942 3 content case study lacoste 10case 0211

7/27/2019 942 3 Content Case Study Lacoste 10Case 0211

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Case Study : Lacoste goes live! The challenge ofsetting up a successful e-commerce siteBy Michaela Merk Merk Vision & Partners

SITUATION BEFORE SETTING UP THE E-COMMERCE SITE

Objectives for going online

v Set up the first European e-commerce site for Lacoste that is better than the US e-commerce site,especially with regards to the brand image:The site should be classy, conform with the Lacoste image, its values and product universes.

v Objective: becoming the biggest boutique worldwide in terms of SKUs provided and sold. Today, thereis no Lacoste boutique that offers all available items. The boutique should be 3 times bigger than thebiggest offline store.

v The site should also give a special focus to all the lines that are commercially weak or unknown sodue to lack of space in the retail outlets, such as the young line RED, children wear, shoes andaccessories.

v Pricing policy : no discount, prices according to retail, collection rotation in line with the boutiques.v There is a big challenge of bringing together the distinct license units of Devanlay (selling fashion),

Pentland (selling shoes), Lacoste as a brand holder and other smaller licenses for perfume (P&G),Movado (watches), Zucchi (home).The overall sales objective for the site:8M for 2010 / 201190M for 2014

The challenges for the Lacoste Brand before going life!

The imagev Every second client is over 50 years old.v The image of the brand in many countries is not related to a fashionable, young must-have brand but

rather a sleeping brand consumed by the elderly generation.v The quality however is excellent, long lasting, classical, you cant make un error buying Lacoste.v Some countries such as Germany associate Lacoste with arrogance, distance, snobisme, macho style,

not very modern.v For many, the brand got stuck in its 80ies and offers only polo shirts.

The customerv There is a very unbalanced ratio between sales for men and women: 80% of the products are

purchased by men.v Unbalanced are also the sales per product category: 70% of the turnover is represented by Poloshirts

(mostly sportswear) which clearly shows, that Lacoste is for many people a brand selling exclusivelyPolo shirts.

The collection / The offer


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v Another big challenge for Lacoste is the lack of clear product segmentations. Whereas its competitorssuch as Ralph Lauren or Hugo Boss managed to differentiate their offer by straightforward product linearchitecture, Lacoste is still considered as a sportswear brand.

v However, there is much more than just sportswear. Yet, this has never been communicated efficientlyto the potential Lacoste client => missed sales opportunities

Lack of understanding of segmentation by customers- I did not know there were different lines (Paris)- I do not perceive any sort of collection segmentation in three lines (France)- Difference between sportswear and sport is hard to identify (France)- As soon as I think of Lacoste I think of the polo shirt (UK)- Lacoste feels like a men only brand (UK)

A NEW START!

v Jos Louis Duran, the new CEO of Devanlay, the biggest licensee of Lacoste, has set the following gofor the coming years:

To become younger without losing the older generation. To differentiate the offer much clearer between the various product universes To get a new dynamism through the Lacoste! Line for a young urban target group. To show the client that Lacoste offers a huge choice of products that are not only Polo shirts.

v The new e-commerce platform is considered a very important tool in order to help the brand achievesuccessfully the ambitious goals fixed by top management for the coming years.

The BRAND LACOSTE

The brand name

1. Authenticity :Lightness , Natural, Durability, nobles fabrics, strictness, quality2. Elegance :Casual chic, wellness, style, simplicity, fair-play, noble fabrics3. Optimism :Colorful, energy, happiness, wellness, lightness4. Audacity : Movement, joie de vivre, inventiveness, strictness, tenacity

The brand name

Lacoste was created in 1926 by the French tennis player Ren Lacoste. He was the one who first introducedsportswear on the tenniscort, invented the 1 st ball machine and the iron racket.

The crocodile symbol

The crocodile is the symbol of the brand which used to be the nickname of Ren Lacoste. He obtainethis name following a bet with the captain of the French Davis cup team who had promised Ren tooffer him a suitcase made of crocodile leather in case of winning an important match during the DavisCup.


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The American public maintained this name crocodile standing for tenacity, a strong willingness tofight. Rens friend Robert George finally designed a crocodile that was embroidered on the blazerRen used to wear during matches.

The brand evolution

Today, Lacoste SA is the trademark owner and provides his brand rights to licence partners who are

specializing in various product sectors.Devanlay is the biggest of all license partners and has 50% ownership in Lacoste SA. Therefore the tiesbetween both companies are particularly close. Devanlay is producing and designing all clothes andaccessories and is the backbone of Lacoste.Its geographic scope was the following: USA / France / Italy / Japan / Germany / Corea - UK, Argentina, CCanada, Brasil, Switzerland, Portugal, Austrian, Chily,Spain is a very big market for Devanlay, but has a separate license partner locally.

The Segmentation

SPORTSWEAR:Sport with style, outspoken but not loud, Innovative, ContemporaryLACOSTE L!VE:to rejuvenate the Lacoste brand by targeting a new, younger consumer base that will be ableto grow with the brand and transition over time to other segmentsLACOSTE SPORT:to focus on narrow styling-sport capsule for consumers who play tennis or golf and toreinforce our heritage without diluting the brand into mass sport channelsLACOSTE LE CLUB:Create more aspiration for the core sportswear segment by showing consumers a moreupscale offering

THE E-COMMERCE PROJECT OR THE CROCODILE GOES ONLINE

1 - Define your e-commerce strategyWhat is the brand image I want to convey?What is the brand message I want to say?Who is the client I want to touch?What is the offer I want to provide?How should the offer be organized?In which countries do I want to sell?

