Roots Canada Case Study

MARKETING
5007
CASE STUDY:
For Paul Gillespie
Prepared by:
Sunny Dey
Adrian Iwankewich
Daniel Juhasz
Daniel Sherrington
Vipoozan Thevathas
Eastern Yoo
Table of
Contents
The Products
Stores
Promotion
Pricing
Facebook
Pinterest & Instagram
Situation Analysis
Raising Market Share
Repositioning Leather
Homogenizing the Media
Conclusions & Limitations
Works Cited
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Roots: The Big Picture
A look into the marketing mix
The Products
R
oots is a brand that focuses on lifestyle products, with an emphasis on Canadian heritage. Their primary products are their mens and womens clothing, outerwear, leather bags, accessories and footwear. Known for their comfortable sweatpants, and heritage sweaters, their products often reflect a warm,
rustic, nationally relatable Canadian feeling. Roots as a brand incorporates a casual lifestyle and certain
values that draw inspiration from Canada and its environment. These inspirations heavily influence the
nature and characteristics of each one of their product lines. Roots focuses on using quality materials to
manufacture their products such as their Roots Genuine Leather and comfortable, durable fabrics. Roots’
leather is designed and manufactured in a Toronto factory operated by the Kowalewski family, who are
famous for their old-world style craftsmanship (Roots Canada, 2014). Roots also offers a lower priced
line of clothing called Roots 73, available only at their outlet locations.
The availability of a diverse clothing lineup allows Roots to target a diverse customer group, however it is unsure if it is effective. The sweats and the leather products that Roots currently offer are their
best sellers online; an expansion within the categories and limiting the range of all products can forecast
greater market share (Roots Canada, 2014). The opportunity to focus on the loyal customers will create
room for growth in the market share.
Stores
Roots primarily sells their products through their own network of retail stores. They have 125 stores in
Canada and the United States along with 100 retail locations in Asia. Roots also has a network of outlet
stores throughout Canada, which are called Roots 73. The brand ‘Roots 73’ is a lower cost alternative to
Roots, and can be found in outlet malls and outlet centres, with 40 locations across Canada.
Roots’ primary stores are located in larger cities, in shopping malls and high traffic shopping
areas. Many of the Roots’ locations are kept updated and modern, with notable attention placed on the
One of Roots’s flagship stores at Yorkdale Mall,
Toronto. Accents such as the canoe on the wall
add to the Canadian feel
[roots.com]
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design and overall appearance. Architects and designers Diane Bald and Pauline Landriault have been
paired up to redesign nearly 300 Roots stores over the course of their careers (Von Hahn, 2014). A significant amount of resources are invested in the production and design of their stores, especially their
flagship locations (Newswire, 2014). Roots has a number of flagship stores across Canada, most notably
in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. Their newest Toronto flagship store boasts a very expressive design
concept, capturing the essence of Canadian Modernism (Von Hahn, 2014). This location also offers value
adding features such as an in house leather specialist, custom monogramming, and a concierge to help
give customers an engaging retail experience.
Roots focuses on their retail locations as their strongest point of sale, but are also seeing large
amounts of growth in their online shopping channel (Insider). Through their website, Roots sells their
full line of products, and often some limited edition items not always available at their retail locations. In
addition, Roots offers international shipping in order to reach customers globally. Roots also takes part
in alternative styles such as the ‘pop-up store’ concept, bringing exciting new products in an innovative
temporarily set-up retail store, designed to generate conversation and hype (Piercey & Fabregui)
Promotion
Traditionally, Roots communicates their brand with use of Canadian imagery such as nature photography, landscapes, and cultural icons. These are all important factors in their brand communication, and
can be seen in various campaigns currently and previously used. Furthermore, from experience, Roots
puts their focus in social media campaigns, posts and interactions. They also use some traditional outdoor
advertising.
Common imagery used in Roots’s
promotional collateral: Majestic
Canadian landscapes and terrain
[roots.com]
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Their focus on Canadian products and quality are displayed through their promotion strategies.
