Word: brandes
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...Japan kids dance in them, figure-skating style. In Canada they glide in them to whack a street-hockey puck. And from London to St. Petersburg, preteens use them as alternative transportation. They're Heelys, and the brand is on the move. But how does a company with $40 million in annual revenues and a slender marketing budget expand to more than 60 countries in less than five years without getting lost? HSL Inc., launched in late 2000 with one product, posted U.S. sales of more than $36 million last year--an increase of 250%--and about $2.4 million...
...selling the brand abroad has been keeping it hot at home. Whether in Detroit or Taipei, the company relies on grass-roots marketing. To explain how to "heel" skate on one rear wheel, the company cherry-picks a handful of cool kids, "like school athletes," in selected schools to join Team Heelys. These paid performers demo the shoes at malls, concerts and sporting events, and they also chat up Team Heelys wannabes on the Heelys website, generating cred and buzz...
...take advantage of local licensing agreements. But success spawned cheap copies, slicing HSL's monopoly market share in half. In a neat bit of counterprogramming, however, its man in Japan recommended fighting the pirates on their turf: self-serve discounters. So HSL created Cruz, a lower-priced sub-brand, exclusively for Japan...
With only 2 million heelers, compared with some 10 million skateboarders, HSL can grow if it can turn the shoes into a lifestyle product, says Marshal Cohen, chief analyst at NPD Group. He suggests that HSL elevate the brand by working to make heeling an Olympic event. Having staged the Pan-Asian Heelys Challenge for three years, and with the first European competition kicking off next summer, "we think about that all the time," says Staffaroni. It worked for snowboarding...
...glazed doughnut, a decaf and Krispy Kreme's lukewarm performance, sprinkled with profit warnings and an SEC investigation, will keep the new CEO focused on revitalizing the once darling brand. Having rebuilt Planters Nuts and Oreo for Kraft and Nabisco, Brewster, 49, can again tap consumer insights and learn from rivals like Dunkin' Donuts and Tim Hortons to bring the Kreme--and its 319 stores--to the top. Brewster's run as Kraft's president in Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico should also boost Kreme's best foreign markets. "The brand does seem to have some magic," he says...