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The Goal.
To sell 1 million pairs of a new range of $50 basketball shoes in 2013 and increase the coolness of H&M in the eyes of the fast fashion crowd.
Problem No. 1
The global basketball shoe market has been static for three years and is dominated by huge and authentic sporting brands.
Why do you think it’s realistic for a company with no sporting heritage to achieve first year sales of $50 million and how does a $50 shoe fit with your CSR stance?
Problem No. 2
Genuine coolness stems from passion not product, and is bestowed as a result of behaviours and beliefs rather than something you tack on to your offer.
What makes you think you’re not already cool and, if you’re not, can you really remedy that by selling cheap basketball shoes (a product that that hasn’t been cool since the 90s) especially when you’ll be trying to out-cool purpose-led initiatives like
Nike+ and Clothes for Smiles?
Problem No. 3
You believe that this can be achieved by targeting “influencers” at the centre of social networks but social networks are fluid rather than centred and in mass markets with many customer choices, that network theory shows local copying rather than macro influence to be the true engine of spreadability in mass markets.
What is the point of identifying so-called social lubricants when their “influence” is noisily superficial but ultimately ineffective and what impact will this new thrust have on existing customer
attitudes?
Standard Solution
The standard solution would be to allocate $3 million to tactics that correspond to H&M core attributes of streetwalkcool
Tactics like street basketball sponsorship, private social networks featuring customisation competitions, and tie-ins with gaming sites and self-quantification. This might even be seeded by engaging in some publicised shoefiti (hanging of shoes from from overhead wires).
Given that they are based on false assumptions and could be easily imitated by competitors with deep pockets, is this truly different and likely to achieve coolness or sales? And $50 million isn’t much of an increase in H&M turnover
Forget cool, be Interesting
Two Options
I) Create new interest or
2) Identify and amplify something that already makes you interesting.
Given the failure rate of new ideas, the latter route is preferable and H&M has two such areas that can be explored.
Designer Diffusion Destination
Distinguish H&M from other fast fashion outlets by
expanding your very popular and distinctive tie-ins with designers.
Make it regular not a special event - perhaps utilising up and coming designers as well as celebrity names.
Meet people’s desire for high fashion style at fast fashion prices and offer designers new younger fans.
Become the Body Shop of fast fashion.
Initiatives like H&M Conscious are popular and gel with an increasing unease at the ecological and ethical impact of fast fashion.
Make this your ultimate point of difference and the heart of your social, economic, and product missions. Fast fashion with feeling.
Two ideas that offer a deeper emotional engagement than
that offered by a bewildering brand extension that’s really just a new product line.
Two ideas that play to your strengths rather than those of sports industry competitors.
Two ideas that are way cooler than cheap high-tops.