Strategic options

Global brand strategy: All product categories of the brand are sold online (eg Lacoste, Hugo Boss) Multi brand strategy: All brands of one company are sold online(..) Mono brand strategy: Every brand of a company has its own e-commerce site(..)

2 - Challenges

v Bring various logistics and IT systems of the different licences together (Devanlay, pentland).


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v Gather and provide all market and product data to the e-commerce provider as complete as possible. >The more information can be provided the better the shop can work and the easier the client can finhis products.

v A lot of information is available, but not centralized. Everyone has bits and pieces.v Rise understanding within the team for additional work related to the e-commerce project. Change in

mindset (strong B to C approach)v Many core elements of the brand are not yet defined:v Should we continue using Universe as the overall name for Universes Club, Sports, Sportswear, Red?

Or should we call it style, collection, discovery?How to call the young collection? Should we remain with RED? Or call it Life! Or Lacoste!How should we name and describe the different fits of our Polos? How many fits are there at all? Hto distinguish the different fits in shape?How can we describe a product in customer terms? So far we only used technical descriptions in ourlogistics tool.

Are the right products attached to the right product families?=> The e-commerce project will force the team to decide upon all their open questions related to theirproduct strategies. All these question helped to better define the brand and had to be solved until the e-

commerce launch.

Top experts come together who is right, who is better, whom do we believe? The web-agency, thecommerce provider, BGC?

Challenge : various cultures come together: the French culture through Lacoste and Devanlay, theGerman culture through Netrada, the e-commerce provider, the UK through Pentland.

The e-commerce challenge

v Clarify the strategy of your brand / company / products

v

Complexity of multiple actors / expertsv Change Management required: From B to B > B to C Additional workload New processes

v Requirement of an e-commerce team (new skills)v Respect the planning of each workstreamv Initial implementation cost

3 - Set up your organization

Who is involved in the project?- During Set-up: Internally / externally- After Go Live: Internally / externally Internal E-commerce project manager + Team? E-commerce Provider for Logistics, Call Center, Masterdata, Financial Services? E-commerce consultants? Web-Design Agency? Photo-Studio? Copy writer?


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4.-Define your retroplanning

The Lacoste Planning

3-step launch of the e-commerce site: June 2010 : France with restricted assortment of 700 references x color (SS2010).

August 2010 : France, Germany, UK with 1300 references x color (A/W 2010) vs usual offer in aboutique of 1000 references x color. The total available offer however represents 4850 units per color.

2011 /2012 : Opening of 12 other markets among them Asia.

Within 6 months achieve 7 work streams and Go-Live!!!!

5 - Set up the teamThe partners

In January 2010 the e-commerce project team was set up fromLacoste, Devanlay and Pentland people were

dedicated to the E-commerce project in order to guarantee the brand image, values, content.They had the following tasks:Central decision maker, Webdesign coordination, Master data delivery, assortment delivery, picturevalidation, marketing and communication input, overall strategy, further development.Netrada (name expertise) was selected as the e-commerce expert and platform to provide the followingservices: Overall project management, expertise contributor, IT development (Frontend-Backend) andoperations, fulfillment set up, content management, call center services, financial services, Photo set up /interface and integration, change managementBoston consulting group was chosen as a strategic partner to set up the project planning and assure thedecision making process, consultancy for overall processes and e-com strategy.Merk Vision & Partners, overall project and marketing coordinationNurun , web design agency

6.-The web design process

Set up an ergonomic, efficient online site that respects the brand image and the luxurious aspect.

1. Select the right Web agency (experienced, fit with brand, time pressure)2. Define the Navigation Path (the logic of the site)3. Define the Navigation System(left side or horizontal)4. Design your homepage (first page when the site opens)5. Set up the Category Overview Page (offer within one product category)

Examples for Zooning The Category Overview Page The search filters

Their role: Narrow down your search for a specific product Chose more filters for categories with many items

Type of filters: Standard Filters: size and Color Further filters reflect the customers shopping behavior (what criteria do I search for?)


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The color filter Assortment

Global goal is to have an assortment in the e-boutique that is 2-4 times bigger than in any other existing boutique. Thisone of the big advantages of selling online: there are no limits in space ! So top management can freely decide incontrast to traditional retail, how many products and what kind of product categories to sell and to put forward.The following strategy was opted for the e-commerce launch:

Online should be sold as many product categories as possible, bringing together the different licensepartners of Lacoste in one common store. Step by step, more license partners should join.

For the launch, the start should be done with Devanlay selling clothes for women, men and children,with Pentland providing shoes and with Procter & Gamble selling the Lacoste fragrances.

Over time should be added product categories such as accessories, watches, home, perfumsPut forward the categories that are usually less exposed in traditional retail stores due to lack of space:

In the beginning the assortment should be: Around 700 references x color Polos (almost the whole range of 522 items x color) Red (all 58 items) Sports (all 123 items related to the Roland Garros, Andy Roddick and Golf) Shoes: complete the assortment of Red and Sports

6. Design the Product Detail Page(all you need to know about your product)The product detail pageThe size guide

7. Checkout Process

Data to deliver for each workstream1. Zoning of each page type = where you can do what? Show with blanc field where the images and buttons for specfunctions will be.2. Creative presentation of the defined Zones3. Wireframes = Zones with numbers that explain the functioning of each zone or filter4. Delivery of Psds for final design

Group Case LacosteForm a group of 4 - 5 students

Context :The board of direction of Lacoste organizes a meeting with the marketing team to prepare the launch of thee-commerce Lacoste website.Define by group the most appropriate online strategy for Lacoste considering the brand image and Lacostes

core values.

942 3 content case study lacoste 10case 0211

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