Webwatch Article
February 18, 2008
http://brandchannel.com/features_webwatch.asp?ww_id=368

Vans — ramped

Vans is a brand built for one of the most fickle demographics in the marketplace: the rebellious youth segment, an anti-establishment demographic that would bristle at the thought of actually being considered a demographic by the corporate world. A tough crowd, no doubt.

So, how did Vans win them over? By keying into youthful passions and building an omnipresent lifestyle brand around an iconic base product that has stood the test of time over a period of 40-plus years. That's the beauty of the rebellious youth demographic—a new crop rises with each passing generation.

That base product of the Vans brand would be the Vans shoe—a slip-on sneaker designed for skateboarding with varying designs on the canvas vamp, originally founded in the mid-sixties by a rubber shoe manufacturer based in Southern California named Paul Van Doren.

Acquired by VF Corporation for US$ 400M in 2004 as a way to gain entry into the action sports market, Vans are now widely available around the globe. During this transition, it's managed to skillfully maintain a relationship with its core skate/snowboarding enthusiast demographic through sponsorships, celebrity athlete endorsements…and even proprietary skate parks.

Obviously the brand knows its customers and caters to their active lifestyles and love of outdoor activities. Yet, the Internet is an entirely different realm, so we visited Vans.com to see how it channels this rad brand sensibility online.

The first piece of information a visitor learns upon visiting Vans.com is that the company has an international following, and the visitor is instructed to "Choose Your Region" from a list of countries in three categories: Americas, Europe, or Asia. This review is about the USA site, though the others look exactly the same, save for the translated language.

From first to final click, it’s obvious that Vans.com was executed by experts who truly get what its target consumer is looking for in an online experience. It’s laden with engaging value-added content that invites users to linger over video broadcasts, information and interviews with its endorsees, and breakdowns of sporting events. Featured products and direct sales capabilities are sprinkled in for good measure, just in case a pair of shoes gets you stoked enough to purchase, dude.

Sagely, Vans has mimicked the layout of MySpace in building its online community, and thrown in a few casual incentives in exchange for consumer demographic information.

A superior Events page lists upcoming sponsored goings on, complete with a map, a blog and event details. The page also includes links to past events, complete with video recaps. Users can also easily access details about its sponsored skateparks. Vans is also one of the key sponsors of The Warped Tour, a caravan of heavy bands popular with the 18-24 set, and the site features an inviting platform where they can partake of those goings on.

Another facet of its lifestyle component is an online gallery featuring original artists who’ve painted a pair of Vans. Online elements like this maintain the brand’s core underground essence and detract from the fact it is now owned and run by a mainstream clothing conglomerate.

Sub-brands, like the Vans Vault collection and Pro-Tec line of skate helmets and accessories, are all cohesively represented under the same dot com. The "Girls" product page is treated online like a sub-brand, with a mini-site that depicts a more femme friendly aspect of its trademark youthful rebellion. A featured product is on each page, promoting purchasing opportunities without shoving them down consumer’s throats.

That is where Vans' website excels: It knows that the rebellious youth population scoffs at being told what to do and how to do it, and yet is still able to guide them through the site and product lines while also appreciating the demographic's heightened disdain for corporate strategies and gimmicks designed to compel people to spend their money.

But the site is not flawless. When it comes to directing users to the product, the dealer locator function is decent but the shop page was down at the time of my initial visit, and successful but slow at the follow up—really, the only great negative.

So, does Vans.com hold up to the brand's successful offline branding efforts?

Yes. Big time. The genius about Vans.com is that it has mastered the complicated art of melding cohesive lifestyle brand messaging, design, and value-added content into a strongly woven online presence. It knows damn well who visits its site, what they want to know, how to get involved in many aspects of their lives and how to sell to them.

Vans.com is a trip that leaves no question where you are.

Vivian Manning-Schaffel is a freelance writer who lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Copyright © 2008 brandchannel. All rights reserved.