Converse
Creative consumers & the retail space
Converse x Foot Locker
Converse and Foot Locker have a strong and longstanding relationship, with both enjoying the success of exclusive customer offerings connected to their partnership. When two big brands come together, however, each with their own set of values and appeal, the audience becomes unique in its own right.
Recognising that one size does not fit all, Converse came to us to develop a series of targeted shopper typologies. Primarily the purpose was to inform strategic business decisions of Converse at Foot Locker, but there was also a need to create new energy and excitement for the brand, both internally and externally.
Creative Customers
Our approach centred on the defining characteristic of the Converse customer: creativity. Thus we sought creatively minded shoppers in six EU markets, starting with remote methods to get to the heart of ‘system one’ thinking, before digging deeper into the details with consumer workshops.
Image diaries uncovered a sense of people’s style, inspiration and brand preferences, and then citizen journalism took us on a raw and brilliantly personal journey through their lives.
Visual Analysis Framework
From thousands of images and videos, we applied our visual analysis framework, identifying the patterns that ultimately underpinned the results. We arrived at five core ‘Converse x Foot Locker’ customer profiles that the brand teams could firmly relate to; also a more deep-set demarcation between those who adhere to slow and fast fashion trends – a vital learning for Converse in pinpointing when to leverage factors such as their alt rock heritage versus when to go big on social media celebrities.
Takeover Workshops
We got to take over the HQ of Converse’s creative agency for the day, adorning it with stimulus material, providing a crystal clear understanding of the Converse consumer profile at Foot Locker, and making sure the results would feed directly into product development, comms strategies and optimisation of the in-store experience.
“We now consider Crowd DNA as close partners. By taking time to listen and understand, they have fully immersed us in the lives of music fans. As a direct result of their work, the business has been inspired into developing ever more creative ways of connecting with our audiences.”
TOM ELTON, GLOBAL HEAD OF CULTURE AND PARTNERSHIPS, BALLANTINE’S
