 4x400 relay, Ashton Eaton,
Olympic gold medalist in the decathlon, and Mo Farah, Olympic gold medalist in the 5k and
10k, along with Richard Sherman and Kobe Bryant. The commercial shows each athlete going
through his/her training routine, and it ends with the tagline “Light. Strong. Nike Flyknit”
(Exhibit 2). Nike is also using a lot of print media featuring the same taglines from above, along
with a picture of each particular shoe.
The advertisements above all use similar communication techniques in that the
commercials use bright colors and catchy taglines in order to grab the attention of the audience.
Nike is stressing its technological innovations by conveying the message to its viewers that Nike
has made a line of minimalist running shoes that feels like you’re not wearing a shoe at all. The
commercials are very effective, especially because the product is being endorsed by some of the
biggest names in all of sports.
Adidas
Adidas is currently running commercials for their two newest running shoes, the
Springblade and the Boost. The commercial for the Adidas Springblade has a very dramatic
tone. For the first half of the commercial, the camera zooms in and out on the shoe while a
spotlight is being shined on different parts of the shoe. The second half of the commercial shows
the leg of runner going through his motions and shows how the shoe propels the runner forward
(Exhibit 3).
The Adidas Boost commercial showcases the technology behind the shoe. There are
three separate surfaces shown in the commercial: concrete, EVA (material used in most running
shoes), and “boost”. A ball is then dropped on each surface, and the ball that is dropped on the
“boost” material continues bouncing longer than the other balls. The end of th commercial shows
a runner followed by the tagline “boost your run” (Exhibit 4).
The commercials presented by Adidas focus heavily on the company’s innovation in
terms of their performance technology. These commercials are directed at the competitive
athletes who are looking to gain an advantage over their opponents via performance technology.
Asics
Currently Asics is only running one television commercial, and it is for their Asics Gel
Range athletic shoe. The commercial shows a man getting out of bed (while it’s still dark out),
ready to begin a day filled with athletic activities. Throughout the day, the man runs, works out
at the gym and plays tennis and volleyball. When he finishes each activity the man utters the
phrase, “Gotta Run”. At the end of the commercial, the man lies down in bed and his
wife/girlfriend takes off his shoes. The tagline then appears with a close up of his shoes saying
“Can’t Stop. Won’t Stop” (Exhibit 5).
Targeted at the advanced athlete who frequently engages in various fitness activities, the
commercial aims to demonstrate to its viewers how versatile Asics’ shoes are. The man in the
commercial is using the same shoe to play volleyball, workout at the gym and play tennis. The
message of the commercial is very similar to that of Nike and Adidas in that Asics is stressing its
technological advantages by demonstrating that their Gel range athletic shoe is so durable it can
last all day long.
Skechers
Currently, to promote the GoMed running shoe, Skechers has launched a commercial
featuring their main sponsor, marathon runner Meb Keflezighi. The commercial starts off
showing Meb running through a local town in his GoMed running shoes. When Meb returns
home he transforms into an average everyday man who states to his wife/girlfriend that he would
prefer to be called Meb (Exhibit 6).
This advertisement is targeted to the less advanced runners and the message in this
commercial is that the GoMeb running shoe can make an average athlete feel like a world class
runner, like Meb. The commercial does not stress any performance technology as seen
previously from the other 3 companies.
Consumer Behavior, Market Information and Trends for Competitors and their Products:
The athletic shoe industry is very large with revenues close to 54 billion dollars annually.
There are more men purchasers than women, however not by very much as Mediamark gives
men and index of 103 and women an index of 97. Most of the buyers have received at least an
undergraduate degree from a university or college and tend to be between the ages of 35-44. The
average household income for an athletic shoe buyer tends to be $75,000-$149,999 a year.
Athletic shoes are not a necessary good, but rather they are a luxury for households with some
disposable income. (Exhibit 7)
As a luxury good, the industry is very dependent on the overall economy and the athletic
shoe industry was heavily affected by the recession in 2008. However, as the country recovers,
so does the industry. Revenues have grown about 8.6% every year for the past three years. As the
recovery from the recession slows down, the industry is only expected to grow 6% annually over
the next three years.
Athletic shoe customers are very loyal to their brands and are not willing to switch very
easily. According to Forbes Magazine, New Balance ranks first in terms of engagement and
loyalty with Nike in second and Skechers in third. Adidas ranks 5th on the list with Asics and
Reebok tied for 6th and Puma in 7th.
