Advertising,  Brand  Image  &  Cultural  Space                                          

M a d i s o n   W a l l a c e                         S I D :   1 3 2 2 0 2 7 3            

 

 

DC  Shoes    

Cherise  Hoefler  

 

Introduction:

Founded in 1994, the DC Brand USA, a subsidiary of parent company

Quiksilver, has made its name as a manufacturer of specialized action-sports

and casual footwear and apparel, with the core of its business originating in

the skateboard world. In the early years, the brand had quickly established

itself as a preeminent manufacturer who not only understood the needs of

skateboarders, but the need for product innovations designed to withstand the

punishing demands of the sport. DC quickly grew to become a leader in

performance skateboarding shoes and a renowned action sports brand. (DC

Shoes, 2014) The DC group has prospered in the world of action sports,

attributing a lot of their success to the sponsorship efforts of famous sporting

names and television presenters. DC excellently executes high-recognition

branding and high-profile activities with the support of strong brand elements

and consumer value. However, also recognizing that expanding into diverse

markets could have the repercussions of the core segments being neglected

and causing a disconnected brand.

 

 

 

Brand Elements:

As one of the cornerstones of its marketing strategy, DC has built a world-class team of professional skateboarding, snowboarding, and motocross athletes that exemplify and enhance DC’s brand, develop its signature products, and support its promotional efforts. (EZ, 2014)

DC is an authentic, accessible and desirable symbol of a deeper community and lifestyle. They convey an air of independent spirit, non-corporate values and dedication to a punishing set of sports, that has gained them a cult-like following amongst their loyal core customers. Along with this, DC has effectively grouped brand awareness, perceived Image, loyalty and associations with sporting celebrities. These elements together make up strong and durable brand equity. (DC Shoes, 2014)

DC has built their brand equity though the brand elements of an extremely recognizable and creatively interlocked logo of the ‘D’ and ‘C’ in a classic black color that is versatile to their various accessories. The component of memorability applies with a simple symbol for easy recognition and recall. Although the logo may be small on product goods, the DC symbol represents a valued brand and sense of status. Likeability plays a key role as the logo is visually appealing with a clean and cool style that is transferable across product categories. Geographically transferable, the DC goods extend internationally with trading distributed across the globe. Adaptability is a leading element in the DC success, as they have continued to remain current and refreshed in such an evolving industry. The DC is of course legally protected and surely enough, has become one significant face of the professional sport lifestyle with renowned spokespeople in this industry backing this beloved brand.

Thanks to the creative cross-promotional efforts and maintaining direct ties to the world of action sports, awareness of the brand is relatively high.

“Both companies have retained core credibility by offering high-quality product and maintaining rosters of athletes who are among the best in action sports.”

(Sporting Goods Business, 2004)

Concerns: While the foundation of the company was based on innovative products that served the need, as DCʼs equity grows the weight of the brandʼs symbolic benefits have certainly challenged the functional benefits of its core performance products. This could certainly be in large part due to the expansion that DC has experienced in its apparel lines with demographics that are not fundamentally skaters first.

 

 

Brand Extensions:

DC shoes has developed category extensions, expanding their product line to

include men’s, women’s and kids’ skateboarding and lifestyle shoes, apparel,

snowboards, snowboard boots, outerwear, and accessories.

Partner and sport sponsored of DC shoes, Rob Dydreks, sponsorship of DC

Shoes into the MTV show Rob & Big helped grow the brand from an annual

revenue of $120 million to $500 million in just three year’s time. (Umstead, R.

2008)

Concerns: With the rapid expansion into product lines that are not skaters first, DC

personnel have said,

“the only area we currently need to focus on or “tweak” is our brand

perception in the “core” tier 1 skate channels. Any time a “skateboard”

company such as DC starts expanding into other distribution channels such

as Rally, Moto, BMX, MTV etc the foundation of our brand in skate

automatically feels neglected or that we are losing “touch” of who we are.”

(DC Shoes Source)

 

Brand Value and Position:

“To the professional skater or the skater-at-heart, who is inspired by the

action sports lifestyle, DC Shoes brand provides the most innovative, skate-

inspired footwear and apparel on the market because of our love of the sport,

passion for the lifestyle and connection to those that continue to evolve action

sports.” (DC Shoes, 2014)

The company in recent years has made an impressive splash in the action-

sports manufacturing world and has become a poster-child for developing

brand communities. Today DC stands as a global skate boarding’s ‘top of

mind’ brand. DC has risen to become a brand that customers actively search

for and have upheld their preference over competitive alternatives to be

considered a strong and durable opposition.

However, DC still faces the constant battle to stay current, up against their

industry giant competitors, such as Nike and Adidas. The competitive

landscape continues to develop and now that the appeal of the action-sports

category endures, the muscle of more scalable and globally equipped

organizations step formidably into the market. Even in light of this, DCʼs rising

awareness in the core skate customer and reputation for innovative, quality

products seems to favorably equip them for the market as consumer spending

had begun to regain momentum through 2013.

 

Leveraging and Integration:

DC Shoes is a multi-country, multi-lingual site that embraces action sports

content in an experience that encourages exploration through enticing visuals

and e-commerce integration for six sports. Also, DC is substantially integrated

with social media.

The content revolves around DC’s product direction and simple social

integration that create a link to the company’s nearly 6 million Facebook fans.

The website supports seven main sections, each in four different languages,

that results in more than 150 unique sections, with dozens of galleries, videos

and articles.

DC’s brand has successfully taken advantage of leveraging, using the power

of the existing brand to support the company’s entry into new, but related,

product categories. DC has managed to retain brand integrity across its entire

portfolio as it moved from its core offer of shoes through to women's apparel.

By utilizing leveraging of the DC Brand provides consumers with a sense of

familiarity, as well as carrying positive brand characteristics and attitudes into

a new product category. These new products are all clearly linked to the

primary brand, removing any difficulties of confusion and deciphering of sub-

branding. (EZ, 2014)

Concerns: Some of the challenges DC Shoes faced was that the International sites had

to create and maintain their own platforms, content was not shared effectively

because of separate platforms for brands and sports and they had high

agency and internal costs for site maintenance and updates because of

disparate platforms.

 

 

Conclusion:

Overall, the DC brand has implemented a prolific approach towards their

brand development and innovation to achieve a strong position in their

multiple markets. The DC growth through brand extensions and integrations

has accredited them worldly recognition, memorability and likeability. The

brand has effectively chosen sponsors that represent the brand image and

value, as well as the promotional efforts of Rob Dydrek and MTV to maintain

that competitive advantage. This however is accompanied with the difficulties

to continue with this level of innovation and exceptional performance in all

areas of promotions. Also, it can be seen that DC have caused disconnect

throughout their brand segments as they expand into very diverse markets.

Without intense management of the brand elements throughout all fragments

of DC activities, the brand will lose their access to loyal consumers and

ultimately damage their brand equity.

 

Bibliography

EZ. (2014). DC Shoes. Retrieved October 20, 2014, from eZ.:

http://ez.no/Customers/By-Industry/DC-Shoes

DC Shoes. (2014). About DC Shoes. Retrieved October 15, 2014, from DC

Shoes: http://www.dcshoes.com/customer-service-corporate-information-

about-us.html

Fitzgerald, K. (November 1, 2004). DC Shoes. Retrieved April 30, 2010 from

the Advertising Age website.

Griffin, C. (April, 2004). Quiksilver and DC Strike a Deal. Sporting Goods

Business 37(4) 17.

Umstead, R. (2008). MTV, AMC Set Plans For 2009 Series Slate.

Multichannel News, 29(50), 18.