Vans Marketing

VANS “OFF THE WALL”

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Situation Analysis Industry Company Customers Competitors Channel Partners

❏ INDUSTRY ❏ Overall Shoe Industry ❏ Shoe Buying Trends ❏ Shoe sales per person (how often, most popular ❏ Vans as a percentage of total sales ❏ Van sales per person ❏ Company Characteristics Overall Shoe Industry -In 2019, China was the world’s leading consumer of footwear, with around 4.14 billion pairs of shoes being bought. Followed by India with 2.56 billion and the U.S with 2.4 billion.

Shoe Buying Trends ● From 1992 to 2017 shoe store sales have steadily increased In the U.S.

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Out of a $180 billion global market, Americans contribute over 50% to shoe producers, retailers, and distributors every year. (brandongaille.com)

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In recent years, men have maintained the majority in the global footwear market share.

Grand View Research predicts that this trend will remain the same in the future.

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Grand View Research also predicts that as non-athletic shoe consumption rises, athletic shoe consumption will continue to rise at the same ratio.

Company Characteristics

COMPANY

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Overview Mission Statement Brand Equity Source of Power Brand Personality Value Proposition Canvas

Company Overview The History of Vans: -Brothers Paul Van Doren and Jim Van Doren along with partners Gordon Lee and Serge Delia open their business. The first store was opened at 704 E. Broadway in Anaheim, Calif. on March 16.

-The Van Company was unique because it manufactured shoes at the store then sold them to customers directly.

-The Vans “off the wall” logo made its debut in 1976.

Mission Statement ​https://sites.vans.com/careers/corp/usa/our-brand/ Mission Statement: “To enable creative expression—and inspire youth culture —by celebrating and encouraging the Off the Wall attitude that comes from expressing your true self”

Values We are DETERMINED — “we have the Van Doren spirit. We’re scrappy and resourceful. We use ingenuity to tackle every challenge head on and find a path forward, even if it’s not a straight line.”

-Vans has a creative approach or “Van Doren spirit”. Resourcefulness and innovation allows them to handle any issues or challenges efficiently.

We are CONNECTED — “culturally, digitally, socially. We build lasting and meaningful relationships with our consumers, customers, partners and family, wherever they might be.”

-Vans wants to build long lasting relationships with their customers. Events, Social Media and In-store interactions bring everyone together regardless of where they are.

Values Cont.

We are INCLUSIVE — “We invite unique perspectives and value different experiences.

We want to hear each other’s point of view.”

-New ideas are always welcome. Vans wants everyone to express themselves and share their values and perspectives. Vans provides a platform for people to do so.

We are vibrant and EXPRESSIVE in how we speak, interact and get our jobs done.

-As a team it's crucial for creative expression to be a part of the workflow. Interactions with each other remain vibrant and positive so that artistry and vision is not lost.

We have FUN “working at Vans because we work hard and play hard in our pursuit of enabling creative expression.”

-Although Vans is a large company that handles business, keeping things fun enables original and creative thinking.

Mission Statement: Eco friendly Social and environmental responsibility effort: Green Sole Operations To minimize their environmental footprint, Vans moved to Costa Mesa, California.

-Eco friendly features include Solar panels that will prevent 440 metric tons of CO2 emissions -New fixtures and equipment that make the new headquarters 40% more water efficient -Landscaping that requires less water Wood used in construction that is Stewardship certified

Brand Equity Brand Knowledge Brand Awareness: Sponsored Skateboarders promote best skate shoe Brand Image: Celebrities, artist and athletes -Attributes: -Vans is known for its classic skate shoe the Old Skool, this is a simple shoe, in many colors, made for skateboarding - Budget friendly simple design, skate style shoes -Benefits: -This image attracts skateboarders through the sponsoring of skateboarders and sets Vans apart from other shoe companies -Sponsoring music events attract those who listen to rock music and creates a brand image around that Brand Equity “OFF THE WALL�

Vans Warped Tour: In 1995 Vans sponsored the Warped Tour for the first time.