Positioning of Company and Products:
Nike
In the athletic shoe industry, Nike is king. Nike positions itself as the market leader of the
athletic shoe industry by offering their products at a high price, with high quality and advanced
technology, which they claim will improve your athletic performances. As demonstrated from
their advertisements, Nike is using their technologies and focusing their attention on the
minimalist type of running shoe. Nike uses some of the most well-known athletes in the world to
promote their products, giving Nike an even bigger appeal over its competitors. They are the
largest seller of athletic footwear in the world, and Nike has been continuously launching new
advanced shoe models year after year.
Adidas
Behind Nike in terms of market share and sales is Adidas. Adidas positions itself very
similarly to Nike in that the company also stresses performance technology for competitive
athletes. The commercials mentioned above help drive home the point that Adidas’ athletic shoes
will help athletes run faster and perform better.
Asics
Asics is very similar to Adidas in terms of market share. The company positions itself as
a brand that creates advanced products for active individuals that are seeking harmony in the
body and mind. Again, like Nike and Adidas, Asics prides themselves on their performance
technology and enabling their runners to use their shoes for almost every activity. Also, like Nike
and Adidas, Asics markets themselves f to the competitive athletes who are looking to gain an
edge over their competition.
Skechers
The positioning of Skechers’ athletic shoes, more specifically the Go line, is to be the
most comfortable, affordable athletic shoe in the market. The company does not promote their
shoes to the competitive athletes, like our competitors do. Rather Skechers focuses its
advertisements on the casual athlete who exercise for their own personal benefits, and not to win
a competition. They position their product as a much cheaper alternative to that of Nike, Adidas
or Asics as well. Although they are not the market leader in the industry, they are becoming a
larger player as their sales and market share continue to grow.
Sales and Market Share of Competitors and Products:
We have decided to only focus on athletic shoes in the United States. In terms of sales, we
are not interested in total sales numbers for a particular company; rather we are only focusing on
total sales of a company’s athletic running shoes. We were not able to successfully research
yearly athletic shoe sales for each company, but we were able to find total sales by units on
Mediamark. Here are our findings:

Nike athletic shoes are projected to have sold 44,765,000 shoes in the last 12 months

Adidas athletic shoes are projected to have sold 17,290,000 shoes in the last 12 months

Asics athletic shoes are projected to have sold 9,123,000 shoes in the last 12 months

Under Armor athletic shoes are projected to have sold 1,579,000 shoes in the last 12
months

Reebok athletic shoes are projected to have sold 11,770,000 shoes in the last 12 months

Skechers athletic shoes are projected to have sold 13,212,000 shoes in the last 12 months
Based on this information, it is safe to assume that Nike is the industry leader is sales dollars
with Adidas in second and Reebok in third. Skechers in somewhere in the middle of the industry
as their sales numbers are well above Under Armor’s and Asics but trail Nike and adidas quite
significantly.
In terms of market share, Nike is yet again the winner, dominating the US athletic shoe
industry at somewhere between 40-50%. Asics and Adidas control around the same percentage
of the market at 23-30%. Skechers has a projected market share of about 5% and Under Armor
captures about 3.4% of the market.
Opportunities for your product, based on the analysis above:
Based on the analysis above, we believe that there is a huge opportunity for Skechers in
the athletic running shoe market. In terms of market share in the United States, the athletic shoe
industry is dominated by a few players; Nike, Adidas and Asics. All three of these companies are
very similar in that they all focus their marketing communications on performance technology
for the advanced athlete. Specifically, Nike chooses to display their performance technology via
their minimalist style running shoes while Adidas and Asics promote their performance
technologies via their race shoes.
Skechers’ has a unique opportunity to market its Go line shoe series as the most
comfortable shoe on the market. Instead of conveying the message that performance technology
leads to better performance, which our competitors claim, Skechers should convey the message
that comfort, or comfort technology, leads to better performance. Developing an IMC around this
concept will make Skechers unique in the industry and will allow Skechers to increase its sales
by targeting the underappreciated comfort seeking runners.
Part III: Recommendations
Creative Strategy (See Appendix 2):
Skechers does not have the recourses to compete for market share with Nike, Adidas and
Asics. Instead, Skechers should focus on increasing their sales numbers by promoting their
athletic shoes as the most comfortable shoe on the market, which will in turn make you perform
better. By doing so, we believe that Skechers can rid themselves of the common perception that
the brand is uncool and outdated. Changing consumer perceptions of our brand will then increase
our sales. We predict that our total sales will increase by 4% in just 6 months and 8% by the end
of the year.
