Getting our new niche footwear brand exposure
Name:
Laura Buckley
Company:
LoveThoseShoes.com
Company profile:
www.lovethoseshoes.com began in 2003 retailing just one brand of healthy footwear. Following from the success of that, MD, female entrepreneur Glenys Berd went on a mission to build the UK market for health and wellness footwear. Six years on, and LoveThoseShoes is now the number one destination for Health and Wellness Footwear and stocks 21 different brands, all of which include technologies or features that aid either medical conditions such as back pain or arthritis, help with fitness and exercise needs such as weight loss and cellulite or cater for comfort needs such as wide shoes or pregnancy shoes.
Position:
Communications manager
Founded:
2003

Getting our new niche footwear brand exposure

Overview

LoveThoseShoes is known by its customers for launching new brands of healthy footwear previously unknown in the UK market. A lot of the brands originate from Europe or America and so have little or no presence with consumers in the UK. We had to find a way to get our voice heard over the household names in the footwear market.

The challenge

The main challenge when you innovate in a niche market and when you invest in new and fresh brands is getting them out there. In a footwear market that has so many household names squeezing yours in there and getting some consistent exposure is a challenge.

As we retail shoes that have health benefits and make claims such as 'burn more calories with every step', it is important for consumers to trust the brands and understand the technology behind them. This makes the challenge even bigger!

However, despite this fundamental challenge, the real difficulty is getting a PR agency that understands the depth of the products, the way they need to be promoted and understand the budget restrictions of a small business to boot. After trying a number of different PR agencies with no real success we needed to find a solution.

The solution

To create our own in-house PR team. We now run a very tight PR team and have tremendous success.  All the PR we gain is a result of hard work, good ideas and a real focus on relationships with the press.  We now have full control over the message we put out there and over the direction we need to go in. If something isn't working we drop it straight away, we take step back and try again.

Having it all in-house means you can change direction and emphasis when ever you need. Our PR has been paramount to the great success all the brands we stock enjoy. For examples of the type of press coverage we achieve, take a look here.

Key lesson

When you're a small business you have to be prepared to innovate and trust your own ability and the ability of the team you grow. Corporate companies don't understand small businesses, so expecting a PR agency to understand the importance of sales and judge success by the quality and revenue a product placement achieves and not just the number of product placements they get is impossible.

No one can beat the passion that comes from your own team, no matter how much you pay them - and it is passion that breads the success.

Top tip

If you want good PR, take the bull by the horns.

Find out more about LoveThoseShoes