This brought Vans into the Punk scene and synonymous with rock and roll Vans Triple Crown: In 1996 Vans sponsored the Triple Crown of Skateboarding event and by 1997, they bought the Triple Crown Series.

This not only kept Vans in their already established brand of skateboarding but brought them into BMX, Surfing, Snowboarding, freestyle motocross, supercross, and wakeboarding.

Source of Power

Credibility: Many celebrities are seen wearing Vans consistently. Not only are they durable, but they’re popular for their array of designs. Celebrities- Justin Bieber, Gwen Stefani, Kristen Stewart.

Attractiveness: Vans partners with athletes, artists and musicians to “celebrate creativity through personal style”.

Creative artists included- Matt McCormick, Tyson Peterson, Sik-K Power: Vans gives the power to the artist and those with a message to share.

Brand Personality Vans uses events to shape their brand personality Vans Warped Tour is a Punk Rock music festival with Vans as the title sponsor Warped Tour began in 1995 with Vans being one of the main sponsors. If there is any way to grab the attention of the “Youth Culture” it's through music and festivals.

In the early 2000s the punk rock scene was huge with teens/adults. Many of the band members who performed at the time wore Vans. Vans took notice and sponsored the event. It has been the longest running music festival as well as the largest travelling in the United States.

The sponsorship in this festival attracts consumers of the same way of life and those who attend the festival to the Vans Brand.

Source: vanswarpedtour.com Brand Personality: Vans Warped Tour Image: Fans at Vans Warped Tour 25th Anniversary Image source: vanswarpedtour.com Continued...

-Took advantage of subcultures and rising trends -1970’s specialized in shoes for Bicycle Motocross (BMX) and Skateboarding.

-Featured their product in a popular film

-1982; Fast Times at Ridgemont High -Let customers customize and have a say in the design of the shoes -They were selective with who they collaborated with -The company used event marketing to their advantage.

-Vans Warped Tour Social Media Strategy Vans Social Media Marketing Strategies *Click in every image

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Why should Van’s have a social media presence? ● Increase consumer awareness brand’s ● Drive traffic to the Van’s website ● Generate new consumers ● Grow revenue ● Boost brand engagement with the consumers ● Build a social media community around the Van’s company ● Provide customer service via social media ● Increase mentions of the brand name in the press ● Have availability to feedback on the brand

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Van’s Target Audience is mostly the younger generation who skates or does BMX. Therefore it makes sense that they would be present on the same social media platforms as their consumers.

Currently Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube are all popular social media platforms among the younger generations. Honestly

surprised they have a facebook account. However, Facebook is a good tool for event planning (Van’s Tours).

Examples of how Van’s uses Social Media

Value Proposition Canvas

CUSTOMERS Target Audience Customer Trends Men vs. Women FCB Planning Model Information Search Presence

TARGET AUDIENCE Back in 1970 when the company Vans was created and named Van Doren Rubber Company, they began to market their shoes to specifically skateboarders and fashionable youth in California. With time, Vans has opened their target audience not only to skateboarders but to other extreme sports, like BMX, surf and snowboarding.

Customer Trends Men vs. Women https://www.essaysauce.com/marketing-essays/vans-footwear-manufacturer-marketinganalysis/

Popularity among teens and young adults

FCB Planning Model Informative: People who usually buy this kind of product are the ones who learn and know that this is used for a specific purpose, like snowboarding shoes or surf shoes.

Affective: When buying this product, tennagers usually buy them and then learn that this shoes are for skateboards, depending on each person's activity this will be or not useful.

Habitual: Buying before knowing what the product is. Specifically for an organization with Van Gogh Museum MoMa Satisfaction: Popular shoes, buying them just to have a social status and feel better about having shoes everyone has.

INFORMATION SEARCH PRESENCE MARKET SOURCES Vans spent approximately around $100 million on advertising in digital, print, and national TV in the last year. They invest in premium ad units and advertised on over 250 different Media Properties.

