The Athlete’s Foot is rebranding and launching a new advertising campaign.
The franchised retailer has more than 135 stores across the country and is looking back to its heritage in for its repositioning strategy.
A new store format will be rolled out, featuring its rebranded exclusive fitting technology, own-brand products and matched with an online presence.
The brand’s foot icon has been updated with a new colour palette.
Initially the fresh new look will be seen in 12 stores nationally with at least 30 outlets in the pipeline for a brand refresh by the end of June 2018.
Caroline Squire, head of marketing for TAF, points out the crowded marketplace for sports footwear with competitors including Foot Locker, Rebel Sports and overseas brands making their way to Australia – JD Sports, Decathlon, and of course Amazon.
“The project has been in the works for the last 18 months and was really prompted by the need for us to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace, along with ensuring we are delivering on our target customers’ needs,” Squire told Inside Retail.
The company worked with the Australian Centre for Retail Studies at Monash University to understand the target customers and what they need from a performance footwear retailer and used the insights to inform the rebrand project.
Squire pointed to the world-leading fit technology, passionate and highly trained FitCrew team members, a loyalty program and strong customer service as marks of distinction for the retailer.
“This new evolution-approached strategy needed to highlight that and position us as the preferred performance shoe retailer in the Australian market and we’ve just commenced the journey in telling customers about this,” Squire said.
Costs for the rebrand will be funded by the franchise marketing fund but the franchisor is footing the bill for the strategic development costs.
The Athlete’s Foot is owned by parent company RCG Corporation, which announced a record annual profit for the 2017 financial year.
However the closure of the network’s three largest corporate stores for a few weeks for rebranding and the investment in the new project affected the earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.
CEO Hilton Brett described this as disappointing, but said “We believe that both these initiatives will have a positive long-term impact on the performance of the business.
“We are confident that The Athlete’s Foot’s management team has the tools, resources, skillset and directional focus to deliver positive sales and profit growth in FY18 and beyond.”