No matter the age, gender or ethnicity, one aspect remains true for all runners; they want
to be the best. Whether it is being the fastest kid on the block or being the fastest runner on your
schools cross country team, all runners want to perform better than the competition. What makes
Nike, Adidas and Asics so successful is that they are able to convey the message that their shoes
will indeed make a person perform better. Until now, Skechers has only conveyed the message
of comfort, not performance, which makes Skechers a less attractive alternative than the market
leaders. To make Skechers an attractive option for our target audience, the brand must promise
the message of increased performance through comfort.
Nike, Adidas and Asics all promise increased performance through their technologies,
whether it’s the lightness of the shoe, the bounciness of the shoe or the “springblades” of a shoe
which push the runner forward. The point of difference for our product is that the comfort of our
shoes will make you perform better. Additionally, our product differs from our competitors as we
are able to sell our shoes for a much cheaper price. Our most expensive running shoes sell for
about 115 dollars while our competitors sell their top shoes for upwards of 200 dollars. To
summarize, the key insight which we would like to convey to our customer is: “The more
comfortable you feel, the better you run.”
For Skechers, there is a lot of support for this claim. First, our biggest sponsor, Meb
Keflezighi, is the premier marathon runner in the United States. Recently, Meb won the Boston
Marathon, becoming the first American born runner to win the event in over 30 years. For the
race, Meb wore his signature GoMeb running shoe. Having our main sponsor win one of the
most competitive marathons in the Unites States shows our target audience that the comfort of
our shoe truly does translate into better performance. Second, Skechers has built its company on
the principle idea of having the most comfortable shoes on the market. Consumers will have an
easy time believing that the comfort technology in our running shoes is so good that you will
perform better because we are already the comfort kings in the shoe industry.
For our marketing communications, we want to convey a confident tone as we will
directly compare our product to our competitors’ and show our audience that our comfort
technology makes our shoe the better than the competition’s (Exhibit 8). Additionally, we would
like to have advertisements that are light and funny, displaying how our shoes are so comfortable
that you will be able to run miles and miles without even noticing (Exhibit 9). Lastly, we want to
convey the message to our customers that we are evolving as a company to give them what they
want; a shoe that performs better (Exhibit 10). (The Exhibits below display 2 TV ads and on
print ad, but it is important to note that we will be conveying the same message above on all of
our media platforms.) The IMC tools which we will use are detailed in the section “Media
Strategy and Recommendations.”
Target customer profiles:
The average consumer which Skechers will market its Go line running shoe to varies in age
from about 20 up until 40 years old. Although not rich, our target customers are middle class
Americans who have a college degree. Our target consumers also range in athletic abilities. They
can be less skilled athletes who exercise as a hobby or for social reasons, or they can be
advanced athletes who compete in races and other sporting events. We have detailed two ideal
customers for Skechers below:
Name: Kayla
Age: 20
Occupation: Student in college
Marital Status: Single
Hobbies: Kayla spends her days going to class and socializing with her peers. She is a
competitive athlete and she tries to exercise at least 4-5 times per week. Kayla wants to train with
equipment that will give her a boosted performance, but with no job, she can’t afford to buy
sneakers from Nike, Adidas or Asics.
Name: Bill
Age: 30
Occupation: Real Estate Agent
Marital Status: Married with kids
Hobbies: Bill enjoys spending time with his kids, either by playing with them in the park or by
playing basketball with them in the driveway. Bill is not as young as he once was and has been
having trouble finding athletic shoes that will not leave his feet sore after playing with his kids.
Bill still dreams of reliving his glory days and still wants a shoe that will enable him to perform
to the best of his abilities.
Media strategy and recommendations:
In order to achieve our marketing and communication goals mentioned above, we believe that
our target audience should be exposed to one of our advertisements 40 times a year. According
to media mark, there around 18,863,000 consumers that fit our target audience (Exhibit 11). We
would like to reach 75% of our target market, or 14,147,250 target audience members. Last year,
our IMC expenditure was around 96,200,000 dollars. We would like to increase our advertising
budget to equal 10% of our revenues, or 184,000,000 dollars (Exhibit 12). Although we predict a
negative ROI with this budget, we see this advertising campaign as an investment that will
produce large profits further down the road. Media outlets which we will use for our campaign
include:
TV: With TV, there is the opportunity to reach the most members of our target audience, so this
will be the most crucial part of our campaign. We would like to spend 35% of our advertising
budget on this media, totaling about $64,400,000. We will continuously schedule our TV
advertisements throughout the year because our customers buy our products all year long. Our
advertisements will be 30 second TV spots and will air on various channels such as CBS, ABC,
FOX and other channels that our core target audience members watch.