PUBLIC SOURCES More than 560,000 answers in Google. One of the first results when you look for surf, skateboarding or snowshoes . 17.7 million followers on instagram and more than 40 mill results of Off the Wall Vans campaign.

PERSONAL SOURCES Vans is a brand owned by VF Corporation, they received some information about other brands owned by the same company. As well as, distributing their products through other franchises.

EXPERIENCE Vans is a company that almost sells shoes in every country of the world. The experience goes from buying the shoes, using the Vans experience app, or going to “House of Vans� event.

Competitors Product Portfolio Market Share by Sales Shoe Recognition Disruptions in Industry SWOT Analysis Product Price

Product Portfolio - Analysis

QUESTION MARKS: Vans usually makes a lot of partnership and collaboration with other companies that expand their audience. But despite the fact that they might increase their experiences for their customers because of these ideas, these are the

shoes that are harder to sell. Only a few of the collaborations made by Vans have been sold, because of the design and the price of the shoe.

STARS: The famous Vans shoes are the best seller in the Vans company. Usually, because of their design and their comfortness to the consumer. Since, Vans is well known for their shoes for their skateboards these are the shoes that they buy to perform any activity.

Usually, never out of stock and they come in different styles and with the option of customize.

DOGS: Vans recently launched their new athletic shoes, this was a huge step in the company since their normal target audience and market is different from the new arrivals. There are already many shoes in the industry that have the same goal as these shoes, and it’s hard to make any profit for Vans despite the good quality is not one of their main best sellers and it will take time until these shoes are recognized in the industry.

CASH COWS: These shoes are Van's new arrival. They caused a lot of controversy in the market since there are not a lot of products that go directly to the sport surf. The value for the shoes are high and it can only be used in cold temperatures. Despite the usefulness of the product it has a low market share and it has been hard for Vans to make any profit directly with these shoes.

Market Share by Sales ● As of 2019, Paul Van Doren, claimed that Vans had a market share of five percent in the thirty nine billion dollar U.S. footwear market, and one percent of the U.S apparel market. ● In 2019 Vans made up twenty- five percent of VF’s annual sales.

Shoe Recognition Vans shoes are easily recognizable from their rugged look, leather panels and sticky soles.

“What started as a random doodle by Paul Van Doren was originally referred to as the jazz stripe” Movie appearances made the shoe even more recognizable. “Sean Penn in the film Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

Disruptions in Industry Vans are extremely popular to skateboarders and surfers, but their slip on shoes and sneakers have been steadily declining (Competition with Nike, Adidas etc.). This hurt their owners (VF Corporation) stock as it has dropped 10% in late 2019. The company also faced issues in Asia due to their Custom Culture Competition. A design for the competition included “flower on Hong Kong's flag, a yellow umbrella that has become synonymous with the protests and cartoon images of protesters wearing gas masks.”

The design was withdrawn from the competition “to uphold the purpose of Custom Culture.” ("As a brand that is open to everyone, we have never taken a political position and therefore review designs to ensure they are in line with our company's long-held values of respect and tolerance, as well as with our clearly communicated guidelines for this competition”) This decision disrupted their sales after Hong Kong Protest supporters started the hashtag #boycottvans.

SWOT Analysis S (Strengths) High quality show for performance and casual wear.

Strong brand reputation (first show in mind when skating or surfing comes up).

Inexpensive and promotes creativity for all age groups.

Variety in styles and has strong partnerships W (Weakness) Focus on skating and surfing has made it difficult to penetrate emerging markets.

O (Opportunity) Could penetrate new markets (Extreme sports in Asia).

T (Threats) Fake Products Competition among brands Nike, Adidas, Converse etc.

