Time for a change

Stretching from its Chattanooga HQ to Lexington KY and on to Cincinnati OH, the Birkenstock Place chain of retail footwear stores had for years carried primarily Birkenstocks. An established message of health and product quality were supported by brand repositioning efforts by the German footwear giant, including style input from superstar designer Yves Béhar and supermodel Heidi Klum.

But distribution difficulties limited the growth potential of the local shops, especially given their desire to expand into lifestyle shoe offerings from great brands like Merrell, Keen and Dansko.

Ich bin ein Chattanoogan

While developing the name, brand and market positioning we worked with brand articulation writer Caleb Ludwick, starting with national trends but then digging into local markets. After all the stores were speaking to local audiences, so we focused at this level - creating archetypes of customers (and potential customers), telling the stories of each and what tips them from awareness into purchasing activity.

We found that even with Birkenstock's new fashion focus, there was still local perception that each pair came with a free membership to Armpit-hair Anonymous and Ukuleles-R-Us. In the local market, customers want shoes that look good, are good for your feet and good for your life. So we began by foregrounding design, while retaining strong focus on health and clever thinking.

The name we recommended was Zümfoot, a made-up word that communicates:

- Good for your feet, good for your life;
- Style that is not excessively precious;
- Comfort, honesty and health.

We also developed a retail concept around a brand culture built for growth, including unusual store design, unique product offerings, brand implementation guidelines for everything from answering the telephone to music played in the store, and customer service tips that communicate the right expectations with every customer touch.

So in the summer of 2006, Zümfoot set out to change lifestyle footwear by bringing fashion and comfort in a sensible, simple shoe. Sunny, organic, stylish, holistically healthy shoes for a walkable world.

Visual and verbal unite to support brand(s)

Advertising and point-of-purchase signage evolved to give a unified voice to Zümfoot's brand personality, while at the same time to showcase the many individual shoe brands offered.

Photography and messaging varied from vendor to vendor, so a unifying treatment was developed around photography. Abstracted "lomo" photographs of natural and floral elements were used as background and placed within an outline of a specific shoe, from a specific vendor. A photo of the same shoe was featured below along with product and store information, creating a uniform feel for the piece as a whole.

Headlines, however, were uniquely Zümfoot, playing with ideas of European travel and perspective, with intentional "mash-up" of meanings to create a message that was new, rich and on-brand. Wanderlust is reimagined, by Zümfoot, as a more meaningful "Wanderlove." The perfect shoe brings "Shoephoria." Travel that is as much about the road as the destination: "Bonjourney."

Store interiors were designed to reflect Zümfoot's core commitment to offer "sunny, organic, stylish, holistically healthy shoes for a walkable world." Bright, bold colors, unfinished woods, earthy tones, turf carpeting and sky imagery preside over the clean organization of the products. A fun touch: the clock made of shoes that decorates the main wall behind the checkout counter.

Second generation retail designs were developed to mature the Zümfoot brand, through simpler, more monochromatic features that would complement the styles in the graphic treatments.

Packaging was designed to tell the story of the Zümfoot brand, with appropriate styles for private label men's and women's shoes.

Concepts were also developed for a web site that functioned first as a brand builder, second as a store locator, and third - but just as importantly - as an online retail shop.

Return on branding investment

The strength of the brand concept and design was demonstrated when a shoe manufacturer purchased licensing rights for more than four times the amount of money that the owners invested in the original creation of the brand (2006).

For larger and more images of the retail spaces and collateral created, see the Widgets & Stone photostream.

Design Director: Paul Rustand; Designers: Brad Dicharry, Joseph Shipp, Mark Cooley; Writer/Strategist: Caleb Ludwick; Photographer: Meryl McKean Dicharry.