How Crocs Managed to Gain Its Marketing ROI? | Popular Strategies Adopted by Crocs

Crocs is a footwear brand, which had always impressed its customers with its unique edges. It is an American footwear company founded by George Boedecker, Lyndon Hanson, and Scott Seamans. Crocs are mainly focused on manufacturing foam-clogged shoes that fit one's feet so well. The creative department of Crocs is known to spotlight the customer’s comfort. They focus on versatility, hard-wearing sole, recent fashion trends, and long-lasting material, and then come up with a mind-blowing product. The subject of uniqueness is highlighted in every product launch.

During the pandemic, when most companies were facing losses, Crocs managed to score a positive change in its revenue. Its revenue for the year 2020 was recorded to be $1.4 billion which was far more than its competitors in the market. Since then, Crocs has only walked towards the path of growth. In this article, we will go through how Crocs managed to increase its marketing ROI and rise above its competitors.

How Crocs Gained Its Marketing ROI?

• Increased Investment in Digital Channels
• Free Pair for Healthcare Campaign
• Huge Celebrity Following

Other Strategies by Crocs
Crocs' Performance

How Crocs Gained Its Marketing ROI?

Crocs were reaching new heights through its retail markets until the pandemic turned the world upside down. Every one of us experienced sudden mobility from offline mode to online in the past few years. Ecommerce was leading the sales and the local shops and markets faced drastic falls. Well, of course, a brand like Crocs could not sit back for the pandemic to filter away. Therefore, the company introduced its digital channels.

Let’s have a glimpse of how this brand successfully brought back an increased marketing ROI in such a crisis. The employees of the brand communicated through video conferences during their working time and discovered new products together. Crocs invested a great amount in its digital channels. It came up with ideas to increase its target audience to attract more customers. The following are the marketing strategies that helped Crocs increase its marketing ROI:

Increased Investment in Digital Channels

During the pandemic, Crocs understood the need to make a shift from offline to online channels. So, looking at the importance of the online world, Crocs increased its investments in digital marketing channels and Microsoft advertising in order to better target the customers.

"Paid search is one of our most important digital advertising channels. Customer acquisition is, like for many brands, a huge part of our current and go-forward strategy and paid search allows us to target and grow our customer acquisition efforts, more than any other channel. We leverage paid search to find more consumers, and that has been one of our highest-performing channels from an ROI (returns on investment) standpoint. Paid search is one of our highest-performing channels globally." said Adam Michaels, Chief Digital Officer at Crocs.

He further added, “The return we saw through Microsoft Advertising accelerated during this time. When we saw the increase in return, it really gave our team the confidence to invest more budget. And we were seeing that return in a relatively short amount of time, which not only helps us with an immediate benefit in the quarter but also, we believe is bringing consumers into the brand.”

Crocs' digital strategy contributed to the revenue of $361.7 million in the third quarter of 2020 with digital sales up 35.5%.

Free Pair for Healthcare Campaign

Well, digital marketing is not the only effort they put to get such success. Crocs tried to bring a change in its marketing strategies and look at their increased marketing ROI now! Just when the pandemic struck hard like thunder, Crocs took the initiative to help the needy ones. During the pandemic, the brand donated nearly 860,000 pairs of Crocs to healthcare workers in the USA and also in Europe and Canada. It was a token of their efforts to save human lives. Health workers were the living God during the pandemic period and such a tribute from Crocs encouraged worldly humanity.

Have you ever thought about the question- Why did Crocs take such an initiative? Well, health workers supported the company as a part of its consumer base for years. Therefore, when the world was drowning because of helplessness, the health workers came and stood on the front line.

Crocs needed to communicate with more customers to increase their sales and trust me, nothing can be a better idea than impressing humankind with genuine campaigns and activities.