Competitors In 2020 Vans Top 5 Competitors are: 1. Nike

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2. Converse

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3. Puma

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4. Adidas

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New Balance

Market Share by Sales: ● As of 2019, Paul Van Doren, claimed that Vans had a market share of five percent in the thirty nine billion dollar U.S. footwear market, and one percent of the U.S apparel market. ● In 2019 Vans made up twenty- five percent of VF’s annual sales. https://themarketbeyond.com/blog/fashion-sneakers-market-share/ https://www.thefashionlaw.com/what-is-driving-vans-multi-billion-dollar-demand/

Channel Partners Suppliers Distributors Relationships

Regional Initiatives Channel Analysis Pricing Analysis Business Model Canvas

Suppliers ● Cotton, Delhi, India ● Packaging, Phnom Penh, Cambodia ● Textile Mills, Xiamen, Fujian, China ● Rubber Farms, Hanzhong, Shaanxi, China ● Manufactory, Tongcheng, Xianning, Hubei, China ● Vans “Off the Wall” shoes belong to the program of Green Sole Products​, which go towards the use of environmentally conscious materials, such as recycled materials, Better Cotton or Leather Working Group leather. In 2014, 18 percent of Vans® ​ footwear products met the brand’s Green Sole criteria.

Distributors VF Corporation: VF is a large company that owns many fashion brands.

Vans first started having different manufacturing factories across the country until the late 90s, which they moved to China and Vietnam. Vans Corporate Headquarters are located in Cypress, CA. Many of the departments work with VF Corporation and their co-workers at the Distribution Center in Santa Fe Springs, CA. After the shoe is made, it’s shipped over to the Distribution Center, they ship overseas with planes and when it gets to the U.S. Is distributed around the country in trains. Then it’s distributed around the country in different retail stores and their stores.

Relationships Top Collaborations: WTAPS x Vans Crossbones Vans x Supreme x Playboy

Vans x Opening Ceremony Vans x Van Gogh Museum Vans x The North Face Vans x Golf Wang

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WTAPS x Vans Crossbones This collection was originally dropped in 2007.

Vans and WTAPS SS16 collab, was inspired to mark 50 years for the skate company and 20 years for Japanese military wear.

Vans x Supreme x Playboy Supreme and Vans first collaborated in 1996.

The three part collab happened in 2014.

Playboy bunny was super popular at the time so Van’s decided to hop on the trend too by releasing these shoes along with matching tracksuits.

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Vans x Opening Ceremony Collaboration came out in 2017.

OC and vans dropped the glittery colorway which gave the classic skate shoe a more fashionable feel.

Vans x Van Gogh Museum The Vans x Van Gogh collab was dropped in the summer of 2018.

The Van Gogh collab is based on the artist’s most famous paintings and colorways.

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Vans x The North Face The Vans x North Face collabs main purpose was to design a stylish yet durable.

Vans and The North Face designed waterproof vans.

Vans x Golf Wang Vans collab with Golf Wang dropped in 2015 Tyler The Creator puts his own touch on vans with some dreamy colorways.

Regional Initiatives Joint Venture in Amsterdam: In 2017, Vans’ and Patta previously collaborated with their Old Skool silhouette, creating their “Mean Eyed Cat” collection. This collection offers a new version of the “Sk8-Hi,” available in Langoustine/Black” or “Hydro/Black”.

Acquisition of ‘Supreme’: VF Corp (distributor of Vans) and Supreme have routinely collaborated on products for VF’s North Face, Timberland and Vans apparel lines .

Both companies’ leaders say the acquisition allows Supreme to leverage VF’S expertise and resources, including its global supply chain, to maximize growth.

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Vans x MoMA: In late September 2020 Vans X MoMA launched a two-part series, special edition shoes and clothing inspired by great modern artists and released them to the public. These artists include: Salvador Dali, Vasily Kandinsky, Faith Ringgold, etc.

This collection also includes the Vans classic checkerboard in order to align with MoMA’s brand identity.

Channel Analysis ● Time:​ Consumers can quickly customize their own shoes using the Van’s website to create a more personal pair of sneakers. ● Place: ​Van’s can be found in stores like Zappos, Journeys, and ASOS. ● Form: ​The shoe is great for its intended purpose in the skate/BMX world. ● Ownership: ​VF Corporation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5TJ_nPH7uM

Pricing Analysis Vans has positioned itself among young people like skaters and people who do other sports like snowboarding, BMX, etc… Vans Main Strategy is to price the products with a reasonable higher price than the real cost. Vans often come up with limited edition shoes which are priced much higher than the normal price.

