12 FOOT MAR10 misfit:Footwear 04/03/2010 11:02 Page 12
MISFIT
Misfit
Brand loyalty
T
hat’s what Toyota dealers must be thinking just now. Years and least for a while, and refrain from injuring the customers, but also not
years building up their businesses on the basis of selling the to produce any turkeys. A couple of less than exciting collections and
most carefully built, most reliable, car in the world and it’s curtains for the brand which we retailers have invested time,
suddenly, thanks to a tiny design fault in the accelerator pedal, trouble and sometimes even money in promoting
something which has been around for years and working perfectly Which is me leading up to saying that while we can build our
satisfactorily on billions of cars, their businesses could be falling to businesses on someone else’s brand, those brands do not belong to
bits. us, we have no control over them, and, like they tell you when they
As soon as the word got out that Toyota were not the saintly cars sell stocks and shares, our investment can go down as well as up.
everyone thought, other problems started to come to light. Brakes Now, all this would not matter if it was just a matter of saying to
were not as reliable as they ought to be, steering could go wrong, and any brand sales person who approaches us that we like the look of
no doubt in due course someone will sue because the cigar lighter the shoes and will give them an order. We promise to do our best to
didn’t ignite his stogie first time, and while he was staring at the promote the brand, but in many cases there are strings attached, like
smokeless end of his panatella he ran into the car in front. having to take a certain pairage, or stock and promote certain lines,
In no time at all Toyota has gone from top car to banger, and all the even to the point of displaying them to the brand owners’satisfaction.
people who relied on the brand to earn their crusts
are wondering what has hit them out of a clear blue
sky.
A friend of mine, a successful wholesaler, with a brand to
If any of these faults had occurred, and I am sure
they did, on a lesser brand car, everyone would have
admire, was ruined when the soles of his best selling
shrugged their shoulders and gone on their way. It
only goes to prove how unsafe top brands are.
range cracked right across after a week’s wear. It wasn’t
Ah, well, I hear you say, that’s the car trade. It isn’t
his fault – he didn’t make the shoes. It wasn’t the
like that in the shoe business. Sorry, I have to
disabuse you. A friend of mine, a successful manufacturer’s fault – they bought in the soling in all
wholesaler, with a brand to admire, was ruined when
the soles of his best selling range cracked right
innocence. My friend had to take every pair back and his
across after a week’s wear. It wasn’t his fault – he
didn’t make the shoes. It wasn’t the manufacturer’s
customers stopped trusting him. He is now a teacher
fault – they bought in the soling in all innocence. My
friend had to take every pair back and his customers If it gets to that point beware. The brand is getting above itself and
stopped trusting him. He is now a teacher. concentrating on the selling rather than the substance and we could
You don’t have to make a faulty product to buy into a dud brand. I easily find ourselves with a lot of stock that isn’t shifting and the
knew the owner of a small but up and coming trainer brand who tied support we thought we had has vanished. At the end of the day it is
himself, at I assume great expense, to the coat tails of a much up to us to keep an eye on how brands we are supporting are doing,
admired sportsman. Not long after everything was signed and sealed and just how we do that, I do not know.
and the cheque cleared the sporting idol turned out to be stuffed full In the end there is only one brand we can rely on, our own. Aye
of substances and was forced to retire in disgrace. Fortunately the there’s the rub. With the sort of three- or four-figure marketing
shoe man had taken out insurance so got his money back, but things budgets that most of us private retailers
could have been otherwise. can afford how can we make our voice heard above those of
Shoe brands come and go, not necessarily as drastically as that, companies who seem to have bottomless pockets when it comes to
but just because they haven’t been looked after, as a good brand promotion?
should be, but they never die. I don’t know why, maybe for There is the point to be made that we have the advantage of being
sentimental reasons, but brands that used to be names of power are more flexible than the big boys and better known locally, but that
still around, shadows of what they used to be, but still alive. Even doesn’t weigh that strongly in the balance. I always wonder what the
Woolworth, which most people thought came to a full stop about a firms who sponsor minor league football teams get out of it, apart
year ago, is still selling on the internet. from glory. I suspect not much. Who studies all the logos on formula 1
A brand is merely a name. We tend to forget that these days when cars?
there are so many brands about all competing for our and our All we can do is stock the shoes, big brands or small that seem to
customers’ loyalty. It isn’t just the logo, the advertising, the be what our customers want and hope for the best. The important
sponsorships and all the other razzmatazz that supports it, but the thing is to keep our eyes on the ups and downs of the brands we
quality and the desirability, of the goods as well. A brand manager promote, remembering always that it is a partnership and not putting
does not only have to make sure that his products hold together, at too many eggs in the same basket.
12
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FOOTWEAR TODAY
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MARCH 2010 www.footweartoday.co.uk
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