Huge Celebrity Following

People have a different attachment to the rising young celebrities and this brand hits this spot. Hiring the most trending celebrities as the brand ambassador of a footwear brand is a part of a marketing strategy. Furthermore, it automatically attracts more customers. Just think that you are a fan of certain somebody and then you see them advertising a product, wouldn’t you approach that thing in your nearest supermarkets? The most famous brand ambassadors of Crocs to date are Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Zooey Deschanel, Suzu Hirose, and more. They are the perfect definition of “the best”. Crocs also initiate different TVCs, banner ads, social media hunts, and likewise.

Apart from this, Crocs also launched collections in collaboration with celebrities like Crocs x Justin Bieber with Drew collaboration and Post Malone X Crocs. All this also helped the brand to increase its popularity among the customers and hence an increased ROI.

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Other Strategies by Crocs

The strategies of Crocs are no doubt the best to date. Their comeback in just a few years after things started becoming normal, is enormously unexpected. But what are these strategies and how do they work? The following are some of the strategies that help Crocs stay on top:

Analysis of Customer’s Choice

The globe gave birth to uncountable competitive footwear brands and no wonder, Crocs is one of the best! The competition takes place based on product uniqueness, regular launches, quality, trend, customer service, brand awareness, and marketing sales. Moreover, Crocs manufacture pairs of footwear that can easily fit the locals, athletes, as well as injured ones. The brand keeps in mind every possible way to set a new trend with every launch it makes and such a spotlight on customer analysis is quite impressive for a footwear brand.

Segmentation

Psychographic, as well as demographic segmentation, is a must while raising your marketing ROI and Crocs knew this fact very well. Moreover, this brand throws light on factors like marital status, size, age, location, gender, and likewise in its customers’ lives. Therefore, they try their best to know the customer’s liking to provide them with comfort. Whether you talk about casual pairs or some mix-up with personal styles, Crocs brings you everything you ask for. However, this would not have been possible without psychographic segmentation and mobile communications.

Competitive Analysis

Crocs have a limited stock of footwear every time it launches something new. This automatically creates a sense of rush among the customers to equip the new. Crocs have many competitors like Nike, Adidas, and more. All such brands offer a wide variety of footwear but Crocs focuses on a specific niche which is the clogs. This competitive analysis by the brand helps it gain a competitive advantage over other brands. Crocs managed to sell over 103 million pairs of footwear in the year 2021 when its competitors were nowhere near such sales and revenue.

Crocs' Performance

Crocs reported revenue of around $1.4 billion in the year 2020. It was the time of the pandemic when most of its competitors were facing losses. Crocs' growth didn't just stop here, it managed to score an even bigger revenue in the year 2021 which was $2.3 billion. So, the brand saw a growth of nearly 67% from 2020 to 2021. It was the brand's strategic marketing techniques that helped in increasing its marketing ROI and become a much-loved brand among the customers.

During a recent event hosted by Crocs, the company's CEO shared insights into their future strategies. It was discussed that the company forecasts an annual growth rate of more than 17% with the expectation of the revenue to rise to more than $5 billion by the year 2026.

Conclusion

Crocs sell a huge variety of shoes and all of them provide a perfect fit for everyone’s feet. The pairs of comfortable clogs helped the brand to reach the top position. They are comfortable, unique, soft, and eye-soothing at the same time. A perfect pair of shoes can compliment a simple outfit and trust me, Crocs hold this power. Fans are in love with the Crocs shoes and the trends they set. The pricing as well as the campaigns it organizes, has played the most important role in increasing its marketing ROI.

FAQs

Are Crocs successful?

During the pandemic, Crocs managed to gain a great amount of popularity among customers. In 2020, the brand's revenues reached $1.4 billion which is a 12.6% rise from the previous year.

What is Crocs' competitive advantage?

Crocs offer a limited stock of footwear every time it launches something new. This automatically creates a sense of rush among the customers to equip the new. Also, the brand's unique yet simple, easy-to-clean, and attractive designs give it a competitive advantage.

Who are Crocs' main competitors?

The main competitors of Crocs include:

• Sketchers
• Timberland
• Converse
• Nike
• Reebok