Print: We will spend about 20% of our advertising budget, which is $36,800,000 on print media
such as magazines and newspapers. Magazines enable us, as advertisers, to hand select our
audience and allow us to be very creative. Also, magazines have long advertising lives as print
advertisements can be reexamined over weeks and months. Specific print publications which we
will place our ads include; Runner’s World, TIME Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Men’s Health,
and Women’s Health. We will use various placements for our advertisement throughout the
magazines including the first cover page and double page spreads in order to get the largest
reach.
Outdoor: We will allocate 20%, or $36,800,000 on this type of media. Some places where we
will use outdoor media will be at the upcoming Houston Marathon for which we are the official
sponsor. Since this is a big promotional event, we are going to have to spend a large portion of
our budget on outdoor displays to market the Marathon. If the Houston Marathon is a success,
we would like to begin sponsoring bigger and more popular running events to increase our
awareness among the running community.
Social Media: Through social media outlets such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine, and
Snapchat we are going to spend 15% of our budget which comes out to be $27,600,000. Given
the popularity of social media among the young adults, we believe these outlets will enable us to
reach a large portion of our target audience.
Internet Display: With almost everybody in our target audience active on the Internet, we will
spend $18,400,000, or 10% on this type of media. This will include web banners and side
displays which are another cost effective way of reaching our target audience.
Explanation and justification for IMC tools:
We have chosen to run two television commercials because of the creative opportunities
that present themselves using this media. With TV commercials we are able to easily catch the
attention of our consumers with the help of visual and audio aids. Also the coverage, reach, and
repetition are other advantages TV media presents. Television reaches more than 98% of all
households in the United States and has the potential to be seen across the globe.
We chose print media because we are able to select our target audience very easily. As
we promote our running shoes we would obviously want people who frequently run to see our
advertisements. By using print media in Runner’s World, for example, we are ensured, to some
degree, that runners will see our ads. Also, print media have long shelf lives and can often times
be read more than once over the course of a week or month.
Outdoor media is similar to television in that the media offers the ability to reach mass
amounts of people. Also consumers are under constant exposure from outdoor media, 24 hours a
day, 7 days a week. Lastly using outdoor media allows us to specifically target our core
audience. As we stated above we will be using a lot of outdoor media at the Houston Marathon.
By advertising our shoe at the marathon, Skechers is guaranteed that runners will see our ads.
Social media allows our company to interact with our consumers on a personal level.
Targeting a large audience, social media allows us to bring customer support for our consumers
on an almost instant basis. Additionally, we are able to gain important data about our customers;
what they like about our company, what they don’t like about our company and their overall
thoughts about the athletic shoe industry. This will allow us to research the market more
effectively to stay ahead of our competition.
The vast majority of our consumers are on the internet. Internet display ads will allow us
to reach many of our consumers. These ads are user friendly and allow us to target our audience
by displaying our ads on relevant sites.
Part IV: Rejected Alternatives
Skechers has always been about comfort and has built their company by marketing their
shoes as the most comfortable shoes in the industry. After looking at the situational analysis we
saw that Nike, Adidas and Asics are the top competitors in the athletic shoe industry. All 3 of
these companies position themselves as performance technology companies.
We had originally thought that switching Skechers from a company that markets its
comfort to a company that markets performance technology would be a great idea. Clearly, Nike
and Adidas have had a lot of success marketing their shoes to the hardcore athletes via their
performance technology efforts. We had thought that if Skechers became a performance
technology based company, we too would have the same success as Nike, Adidas and Asics.
After some further research we realized that Skechers would be out of their element if we
switched our primary focus to marketing performance technology. Nike, Adidas and Asics have
the vast majority of the industry’s market share and competing with them on the technology that
has made them the top companies in the market is just not realistic. Instead, we came to the
conclusion that Skechers should still market what they do best, comfort, instead of pretending to
be one of the best technology performance companies, something they know nothing about.
Exhibits
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfUV-eU0RaY
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJn64kkpOSc
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngUrBm4G1aM
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxMFXiBUYBg
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEDQW1dm63o
6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG4Di2nytAk
Fall 2012 Product: Apparel/Accessories
7.
