W.L. Gore & Associates Sales Campaign Becomes a Shoe-In

Transcription

1 Associates Graphic Services Contents W.L. Gore & Associates Sales Campaign Becomes a Shoe-In Exploring the Options Setting the Course Going on a Data Quest Climbing Beyond Standard Responses Associates Graphic Services 100 Rogers Road Wilmington, DE p: f: In 2007, W.L. Gore s Retail Marketing-Key Accounts group decided to run a new marketing campaign for travel-appropriate footwear that uses Gore s premier water-resistant product, GORE-TEX fabric. Sharon Cook of Gore wanted to work through the retailer, Eastern Mountain Sports, to increase sales of specific Merrell shoe products in the U.S. that were already a market success in Europe. Looking for something new, different, and sensational, she turned to AGS for advice on how to run such a campaign. The resulting campaign partnered Merrell Shoes, Eastern Mountain Sports, Gore, and AGS and garnered astounding results from a two-week campaign. Eastern Mountain Sports experienced a 16 percent increase on average of GORE-TEX footwear sales during the campaign timeframe, compared to the previous timeframe in AGS was very consultative, observed Sharon Cook. They provided very innovative solutions. I had never done anything this customized before. It was on a more personal and individualized level.

2 Advantage Wilmington Exploring the Options When Gore set their marketing goals for this campaign, they had two objectives: sell more shoes with GORE-TEX via a better response and better return on investment, and collect marketing data on the customers interested in those shoes. Many factors influence product sales, such as market timing, product styling, price, weather, and consumer loyalty. However, when powerful brands align and collaborate on a marketing campaign with one of their key retailers, great things can happen. Gore approached Eastern Mountain Sports, a retailer with the right type of consumers, and Merrell, a footwear brand that uses GORE-TEX fabric in their product line. This was a very collaborative project. We were working with our wholesale partner, marrying two great brands that deliver great products to consumers, observed Cook. Ideas were put on the table to develop something offline with Eastern Mountain Sports to drive traffic into their stores. Eastern Mountain Sports has lots of experience with direct mail campaigns and has a substantial database of loyal customers, and were open to trying a new customized approach. designed for a male or female. The personal uniform resource locator would direct consumers to a Website that contained the same graphical look and feel as the direct mail and . Because none of the marketing partners had ever used this sort of approach before, AGS performed a demonstration of the personal uniform resource locator and its tracking and data capture capabilities. The concept of reaching consumers at such a personalized level and being able to track the data from users of the personal uniform resource locator was intriguing to all the players. The team found the approach to be new and hip. It had pizzazz and the ability to capture online data and manage it offline. In addition to incorporating these ideas in the campaign, a decision was made to use a twofold hook for the mailings. Based on what Gore and its marketing partners were asking for, AGS suggested using a two-pronged marketing strategy to target different types of customers. First, send out a direct mail postcard with something to capture the recipient s interest. Second, send out an equal number of s. Each of these pieces would contain a personal uniform resource locator that retained variable information based on the sex and name of the recipient, the featured shoe, and whether the shoe was 2

3 Setting the Course The main types of data the team wanted to track on the Website were female hits vs. male hits, number of hits, number of unique hits, vs. direct mail, preferred outdoor activities, favorite types of vacations, and previous purchases of shoes using GORE-TEX fabric. The consumer database of previously purchased footwear that Eastern Mountain Sports already had was used to determine the criterion for the mailings, which was primarily consumers who had previously purchased the most footwear. AGS set about designing the new Website used for the personal uniform resource locators, which allowed Gore to track December 2007 sales results against December 2006 results. AGS showed great flexibility, noted Cook. Karen Keenan, AGS Marketing Director, let people define their own comfort levels on the project and took the reins where we were lacking experience. 3 Eastern Mountain Sports used a design supplied by AGS to create the postcard layouts for the mailings. The resulting campaign featured a Catherine character illustrated on the women s mailings and an Anthony character on the men s mailings. Outdoor adventure scenes were depicted in the graphics for both pieces. The Catherine pieces also featured a women s Merrell Chameleon Arc XCR hiking shoe. The men s Merrell Reflex II GTX performance shoe was featured on the Anthony mailings. The first hook to drive sales was a free gift of an aluminum water bottle or pedometer with the purchase of any footwear with GORE-TEX fabric at an Eastern Mountain Sports store. The second driver was an online sweepstakes to get consumers to use the personal uniform resource locator and enter a once-in-a-lifetime random drawing to win a trip to the Mount Everest Base Camp in Nepal.

4 W.L. Gore & Associates Going on a Data Quest The postcards were dynamic, well-designed, and relevant, states Cook. They highlighted Eastern Mountain Sports, Merrell, and Gore in a very balanced way. AGS printed and mailed 30,000 postcards, provided 30,000 personal uniform resource locators to Eastern Mountain Sports for their blast, and managed the dashboard for the Website. One of the risks the team decided to take was running the pieces during the final days of holiday shopping. The marketing campaign ran from December 12, 2007 through December 24, 2007 in several states, primarily in the Northeast. Personalized Data Even with other heavy promotional traffic, consumers found the sweepstakes very compelling and logged on to the Website to find out more information. They were asked to complete a short survey about their interests and purchases. As the results started to come in, the team was very pleased with the significant lift in sales, especially considering the other sales and special promotions that consumers are besieged by during the holidays. Personalized URL 4

5 W.L. Gore & Associates Climbing Beyond Standard Responses The site received 5,162 total visits an 8.6 percent response rate. The results indicated that the campaign was even better than the direct mail portion, probably because consumers were already logged into their computers and could just click on the Website link. The team was overwhelmed by how many people completed the surveys. The industry standard for Web campaigns is a 1.6 percent click-through rate. Gore s campaign received an amazing 5.36 percent complete click-throughs. Out of 3,233 total unique hits, 78 percent of the visitors completed the surveys. In addition, 73 percent of visitors completed the survey and updated their profile. The 5.36 percent click-through rate was unbelievable with all the other promotional traffic going on at that time. The impact was very powerful, explained Cook. Ultimately, Eastern Mountain Sports reported a 16% average increase in sales of GORE-TEX footwear, greatly surpassing the team s expectations. Sales of men s and women s insulated styles, along with backpacking, men s and women s hiking, and women s trail shoes also increased during the promotional timeframe. Of the total experience, Cook noted, AGS was amazing very professional. Karen had the experience I needed around the personal uniform resource locator and direct mail and was a true partner. AGS brought creativity to the project and put relevant metrics in place. They took away the overwhelming parts and handled the inner workings beautifully. I would absolutely do another program with AGS. in sales from such a short campaign was a fulfilling experience for the team. The team learned that a lot of the survey respondents were interested in outdoor adventure travel as vacations. Consumers were looking for the best gear they could find. These results indicate that travel-appropriate footwear is a promising category, and the team will work toward development of more styles to meet consumer needs. Cook especially appreciated the ability to log into the dashboard at any time to monitor the results. It was really exciting and inspiring to get that behind-thescenes view. Being able to get the data back, develop a case study, and see the lift 5

6 10% Cert no. SW-COC Associates Graphic Services 100 Rogers Road, Wilmington, DE p: f: