Atlantic Sport Case Study December 1998

How regional press helped improve a leading retailer's image through the launch of the Atlantic Sport label This case study reviews the award-winning launch campaign for the Atlantic Sport clothing label, distributed exclusively through Burton Menswear outlets. Local press is renowned for its strengths in delivering 'call to action' advertising. The success of Carat's launch campaign provides testimony to the ability of regional press to sustain effective 'branding' advertising with even a modest budget. Background Burton Menswear is the largest retailer of menswear in the UK with over 400 stores nationwide. However, it has suffered in recent years from being perceived as overly traditional, dated and lacking in modern fashions. Partly as a result, Burton Menswear has seen its market share gradually eroded over the past decade. One of the problems has been a lack of clear consumer perception as to exactly what Burton Menswear represents - they have a high awareness but do they principally sell suits or casual clothes? In addition, the Burton Group has traditionally been conservative in their approach to advertising, in that they had tended to restrict their activity and budgets to specific tasks such as sale announcements. The decision was taken to create a new sub-brand that would be marketed under the label Atlantic Sport. This presented an opportunity to promote a positive new image amongst existing consumers and to invite non-consumers to re-evaluate their perceptions of Burton Menswear. But to do that with relatively limited budgets, the advertising agency Carat had to persuade Burton Menswear to adopt a different approach to their advertising and to commit all their Autumn 1997 funds into one key objective - to promote Atlantic Sport as the standard bearer for the autumn season. Marketing Objectives It was imperative that Atlantic Sport be seen as a stand-alone brand, yet still be recognised as part of the Burton Menswear portfolio. The Atlantic Sport label was being stocked in some 210 of the 400 Burton Menswear outlets, giving the brand a national perspective. But given a budget of around £40,000, it was decided to concentrate the advertising support on the top 10 'flagship' stores outside Greater London. It was hoped that by establishing positive brand perceptions - particularly amongst people who did not usually shop at Burtons - consumers would be prompted to check out the brand by making store visits. By successfully launching the new label, it was hoped that the kudos would benefit the overall image of Burton Menswear, improve sales conversion and ultimately increase market share. The Communication Strategy During March 1997, a series of qualitative focus groups were conducted to probe their target audience beyond age, sex and social class. These revealed some fundamental pointers about their target audience: they like to be 'one of the lads', very male; interested mainly in sex, booze and especially sport; tend to be creatures of habit. The research suggested that these men did not like shopping for clothes, viewing it as a necessity often prompted by their partners. These were "everyday, accessible, average men" who mostly viewed clothes as functional rather than fashionable. Carat concluded that the consumer had to be communicated to in an environment that they could personally relate to, or even participate in, without appearing aloof. The creative treatment, developed by the creative agency Mellors Reay, called for a personal tone, which would best be achieved through generating a 'local' feeling. The Creative Strategy All the research pointed to a sporting theme to promote a sense of high performance. This could best be achieved by focusing on sporting champions, but in order to make the brand values more accessible, it was decided to feature low profile sports in which the champions are otherwise 'everyday' people with regular jobs and not placed on a media pedestal. The selected sporting 'local heroes' included a recruitment consultant (rock climbing), a teacher (canoeing) and a shop owner (cycling). The Media Strategy Local press was selected as the best medium to deliver the 'local' creative strategy and imagery. TGI analysis indicated that, compared to all adults, Burton Menswear shoppers are 120% more likely to read the sports sections of a newspaper. All roads therefore led to the sports editorial pages. "We saw local press as vital due to its visual quality, positional flexibility, frequency potential and cost efficiency. Our success was achieved due to the relationships developed with the media owners." Dan Benedict, Client Director - Carat Carat held discussions with the media owners to convey their campaign objectives. To achieve the desired frequency, small-sized fractional sites were booked in prominent positions, while colour was used to convey a sense of quality and aid product enhancement. By securing regular solus sites within the front or back of the sports sections in the key mid / quality newspapers within the 10 catchment areas, Carat succeeded in gaining ownership of these sites for Atlantic Sport. The Results The campaign proved to be effective due to a number of factors, not least of which was the close integration of the media and creative teams to deliver the right solution. Most retailers tend to focus on page dominance within the front half of the newspaper, but this campaign achieved its aims of creating retail differentiation and standalone status for Atlantic Sport. Millward Brown Tracking data, administered on an ongoing basis for the Burton Group, showed a 28% increase in spontaneous awareness of Atlantic Sport during the autumn campaign. In addition, the Burton Group's own research, conducted by exit polls, shows that perceptions of Burton Menswear amongst shoppers improved considerably over the campaign period, particularly in respect of fashionability and modern sporting styles. "This campaign was everything a traditional retail campaign isn't. By making retail clients think creatively and more laterally - and encouraging newspapers to work harder - we have demonstrated that regional press can act as more than just a vehicle for their advertising." Dan Benedict, Client Director - Carat The campaign has already won industry recognition, winning two gold awards at the 1998 Regional Press Advertising Awards, for 'Campaign of the year' and 'Best use of a small budget'. But more importantly, the campaign proved to be a success where it matters - at the tills. "The strategy of (combining) local heroes and sports editorial has been a success. Sales in the top 10 stores are 8% higher than the national sales average." Fiona Ferguson, formerly Marketing Director - Burton Menswear