Total
Men
Women
Educ: graduated college plus
Educ: attended college
Educ: graduated high school
Educ: did not graduate HS
Educ: post graduate
Educ: no college
Age 18-24
Age 25-34
Age 35-44
Age 45-54
Age 55-64
Age 65+
Adults 18-34
Adults 18-49
Adults 25-54
Men 18-34
Men 18-49
Men 25-54
Women 18-34
Women 18-49
Women 25-54
Occupation: Professional and Related Occupations
Occupation: Management, Business and Financial Operations
Occupation: Sales and Office Occupations
Occupation: Natural Resources, Construction and Maintenance
Occupations
Occupation: Other employed
HHI: $150,000+
HHI: $75,000-$149,999
HHI: $60,000-$74,999
HHI: $50,000-$59,999
HHI: $40,000-$49,999
HHI: $30,000-$39,999
HHI: $20,000-$29,999
HHI: <$20,000
Athletic Shoes - Amount spent in total
Running/Jogging shoes In last 12 months
$75 - $149
Adults
Total
Proj
Pct
Pct Index
'000
'000 Across Down
232469 9163
3.9
100
100
112618 4557
4
49.7
103
119851 4605
3.8
50.3
97
64519 4699
7.3
51.3
185
44597 1468
3.3
16
84
70692 1494
2.1
16.3
54
* 30354 300
1
3.3
25
25596 1954
7.6
21.3
194
101629 1986
2
21.7
50
29802 1322
4.4
14.4
113
41810 2430
5.8
26.5
147
40059 2570
6.4
28
163
44215 1473
3.3
16.1
85
37176 1052
2.8
11.5
72
* 39407 316
0.8
3.4
20
71612 3752
5.2
41
133
133798 7187
5.4
78.4
136
126083 6472
5.1
70.6
130
36167 1852
5.1
20.2
130
66772 3447
5.2
37.6
131
62378 3110
5
33.9
127
35445 1900
5.4
20.7
136
67025 3739
5.6
40.8
142
63706 3362
5.3
36.7
134
30719 2337
7.6
25.5
193
22354 1718
7.7
18.7
195
32228 1748
5.4
19.1
138
*
*
*
*
12610 399
41417 1425
24133 2173
65415 4087
25027 760
18933 888
20303 434
21989 284
23291 218
33378 320
3.2
3.4
9
6.2
3
4.7
2.1
1.3
0.9
1
4.4
15.6
23.7
44.6
8.3
9.7
4.7
3.1
2.4
3.5
80
87
228
159
77
119
54
33
24
24
8. TV STORYBOARD
Advertiser: Skechers
Title: Comfort Technology
Agency: In-house/Skechers
Format:
Product: Skechers Go Run
Length: 30 sec
Commercial opens with 2
kids (one has Nike and the
other has Skechers) and
one says to the other
“Race you to the end of
the block”
Runner (in Skechers who
wins) gives the above
motion to his friend
(wearing Nike) followed
by pointing down at his
shoes (no words
exchanged)
Kid wearing Skechers
wins and says “It’s the
Skechers” while pointing
down at his shoes
Same 2 runners (now late
30s/early 40s) finish a half
marathon with the one
wearing Skechers winning
Same 2 kids (now in high
school) are running the
mile (commercial just
shows the end of the race)
Nike friend finishes (very
tired). Skechers friend
smiles and says “When
are you gonna listen to
me?”
Runners (now mid 70s)
say to each other “Just
like when we were kids.
To the end of the block.”
Skechers runner wins
again. Turns to friend and
says “And Nike loses
again. You’ll just never
learn, will you?”
Picture of Skechers Go
Run Ride 3 with tagline
“Skechers: Comfort
always wins.”
9.
TV STORYBOARD
Advertiser: Skechers
Title: Lost In Comfort
Agency: In-house/Skechers
Format:
Product: Skechers Go Run
Length: 30 sec
On a Saturday morning a
man wakes up and tells
his wife he going on a
morning run.
The man puts on his
Skechers Go Run Ride 3
running shoes and leaves
the house (Los Angeles)
Man enters Santa Monica
Pier and pauses to enjoy
the sights before
continuing on
Man continues running as
he passes LAX
Man calls wife, “Hey, I
did it again.
Wife, “Where are you
this time?”
Man, “Hermosa Beach”
Wife, “I’m on my way”
(as she grabs her keys)
10 (Next Page).
Man reaches Manhattan
Beach and continues on
Picture of Skechers Go
Run Ride 3 with the
tagline “Skechers: Get
lost in the comfort”
Man reaches Hermosa
Beach and stops
This is who we were.
This is us now.
The new Skechers Go line
is designed to give you a
more natural running
experience and to allow
you to interact with and
respond to practically any
surface, while at the same
time offering the
additional benefit of
Resalyte cushioning.
11.
