Transforming a Brand

The Challenge

An iconic footwear brand – best known for being sturdy, functional and enduring – came to us to help them understand a new target audience and their relationship with the outdoors.

We were tasked with bringing the hopes, dreams, challenges and fears of this audience to life … as well as to help our clients land a new promise, that stayed true to the heritage of the brand, while evolving with the times.

The Approach

To gather important context for the study, we conducted a series of stakeholder interviews to immerse ourselves in the brand and understand its DNA, history, challenges and aspirations. We then carefully recruit approx. 60 people who represented their target audience and engaged in an in-depth online discussion over the course of 3 days about their lives, outdoor activities, approach to style, and of course their relationship with the brand. Lastly, we selected a sub-sample of people to visit in their homes and conducted closet raids, where we got up close and personal with their outdoor wear, followed by a shop along at their favorite outdoor store.

The Impact

We brought this global target to life for our client in a highly explicit and visually-stimulating brand purpose workshop, allowing them to tease apart what’s truly at the core of the brand, and how to express it in a modern way. This new outlook helped our client turn around a decline in market share, growing its sales by 15% in a single quarter, improving its performance in every global market and significantly improving its profit margin.