Sperry's 'Odysseys Await' Campaign: A Content Marketing Case Study

This case study critically analyzes Sperry's "Odysseys Await" campaign, focusing on its strategies for targeting millennials and repositioning the brand. The campaign, designed to appeal to adventurous millennials through print, digital, and social media, utilized user-generated content and ambassador programs to promote Sperry's boat shoes. The analysis examines the effectiveness of Sperry's approach, questioning the campaign's focus and its ability to resonate with the target demographic. It further discusses key factors in targeting millennials, the importance of adapting to customer preferences, and the role of pricing and competition in brand repositioning. The study also explores the formulation of a successful content marketing strategy, emphasizing the need for relevant, authentic, and customer-oriented content to drive engagement and enhance market share. Desklib offers a variety of resources, including similar case studies and solved assignments, to aid students in their studies.

CONTENT MARKETING AT SPERRY
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Table of Contents
Question 1.............................................................................................................................................1
Critically analyze Sperry's “Odysseys Await” campaign.................................................................1
Question 2.............................................................................................................................................1
Explain the key factors involved in targeting millennials...............................................................1
Question 3.............................................................................................................................................2
Discuss how a successful brand repositioning strategy can be formulated.....................................2
Question 4.............................................................................................................................................2
Explain how a successful content marketing strategy can be formulated.......................................2
References............................................................................................................................................4
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QUESTION 1
Critically analyze Sperry's “Odysseys Await” campaign
Sperry is an iconic American shoe brand which deals in boat shoes and to promote the
products at the market place, the company organized a campaign named “Odysseys Await” which
targeted millennials who prefer to do adventure (Koiso-Kanttila, 2004). The campaign was
organized with Minneapolis-based advertising agency in which the first phase of the campaign
focused on across print, digital and social media. The campaign was designed for the purpose of
appealing the attention of fearless people. Creative thoughts were included in the promotional
strategy in which the stories have been taken from the millennials regarding their experience about
boat shoes.
Sperry has also developed a new log so that the promotional campaign can be upgraded. The
second phase of the campaign included experience of ambassadors regarding the shoes of Sperry;
hence for that purpose, 80 ambassadors were decided to be selected (Rowley, 2008). The campaign
has also promoted the experience of ambassadors through social media tools such as Facebook and
Twitter and the best was also announced gift cards from Sperry. Several stores have been covered
from the ambassadors to showcase their experience regarding boat shoes during adventurous trips.
The subsequent campaign was connected to the sea which depicts the iconic element of the brand.
QUESTION 2
Explain the key factors involved in targeting millennials
From the case study it has been observed that, Sperry targeted millennials because the
company aimed to highlight adventure component and for that purpose, Sperry invited stories of
people in different forms. However, some people felt that the campaign has targeted only those
youths who prefer the boating adventures. While targeting millennials, the company was not sure
regarding the involvement of youths in the campaign (Resnik and Stern, 1977). Though, Sperry had
put lots of efforts in collecting stories from the people and ambassadors both; but the company was
unsure if youths will believe in all the testimonials of the ambassadors. Sperry targeted people on
the basis of demographics in which Gen X (born between 1965 and 1980) and millennials (born
between 1980 and 2000) were selected. This particular segment has been selected because
customers from US are more comfortable with the latest and trendy products.
The source of internet has been selected to promote the brand because US customers prefer
social media and technological aspects. Millennials have also been selected because they have the
ability to pay for those products as median income was US$35,300 (Lieb, 2011). Sperry decided to
target millennials because the company felt that the subsequent branding strategy would persuade
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this particular segment. Further, the company also decided to appeal millennials because it wanted
to connect the millennials so that the synergetic effect of mixing rewards with adventure can be
showed. The business also aimed to engage more customers for the purpose of enhancing the
market share. Further, UK, France and Italy are the other segments where Sperry wants to enter and
purchasing power of those customers are high; therefore millennials have been selected.
QUESTION 3
Discuss how a successful brand repositioning strategy can be formulated
The campaign “Odysseys Await” was adventure oriented and it was prominently promoted
with the social media. In order to position the brand at the market place, it is essential for the entity
to change customer segment so that focus can be made towards all the segments (Lamb, Shipp and
Moncrief, 1995). Currently, Sperry has given the opportunity to the youths to get involved with the
company so that new places can be visited and adventurous trips can be made. Further, Sperry also
asked the youngsters to document their experience so that Sperry can showcase this in the
promotional campaign. As per the brand repositioning strategy, Sperry wants to attract millennials
so that effectiveness of the brand can be promoted in the market place. The company aimed to
emphasize on acquired better market share; therefore ambassadors and millennials were the chief
target of the brand (Koiso-Kanttila, 2004).
Though the strategy focused on millennials; however it was not sure that even after
watching, will they actually think of getting the shoe pair. Thus, the brand should not entirely rely
on millennials because they might get attracted towards another brand. In order to reposition the
brand in the existing market place, new and innovative attribute as well as utility of the brand can
be promoted. This will also assist the customers to get products from Sperry. Further, the company
should emphasize on pricing element because pricing of products is one such dimension which
helps the company to acquire attention of the customers (Hennig‐Thurau and Klee, 1997).
Moreover, the campaign should be promoted on different market places so that all types of customer
can be targeted from the diverse segment. At the same time, the level of competition should be
identified so that Sperry can ascertain the possibilities of long term growth and success.
QUESTION 4
Explain how a successful content marketing strategy can be formulated
Sperry has been promoting boat shoes through content marketing where the experience and
opinion of millennials and ambassadors have been recorded and showed to public. Further, the
subsequent strategy of the brand shows that Sperry emphasizes on customer experience and on the
basis of that experience, they promote the products to other market segments. In order to develop
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adequate content marketing strategy, Sperry should include only relevant, authentic and factual
information to persuade the customers (Churchill, 1979). The content marketing strategy must be
customer oriented so that it can drive customers to get boat shoes. At the same time, creativity
should be there in the promotional messages so that customer's mindset can be diverted. Further, to
make the strategy highly effectual, Sperry should make changes in the content where stories and
experience of customers should be included not in the form of brand promotion but in the form of
showing the utility of the product. Social media and other effectual tools can be used to promote the
brand in numerous market places (Angelmar and Stern, 1978). Thus, Sperry should consider these
aspects while formulating content marketing strategy for boat shoes.
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REFERENCES
Books and journal
Angelmar, R. and Stern, L. W., 1978. Development of a content analytic system for analysis of
bargaining communication in marketing. Journal of Marketing Research. pp.93-102.
Churchill Jr, G. A., 1979. A paradigm for developing better measures of marketing constructs.
Journal of marketing research. pp.64-73.
Hennig‐Thurau, T. and Klee, A., 1997. The impact of customer satisfaction and relationship quality
on customer retention: A critical reassessment and model development. Psychology &
Marketing. 14(8). pp.737-764.
Koiso-Kanttila, N., 2004. Digital content marketing: a literature synthesis.Journal of Marketing
Management. 20(1-2). pp.45-65.
Lamb, C. W., Shipp, S. H. and Moncrief, W. C., 1995. Integrating skills and content knowledge in
the marketing curriculum. Journal of Marketing Education. 17(2). pp.10-19.
Lieb, R., 2011. Content marketing: Think like a publisher-How to use content to market online and
in social media. Que Publishing.
Resnik, A. and Stern, B. L., 1977. An analysis of information content in television advertising. The
Journal of Marketing. pp.50-53.
Rowley, J., 2008. Understanding digital content marketing. Journal of marketing management.
24(5-6). pp.517-540.
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