Total
Men
Women
Educ: graduated college plus
Educ: attended college
Educ: graduated high school
Educ: did not graduate HS
Educ: post graduate
Educ: no college
Age 18-24
Age 25-34
Age 35-44
Age 45-54
Age 55-64
Age 65+
Fall 2012 Product: Apparel/Accessories
Athletic Shoes - Number of pairs bought
Running/Jogging shoes In last 12 months Any
Adults
Total
Proj
Pct
Pct
'000
'000
Across Down
232469
28409
12.2
100
112618
14944
13.3
52.6
119851
13465
11.2
47.4
64519
11954
18.5
42.1
44597
5390
12.1
19
70692
5993
8.5
21.1
30354
2017
6.6
7.1
25596
4676
18.3
16.5
101629
8443
8.3
29.7
29802
4339
14.6
15.3
41810
7052
16.9
24.8
40059
7472
18.7
26.3
44215
5228
11.8
18.4
37176
3001
8.1
10.6
39407
1317
3.3
4.6
12.
ROI
IMC
(Margin $ Sales $
Margin Expenditure IMC
(000)
$ (000) (000)
Expenditure)
$1,846,361
$74,962
$96,200
Last Year
-$21,238
$184,000
This Year (projected) $1,994,069 $80,960
-$103,040
Index
100
109
92
152
99
69
54
150
68
119
138
153
97
66
27
Appendix
1.
Media Strategy
John Campbell
Aaron Schacht
Zach Marlin
Brand
Skechers Go Line Athletic Shoe
What is the marketing objective?
Increase sales by 8% in one year. ($1.85 bil to $2 bil)
Reach $3 billion in sales within 3 years.
Increase market share from 5.1% to 7% in one year.
What are your communication objectives?
Change perception about athletic shoe.
Release a commercial within 3 years that reaches 75% of Skechers target audience.
Skechers is about comfort, which will lead to better performance.
What is/are the target audiences?
You need to define them in ways you can reach them with various media.
Our target market is comprised of men and women who are looking for the most comfortable
athletic shoe on the market. Skechers does not target itself to the “hardcore” athletes who are
looking for high performance sneakers. Rather, Skechers’ core target audience is comprised of
middle class, 20-40 year olds who enjoy an active lifestyle.
How large is/are this/these target audience(s)?
According to Mediamark, there were 28,409,000 pairs of running/jogging shoes bought last year.
Looking specifically at Skechers’ core target audience, 66.4% of the total purchasers of running
shoes, or 18,863,000 people, were 18-44 year olds.
How large a portion of this/these target audiences do you have to reach at what level of
frequency to help achieve your communication objectives?
This is, of course, an educated guess.
To achieve our goal, we would like to reach 75% of our target market or 14,147,250 target
audience members. To reach this we would ideally like to have each one of our potential
consumers see one of our advertisements at least 40 times in a year.
How much of your target audience do you need to engage in interactive media in order to
help achieve your communication objectives?
Right now, we do not believe that interactive media is the most crucial element to our marketing
campaign. That being said, we would ideally like about a quarter of our target audience to
engage in interactive media.
What is your spending recommendation and rationale for total media?
In 2010, Skechers revenue was $2 billion and they spent $104 million on advertising, about 5.2%
of their total revenue. Last past year, Skechers total revenue was about $1.85 billion. We were
unable to find Skechers advertising budget for last year, but it is safe to assume that the company
spent around the same percentage of their total revenue for their ad budget last year. Therefore,
we believe that Skechers spent about 96,200,000 dollars on advertising last year. Skechers
should increase their media spending to $184 million, which is about 10% of total revenue.
Who are your competitors? What is their market share? What is their share of voice (as far
as you can know)? What media are they using?
You may not know ALL the answers to this. What DO you know? What might you presume?
Skechers competitors in the athletic shoe industry are Nike, Adidas, and Asics.
Nike’s market share is somewhere between 40-50%. Adidas and Asics market share is
somewhere between 23-30%. Nike markets its products through diverse advertising and
promotional programs and campaigns, including print, social media, online advertising, and
endorsement contracts with celebrity athletes. Nike’s use of television as media is a great way for
them to show the celebrities they have endorsed.
Adidas is also using print, television, online advertising, and social media as their way of
advertising. One big part of their online media is how the are expanding e-commerce.
Lastly, Asics uses print media, social media, online advertising, and television as well.
All of these competitors also use outdoor media, Internet PPC, Internet search, while only some
use the Radio still. All of these competitors use content marketing to try to get a meaningful
message out to their consumers.
Although we can’t generate a specific number, Nike has the highest share of voice followed by
Adidas.
What is your current share of voice? What media are you using? How?
You may not know ALL the answers to this. What DO you know? What might you presume
The media that Skechers is using is the same as its competitors. Skechers uses television, social
media, the Internet, and also print media. They have had a recent commercial lately of a
marathon runner named Meb Keflezighi, who is sponsored by Skechers to promote their brand.
