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Twenty one-year-old global California-based footwear brand Skechers entered India in October, 2012. Broadly speaking, the billion-dollar Skechers has a range of products for men, women and children that can be classified into lifestyle, sports and performance. At the end of 2012, Skechers was present in about 165 stores. The brand plans to increase the number to at least 300 by the year end, reveals Sanjeev Agrawal, managing director, Skechers South Asia. Agrawal was CEO of Pantaloon and later joint CEO of Future Value Retail. Excerpts:
Edited Excerpts
Skechers is a late entrant. How do you plan to make up for lost time?
As a new entrant, life is simple. There's only one way to go -- up. I don't know if there's any such thing as lost time. Every company has its own expansion plan and Skechers decided to expand internationally a little later. Skechers is relatively young and therefore the emphasis on international markets has been much more recent. Obviously we don't expect to become as big as some of the other sports brands in a short time. We will take time but will surely find our place under the sun.
There must be some challenges unique to a late entrant
Grabbing share of shelf and getting distribution are the biggest challenges. Getting share of mind, from a consumer perspective, is far easier than getting share of shelf. At the end of the day, you can communicate to the consumer directly, by spending a certain amount on TV but share of shelf is determined by other people; you have to talk to several retailers, you have to negotiate. Share of mind is about switching on a button for advertising. If you're willing to spend the money, you can start buying share of mind.
So what's your upcoming communication strategy like?
Skechers is an aggressive marketer. Within three months of launching the product in India, we advertised on TV. No fashion brand does that. I can assure you that when it comes to TV and magazines, we'll be the leading player among the multinationals. In newspapers, we may not be a leading advertiser because we don't have our own stores yet.
When it comes to shoes/sports gear, brand preference often draws on expert advice, friends' suggestions and word of mouth. How do you plan to work around this?
We will have a lot of promotions and engagements. Our broad, work-in-progress thoughts include associating with running/walking events and tie ups with gyms. But, I personally believe that when it comes to what TV advertising does - well, everything else is subservient to it. Where does word of mouth start? TV advertising drives perceptions, beliefs and therefore word of mouth.
At the end of the day only two things can influence someone to buy something - either it's the product or it's the advertising. There is no third thing. Of course, there's pricing, but what I'm trying to say is that if a product is good and is communicated strongly, that's it. That's a very simplistic way of looking at it, yes, but often we marketers tend to complicate things and that's where our confusion starts.
What about digital?
It is something we'll use but there's always a caveat about digital. We love television. Television shows moving images and that has far stronger impact than a stationary print ad or an online banner ad does. On digital, ideas have to be engaging. Plain vanilla, banner ads are a waste of money.
Skechers is less known than other brands in its space. How will it differentiate itself?
Our range is exhaustive. Other brands don't have a strong casual, lifestyle or women's range like us. And we have a unique kid's range. Consider Bella Ballerina -- the shoes have a 'disk' underneath so the girl wearing it can twist and turn around or Twinkle Toes - the shoes have little lights on them. Besides, our kids range is not a knock-down from the adults range; it's a range defined and designed especially for kids. Also, Skechers is adding a lot more colour to its sports shoes as today, sports shoes are becoming a little more casual and can be worn to pubs/clubs in the evening.
Indian retail is notorious for its lack of space. How do you plan to deal with that?
Currently we are working with various partners like Metro Shoes (more tilted towards our sports and lifestyle range), Planet Sports (performance and sports range), Reliance Footprint (mix of everything) and Lifestyle. Indian retail is starting to get a little differentiated; not the way Western and developed markets are but one can still showcase one's range in some way. Of course, the biggest joy for us will come when we have our own store here to showcase our entire range.