The real cost of manufacturing a Vans shoe is around $15.00.

Freight Ocean: $.50 per pair. Taking a 40-foot shipping container, a semi-truck trailer can carry approximately 5000 pairs of shoes. On that note, 5000 by $.50 equals to exactly $2500.00. That’s the cost of getting a shipping container from China to California.

Free On Board: 8.5%: $1.32 Insurance and customs: $.32 Total: $17.10 Business Model Canvas Key Partners Brand Ambassadors

● Vans Sport team (Surf, Snowboarding, BMX, and Skate) Key Activities ● Media Relationships ● Personalized/ Custom Shoes ● Brand Promotion Key Resources ● Distribution System ● VF Corporation Value Proposition ● Life Style ● Brand Status ● Large Variety ● High Quality Customers Relationship ● Social Networking ● Van Wrapped Tours ● Communities Channels ● Van’s Tours ● Website and Social Media (Instagram, facebook,twitter, and youtube) Customer Segments ● Younger generation ● More men than women Cost Structure ● Cost to make shoe ($15) ● Shipments from China to USA (.50 per pair) ● “The US government requires an import duty of 8.5% of the F.O.B. price.” ● Total: $17.10 Revenue Streams ● In 2019, the company expected revenue was in the range of $13.45 billion to $13.55 billion, reflecting growth of approximately 9 percent to 10 percent.

Adjusted earnings per share is expected to be in the range of $3.48 to $3.53 for fiscal 2019, reflecting growth between 11 percent and 13 percent. ● Expected $4 billion in 2020 and tracking well ahead of its plan to reach $5 billion by 2023. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/04/vans-shoes-maker-vfs-quarterly-revenue-tops-estima tes.html

Consumer Appropriate Ads Example of Van’s Ads https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pNbLLrOVBY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0gYppqbljE&list=PLEfn8qMSGQa8NYExeYVzwms 8IQCfdq6xf&index=2

Van’s has their own skate team which they use for promotion purposes. https://vansskate.tumblr.com/team Tik Tok: Challenges

Recommendations Internal ● Develop new manufacturing processes without hurting creativity. ● Continue to build relationships with other brands/artist. ● Strategize to avoid controversy without sacrificing creativity or expression​.

External ● Increase manufacturing in areas other than South Korea and Mexico ● Prove durability through advertisements

Strategic Recommendations INVESTING IN MORE SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS ● CONSUMER: Even though Vans is part of the VF Corporation and year by year they try to reduce their ecological footprint. They are not using eco friendly products and that can influence their consumers not to buy products from the brand. ● PROFIT: Finding alternative materials for the brand can make them a leader with a sustainable company. Not only, selling good quality shoes but selling affordable and eco friendly shoes will take them on top of the industry. ● RELATIONSHIP: Since Collaborations are really important in Vans, a collaboration with an eco friendly footwear company as TOMS and Madewell.

Will increase their profit and market share.

APPROACH THEIR CUSTOMER ● ●

Several surveys like “Taking Stock With Teens”have found that Vans is so successful thanks to their retro popularity.

SOCIAL MEDIA: Since the pandemic COVID-19 started back in March, Vans has shut down every event that they usually do to engage with their customers, like concerts, musicals, House of Vans, etc. It’s important to know how to engage with their customers through social media, since social gatherings are not recommended. ○ Examples: Music Competitions, Documentary, Virtual Concerts

Bibliography: ● https://www.vans.com/history.html#1977 ● http://portfolios.scad.edu/gallery/45641889/Vans-Timeline ● https://mission-statement.com/vans/#:~:text=Vans%20mission%20statement%20 is%20%E2%80%9Cto,the%20best%20in%20the%20youths.

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