Having Meb on board will create more brand awareness for Skechers in the athletic shoe
industry. Skechers also uses outdoor media by having billboards that promote their brand. Other
media that they use are Internet PPC and search, sales promotion, and content marketing. We are
going to try to get more involved in our online presence so a big focus of our media strategy will
be done online.
Again, we were not able to generate a number but Skechers share of voice is below Nike and
Adidas and around where Puma is. With the new recent commercial with Meb Keflezighi, this is
a good way of communicating compared with Skechers competitors.
What are your strategies for using the following:
How will you use these media to help achieve your stated objectives? Approximately what
percentage of your budget will you spend on each? (Note: You don’t have to use all media
classes.)
In order to achieve our marketing and communication goals mentioned above, we believe that
our target audience should be exposed to one of our advertisements 40 times a year. We want to
be able to reach 75% of our target market, or 14,147,250 target audience members. To
successfully convey our message of comfort, we will use many different types of media
including:
TV: With TV, there is the opportunity to reach the most members of our target audience, so this
will be the most crucial part of our campaign. We would like to spend 35% of our advertising
budget on this media, totalling about $64,400,000. We will continuously schedule our TV
advertisements throughout the year because our customers buy our products all year long. Our
advertisements will be 30 second TV spots and will air on various channels such as CBS, ABC,
FOX and other channels that are core target audience members watch.
Print: We will spend about 20% of our advertising budget, which is $36,800,000 on print media
such as magazines and newspapers. Magazines enable us to select our audience and allows us to
be very creative. Also, magazines have long advertising lives as print advertisements can be
reexamined over weeks and months. Specific print publications which we will place our ads
include; Runner’s World, TIME Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Men’s Health, and Women’s
Health. We will use various placements for our advertisement throughout the magazines
including the first cover page and double page spreads in order to get the largest reach.
Outdoor: We will allocate 20%, or $36,800,000 on this type of media. Some places where we
will use outdoor media will be at the upcoming Houston Marathon for which we are the official
sponsor. Since this is a big promotional event, we are going to have to spend a large portion of
our budget on outdoor displays to market the Marathon. If the Houston Marathon is a success,
we would like to begin sponsoring bigger and more popular running events to increase our
awareness among the running community.
Social Media: Through social media outlets such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine, and
Snapchat we are going to spend 15% of our budget and this comes out to be $27,600,000. Given
the popularity of social media among the young adults, we believe these outlets will enable us to
reach a large portion of our target audience.
Internet Display: With almost everybody in our target audience active on the Internet, we will
spend $18,400,000, or 10% on this type of media. This will include web banners and side
displays which are another cost effective way of reaching our target audience.
2.
CREATIVE BRIEF
Project Team
Date
Client
Aaron Schacht, John Anthony, Zack Marlin 4/22/2014 Skechers
Brand
What is the name of the brand?
Skechers Shoes
Product/Service
What is the product called?
Skechers Go line
What does it do?
Our product is an athletic running shoe, which focuses on comfort design to maximize your
running experience.
Marketing problem communication must help solve
What is the marketing (sales, mkt. share) purpose for the communication?
Currently, Skechers has a very small proportion of the industry’s market share at around 5%.
Skechers does not have the resources to compete with Nike or Adidas in terms of market share
which is why we chose to focus on the company’s sales numbers. Through various marketing
campaigns and strategies, we would like to increase Skechers’ sales by 8% in one year.
Form
What form(s) will this communication take—print, radio, TV, etc.
-TV
-Print
-Outdoor
-Internet Display
-Social Media
Target Audience:
To whom is the communication directed?
First and foremost, the target audience for Skechers includes men and women who are looking
for the most comfortable athletic shoe on the market. Additionally, Skechers does not target itself
to the “hardcore” athletes who are looking for high performance athletic shoes. Instead, Skechers
core target audience is comprised of 20-40 year olds who enjoy an active lifestyle. The place that
fitness has in their lives are that this person walks or a run three to four times a week. The types
of sports that they do are endurance based sports rather than sports like basketball and football.
What they get out of this experience is a sense of relief, inner peace, an overall good feeling
about themselves. This person would be your typical 9-5 worker who comes home and enjoys a
nice run.
Communication Objective
What can the communication accomplish to help solve the marketing problem?
Skechers is a fairly well-known brand, so awareness is not going to be a matter of focus for our
group. Currently, Skechers is seen as an “uncool” brand that people are often times embarrassed
or self-conscious to wear. We would like to change the image of the company and the perception
of the brand in order to make the shoe cool. By having a popular shoe which people love to wear,
sales will increase and our marketing objective should be accomplished. We would like to
convey to our potential consumers that the comfort of our shoes make our shoes an even better
option than the performance oriented athletic shoes sold by our competitors.
Competitive Environment:
Nike is the industry leader as they control the majority of the industry’s market share. They have
been around for a long time and this is what has made them a well-established brand for athletic
shoes. Nike has been known to push for the performance of their product and their research into
performance technology, while Skechers is trying to portray comfort which will lead to
performance.
Runners tend to be relatively loyal customers and if they find a brand they like, they will usually
stick with it. For that reason the threat of new entrants is low in the athletic shoe industry. Threat
of substitutes is high because there are so many comparable products on the market offered by
many different companies. Because the industry is so cluttered with so many different brands the
power of the consumer tends to be high in this market. A customer could easily choose a
different business, forcing a particular company to lower its prices. Lastly, competition is fierce
in the athletic shoe industry as there are so many companies that could potentially steal your
customers.
Nike and Adidas are both competition driven and they stand for performance technology,
improving the consumer’s athletic abilities. Asics is more like Skechers in that they stand for
comfort rather than performance.
Point of Difference
How exactly is the product/service better than others, from the customer’s viewpoint?
The comfort which Skechers provides with its shoe is unmatched in the athletic shoe industry. As
one blogger writes regarding the new GOrun shoe, “I had forgotten how much I liked these shoes
and how revolutionary they are. For running smooth surfaces like paved roads or tracks, I have
not found anything better. The interior is so smooth and comfy that I never wore socks when
running in the GOruns.”
Also, from the customer’s viewpoint, Skechers is a much cheaper alternative to Nike, Adidas and
Asics. For example, On Nike’s website, their cheapest shoe sells for 75 dollars and their average
shoe costs about 115-120 dollars. Asics’ is extremely expensive, selling shoes for up to 200
dollars. Skechers, however, is much cheaper as they sell their shoes for at most 115 dollars and
the average price for a shoe is around 75-90 dollars.
In the past, style had been an advantage for Skechers, but currently its competitors are
manufacturing just as colorful and stylish shoes as Skechers.
Key Insight
Is there one important piece of information or idea that will make this communication
successful?
The idea which will make this communication successful is that although our athletic shoes does
not have the performance technology like our competitors shoes, the comfort of Skechers athletic
shoes is a superior alternative to performance technology. THE best running experience for our
customers.
The comfort of our athletics shoes will be so great that you will never want another shoe again.
“When you feel comfortable, you run better.”
Positioning Claim
Complete: To (target customer), (client’s product/service) is the (competitive frame) that delivers
(benefits).
To men and women who live an active lifestyle, Skechers athletic shoes are the athletic shoes
that deliver the most comfortable shoe wearing experience you will ever have.
Support
What specific facts and perceptions support the positioning claim? Prioritize as key messages.
Skechers has been extremely successful at manufacturing comfort shoes, and now we are going
to transfer the same technology to our athletic shoes.
Meb, who wore our shoe at the Boston Marathon, came in first place, proving a comfortable shoe
is more efficient than a performance technology based shoe like Nike.
Communication Tone/Personality
What tone/look should the communication have to be effective? What personality?
We want to have a confident tone in our communication efforts. We would directly compare our
shoes with our competitors and show that performance technology isn’t the key to having the
best running experience, but rather comfort is the most important feature.
Also, we want our communications to convey the message that you will enjoy our shoes the
most. We want to show the customer that you don’t have to run to outperform everyone else, but
rather you can run because you want to and you want to enjoy the experience.
Consumer Action
What can we expect the target customer to think/do if the communication is successful?
We want the customers to think that our shoe is the most comfortable shoe on the market. We
want them to rethink athletic shoes as a whole, and instead of focusing on performance
technology we would want them to focus on comfort. This will in turn cause the target customer
to buy our shoe.
Measurement
How will we know if the communication is successful? Any objective measurements?
We will know if the communication is successful if our sales increase by 4% in half a year. Also,
we will know that the perception of our company has changed if our “Skechers Performance
Division” Facebook page goes from 25,875 Likes to around 50,000 in a year, and our
“SKECHERS” Facebook page goes from 1,193,559 likes to 1.5 million likes in a year. By
scanning the various social media outlets, we can see how our consumers are viewing are shoe.
Related Communication
What communication has been done in this or other media for this product/service?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9ysia1jdRU Skechers Foam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW8R38stP-0 Meb commercial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lat_PsV-fzE Skechers Sport
Recently, Skechers has been using TV commercials to deliver their message. Skechers has also
signed a multiyear deal to sponsor the Houston Marathon.
Executional Mandatories
Specs, logos, tag lines, colors, phone numbers, email addresses, web site addresses, etc.
Our communication efforts will include the company logo, colors and our web address.