Will the brand extension be accepted by the consumers?

In our questionnaire and interviews we asked which product ECCO produced besides shoes.

Though some had no idea, other answered bags and a great deal actually believed that ECCO sold clothes. However, nobody had ever purchased any ECCO accessories, or any ECCO shoes. That some people believed that ECCO was already producing clothing is both a good and a bad thing. On one hand it means that these contestants see clothing as a logical extensions, but it also witness about ECCOs doubtful positioning and that these would not buy ECCO clothes since they haven’t tried to already (then they would know that it does not exist).

In our questionnaire we asked “If ECCO were producing clothes would you consider purchasing these?” The responses can be seen in the figure below. However, the responses from the group interview is placed next to definitely would not buy, since this were here the common vote of the participants was placed. Therefore, the responses may be more negative than if the respondents had responded individually, as the group interviewees may have influenced each other.

Answer Options

Definitely would not buy

Definitely would buy Would you buy ECCO

clothes? 1 7 2 3 2 1 0

Hence, the majority of our contestants do not look very positive on a prospect extension. However, these very negative prospects are probably a result of the contestants not knowing so much about the ECCO brand, but also because they do not have the right age to “appreciate” what ECCO stands for (more minded on business people than on students wearing sporty brands), nor have they been targeted by ECCO. Our group interview revealed that though the students had claimed that they would not purchase ECCO clothing, they said that their situation would probably change as they got older and that they might be interested at that point as they would need to adjust their looks when they start to work. In our in-depth interview with Diana she said, about the possibility of her buying ECCO clothing “Well probably when I get older I would like to buy it. And when you see the commercial for the clothes you would probably see how it looks with the shoes and if the design goes well together.²⁷¹” Others said that whether they would purchase ECCO clothing depended on the style. In our interviews and in the questionnaire we also asked if one would expect such an extension from ECCO, and most of the contestants believed that such an extension would be quite natural as this is more or less what all fashion brands do in China. Moreover most people believed

271 Interview with Diana, see appendix 10

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that this extension would fit quite well with the parent brand. One replied; yes, if it was targeted to the same consumer group, and Jacky, one of our focus group contestants, believed that ECCO should make the clothes very formal as their shoes have a very formal look. Zhi Li thought that business clothes would be a good idea. “Or something conservative, but also some sports clothes, like golf clothes or other sports clothes²⁷².” Li Huan was more into the idea about ECCO making more casual clothing with bright colours “I think the casual brands always have brighter colours than the business conservative ones. They will have more the black and white”²⁷³. All in all it seemed that casual business clothing was the brand extension that was most obvious.

We also asked whether our contestants would consider ECCO’s clothes as hip and modern. Here, some said yes - they would and other said that they would think that it would have a more classic or old style, but this should not necessarily be seen in a bad way as such clothing would be suitable for many occasions. When we asked if they would consider ECCO’s clothing as being luxurious, it seemed quite clear that it would not be perceived as a luxurious, but more as high class and good quality, within the frames of a premium brand.

Though the responses to the brand extension were overall speaking quite negative - especially the chances for an actual purchase. We are still of that perception that a making the brand extension would be a good idea, however it should not be introduced before the ECCO brand has obtained a stronger and more clear positioning in the minds of the young consumers.

In fact the lack of brand awareness of the young consumers will probably be ECCO’s greatest caveat in introducing the category extension as brand equity is both an imperative driver of extension success and one of the main reasons for deciding to make the extension.²⁷⁴ Without sufficient brand awareness, introducing the extension will be like introducing a new brand, as the extension cannot profit from the image and associations linked to the parent brand, hence no stamp of approval can be derived from the parent brand and no status can be transmitted. As already described an extension cannot solve the problems of the parent brand, but will only shift the focus – which may result in the extension “stealing” resources from the parent brand. As ECCO is quite successful on the Chinese market we cannot categorize ECCO as an unhealthy brand, but we do believe that the lack of awareness among the young consumers and their mixed perceptions about ECCO’s attributes, which are not always positive, forces ECCO to work more on positioning

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272 Interview with Zhi Li, see appendix 6

273 Interview with Li Huan, see appendix 8

274 Wendy Lomax and Blunden 2004: 52

themselves in the mind of the consumers. Moreover, ECCO needs a clearer branding strategy so confusions about the ECCO brand can be avoided.

All in all, there are more advantages than disadvantages for ECCO in making the extension.

However, this builds on the condition that ECCO succeeds climbing upwards in the brand building pyramid by creating more awareness, improving their image and creating a stronger bond to the younger consumers. We will describe some of the steps ECCO could take to succeed with this in the coming two chapters.

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