Resolving brand contradictions for one of the oldest and most dominant footwear brands

The task : communication proposition development

The research approach : consumer subconscious interviews + contrastive semiotic framework for analysing data

The challenges:

• Uncovering the earliest impression (difficult to retrieve otherwise) of the brand and the most recent (consumers indifferent to the brand, hence a lack of interest in narrating details). 
• Ideating on future directions for a brand that has seemingly not changed in many years
• Uncovering metaphors for shoes to get to the emotional underpinnings of this category

illume research revealed:

‘Aesthetics’ dominate decision making & ‘comfort’ found wanting. The two considered mutually exclusive. The client’s brand & its sub-brands have products that offer dual-benefits but the brand does not celebrate this.

It stood for = Uniform = against the code of ‘fashion’ which consumers associate with the category.

Associated with childhood, but has an aura of an adult like world –  lacking color & excitement – a need to resolve this contradiction

The positioning space – ‘Feet-hugging footwear’

Resolving the dichotomy between comfort and style

The dominant code for footwear brands = fashion, style, expression and indulgence

The brand rides a residual code & talks the language of comfort, fit and value. 

Consumers seek a blend of the two but find these mutually exclusive. The umbrella brand has sub-brands that offer the balance between style and comfort. 

• An emotional concept – a shift from the cluttered realm of competing on physical attributes
• An abstract idea that has extendibility
• Reinforces the idea of the parent brand nostalgia
• Cues customised footwear – fit my feet perfectly.

*Other categories for which we used this approach :  A new luxury club, a mass luggage brand