For example, promotional sponsorships have played a prominant role in emphasizing these values. They
provided the official Olympic apparel, from 1976 to 2006. Outside the Olympics, several Canadian athletes, such as Adam van Koeverden, Kurt Browning, Catriona Le May Doan, and Razor Ruddock, have
been sponsored by the company. Roots are teamed up with Canadian hip hop artists Drake and the
Weeknd as a collaboration to promote the Roots varsity jacket. The company has also teamed up with
Canadian novelist and artist Douglas Coupland to manufacture a product line featured in a promotional
pop-up store. Traditionally Canadian icons, such as Wayne Gretzky, are also seen being utilized on social
media platforms.
Roots also displays grassroots marketing and corporate social responsibility by donating to and
sponsoring community charities. To stress the importance of this aspect of their business, Roots formed
a committee called Roots Cares, which selected the ‘Jane Goodall Institute’ and the ‘Roots and shoots
program’ as their charities of choice. Furthermore, Roots is a major sponsor of the BlueDot campaign
through the David Suzuki Foundation.
Finally, Roots is involved in several social media campaigns to promote their brand, two examples being their #MadeInCanada and #sweatstyle campaigns. Both campaigns encourage customers to
send in photos of themselves promoting Roots clothing with the hashtags #MadeInCanada and #sweatstyle.
Pricing
Part of Roots’ identity and marketing strategy is to promote quality, Canadian-made lifestyle apparel
and accessories (Roots Canada, 2014). These characteristics are illustrated and clearly identified in the
company’s pricing strategy.
Although, in an effort to cut costs, Roots manufactures certain goods overseas, the company also
prides itself in their Toronto-based factory which creates local jobs and produces apparel and accessories
made in Canada (Roots Canada, 2014). This dichotomy between overseas and local production translates directly into the quality and pricing of the goods.
For example, Roots Canada Inc. offers a mass produced discount brand by the name of Roots
73 which is manufactured overseas and available at outlet locations for discount prices (Roots Canada,
2014). Customers can also purchase mass produced t-shirts and long-sleeve shirts, from any Roots location, for as low as $30. In contrast, and leather goods designed and handcrafted in Canada retail for up
to $600.00 (Roots Canada, 2014). Additionally, Roots often partners with well-known Canadian artists
and designers, producing, for example, varsity jackets for hip-hop artists Drake and The Weeknd (Roots
Canada, 2014).
The Large Banff bag on the
left retails for $428
The Heritage Kanga Hoodie
on the right retails for $76
[roots.com]
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It is evident, therefore, that Roots’ pricing strategy is value-based. Roots has determined that
the customer’s perceived value of a quality product made in Canada is higher than a product mass-produced overseas. This enables Roots to produce a percentage of their apparel and accessories in Canada
and to retail those items at a much higher price.
Finally, Roots describes itself as “Canada’s leading lifestyle brand” which sets the objective of
appealing and reaching all Canadians (Roots Canada, 2014). Their pricing strategy, which can be illustrated as an hourglass shape, provides the majority of their goods at discount and premium prices, with
fewer goods offered in-between. This allows the brand to appeal to those with a low budget as well as
those with a high budget searching for quality goods. Most importantly, this pricing strategy appeals to
the buying behaviour of middle-point customers who tend to combine discount and premium products
as opposed to buying strictly middle-point products (Kotler, 2013, p. 207). Roots’ value-based pricing
strategy effectively communicates the company’s marketing strategy with its clear emphasis on the value
of quality, made in Canada lifestyle products that appeal to Canadians as a whole.
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The Conversation:
Use of Social Media
Facebook
Consistent with the push for leather campaign, the cover photo on their facebook page also has the “We Are Makers” motto on top of a photo of luxury autumn colored leather folded
in waves. There are a few posts of the product as well including photos of leather bags and plaid shirts. Mostly, it seems,
the posts pertain to events and celebrities that verify Roots’
Canadian identity. To communicate the company’s values in
the environmentalist cause, David Suzuki can be seen with an
official Roots David Suzuki T-shirt for his Bludot Tour. The
actress, Kim Catrell is posted for wearing a leather jacket on
an HBO Canada series. A photo of Wayne Gretzky with one of
the founders at an after party is posted wearing a Roots leather
jacket. None of these seem to obviously appeal to the young
segment that are obviously targeted throughout the other social media sites.
Facebook is also utilized as a space to advertise promotional sales such as 30% off sweats for a limited time or even
a sweats giveaway to the first 40 customers of their new store.
Although announcements of sales, events and even giveaways
are posted, posts pertaining specifically to the product or models wearing the products is not emphasized.
How many people
follow Roots?
Facebook: 168,834
Twitter:57,000
Instagram: 23,570
Pinterest: 4,848
Pinterest & Instagram
The Roots Pinterest site has a total of twelve sections. Four of them thoroughly advertise the product and
some reveal their intended target markets. The “looks we love” section only targets young women. “Sweatstyle” goes to both genders and all ages. In “The Leather” section the target is not specified, showing 238
different leather products, mostly bags, not worn or carried by models. The “Stylemakers” page shows
the young urban market wearing Roots clothing presenting one of Roots’ goals to target the young urban
market. This goal does not seem to be fully pushed through the website or the facebook page.
The rest of the pinterest sections include an archives section showing the history of the company,
a section dedicated to healthy living and the rest on Canadian wildlife and the great outdoors.
Instagram summarizes the best aspects of the Root’s identity while emphasizing their goal of
appealing to the younger, hip and urban demographic. Photos of the lush autumn wilderness and David
Suzuki are present, but the majority of the posts are Roots enthusiasts wearing the product; all young, hip
and urban. Most appealing to this young and urban demographic is “The Weeknd”, a popular and very
trendy Torontonian hip-hop artist. He is posted wearing the Roots’ XO leather jacket on Saturday Night
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Live and elsewhere. There is also a photo of Bill Murray at a Roots store, a champion of the youth market.
Thus, Roots is essentially branding to the youth as trendy streetwear.
From the choice of young urban models on instagram (either modern hip hop or bearded hipster) to the considered choice of presenting the Roots brand on pinterest, we can see a concise target
objective towards youth.
A very important feature of social media, on both twitter and instagram, is the use of
“Hashtags”(#HashTags). As wikipedia states,
“A hashtag allows grouping of similarly tagged
messages, and also allows an electronic search
to return all messages that contain it.” Roots
utilizes hashtags as a tool to communicate,
connect, as well as search certain concepts,
topics, and images between the company and
their customers. The #Sweatstyle hashtag campaign invited fans to participate in a contest by
posting photos on Instragram wearing Roots
sweats. A selection of winners were chosen to
win special limited edition heritage sweaters,
specially knitted by Nova Scotia Knitting Mills
[roots.com]
(Roots Canada, 2014).
On the Roots Twitter page, the company effectively utilizes the site for not just advertising their
product, sales, events or celebrities but also building strong a strong customer relationship. Followers of
Roots on Twitter are invited to tweet any customer feedback (both negative and positive) that pertain
to shipment, information, store hours, product damage and receipt inquiries. Rather than look for the
contact page on the website, twitter followers are comfortable to the accessibility of tweeting complaints
or concerns to the company. Evidently, Roots expediently provides care, feedback and friendly customer
support via twitter. This is an excellend example of being a modern customer oriented organization. By
listening to feedback through social media, Roots can respond and resolve issues, emabling the ability to
retain strong customer relationships.
As one of the highlights on the twitter page, as seen posted on Instagram, Roots collaborated
with the trendy Canadian RnB singer, “The Weeknd” with their XO leather jacket. Such a collaboration
proved fruitful in engaging with their urban youth target. The social buzz from the Saturday Night Live
performance was an excellent example. Considering the fact that the weeknd has more followers than
Roots, clocking in at 1.5 million, a tweet with the jacket effectively exposed Roots’ hot item to the young
urban market.
Featured on Instagram
(Left to Right)
- Photo announcing
25% off sale
- #Sweatstyle photo
- The Weeknd sporting
his new leather jacket
Instagram: rootscanada
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The Plan
Marketing Strategy
Situation Analysis
Roots Canada Ltd. has a Canadian market share of 0.3% in the apparel and footwear industry (Euromonitor, Apparel and Footwear in Canada, 2013). In the apparel accessories industry, on the other hand, it
has a 0.5% share of the market (Euromonitor, Apparel and Accessories in Canada, 2013). In the menswear category, Roots has a current market share of 0.5% (Euromonitor, Menswear in Canada, 2013). In
the childrenswear category, Roots has a current market share of 0.3% (Euromonitor, Childswear in Canada, 2013). In contrast to the menswear and childrenswear categories, the womenswear category holds
just a 0.2% market share (Euromonitor, Womenswear, 2013). It is important to note that in each of the
industries and categories mentioned above, Roots’ share of the market has remained stagnant since 2009.
Roots’ Market Share per Industry/ Category
o.5%
Apparel &
Accessories
o.3%
Apparel
& Footwear
Menswear Childrenswear Womenswear
o.5% o.3% o.2%
(Euromonitor, 2013)
On average, Females in Canada purchase more apparel and accessories per year than males. For
example, womenswear sales in Canada exceeded menswear sales by $5,676,100 in 2013 (Euromonitor,
Womenswear, 2013). Therefore, the womenswear industry is a larger market with an opportunity for
Roots to perform intensive growth.
Furthermore, the purchasing indexes provided by Print Measurement Bureau illustrates that
males between the ages of 12 and 49 frequently purchase Roots products (Print Measurement Bureau,
Men’s Clothing, 2013). In contrast, only females between the ages of 12 and 24, and 35 to 49 are frequent
Roots customers (Print Measurement Bureau, Men’s Clothing, 2013). Thus, Canadian women between
25 and 34 years old have a significantly lower purchase index. This segment of the female population is a
powerful consumer of fashion apparel and accessories. The segment has a positive purchasing index for
items between $1 and $1000, which encompasses Roots’ pricing strategy (Print Measurement Bureau,
Women’s Clothing, 2013).
In addition, the publication regarding womenswear in Canada from Passport GMID states,
Many apparel retailers and manufacturers have been outsourcing their production overseas to keep costs of production low and maintain competitive edge.
Their cost reduction strategies took a big hit when one of the manufacturing
plants in Bangladesh caught fire and caused mass casualties. This incident raised
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awareness in Canada and encouraged a national production movement. The
emphasis on national production and made-in-Canada brands might be a
catalyst for future growth. With increased awareness about work conditions
and labour forces in foreign countries, national manufacturing is expected to
see a revival and in turn lead to a rise in prices (Euromonitor, Apparel and
Footwear in Canada, 2013).
It is from these facts and statistics that the objectives of Roots Canada Ltd.’s marketing strategy
have been identified. Opportunity for intensive growth can be found in the national production of female-oriented premium leather goods, and a focus on increasing the company’s womenswear market
share by targeting females between the ages of 25 and 34.
Raising Market Share within Females Between the Ages of 25 to 34
Roots must consciously cater to the needs of females in this segment and ensure that they are are met by
the marketing mix. Although Roots offers many pieces of apparel and accessories for women, the Roots
brand is not effectively perceived as a female orientated brand.
To raise market share in women who are in the 25 to 34 age group, Roots must be more prevalent
in taking advantage of social media to promote their female products. “Women tend to be communal-minded and men more self-expressive and goal-directed; women tend to take in more of the data in
the immediate environment and men to focus on the part of the environment that helps them achieve
a goal” (Kotler, 2013, p. 205). Therefore, women between the ages of 25 and 34 years old have a higher
interest in fashion through the experiences of interactive media. Promoting women’s clothing through
social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest can create more exposure towards the target group. Raising awareness of the brand through social media will create insight and help
consumers’ identify the products with their need. Generation Y consumers, which includes women aged
25-34, respond well with overwhelming technological information (Kotler, 207). Roots will gain insight
by overloading the female characteristics and values of the Roots brand through pictures, videos, look
books, clothing details and campaigns regarding their products for women.
Moreover, e-commerce is becoming more important as Canadians are using online stores to
make more of their purchases. Of all sales online, 42% are clothing, jewelry and accessories. Internet
retailing is also projected to grow 128.5% in the apparel and footwear industries between 2013 and 2018
(Euromonitor, Internet Retailing in Canada, 2013).
In order to boost online sales, specifically for women, Roots will introduce an online 24 hour
sale. The sale will focus on women’s clothing and offer a 40% discount on the array of quality, Canadian
and fashionable womenswear that Roots retails. In addition, it will take place on March 8th, 2015, International Women’s day. A portion of the all online clothing purchases will be donated to the Canadian
Women’s Foundation. This type of campaign advertises Roots’ female products by offering them for a
limited time at a significant discount, while also advocating social responsibility, an important aspect of
the Roots brand. This sale will be advertised across Roots’ social media platforms in order to promote it
and generate awareness.
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Repositioning Leather
Roots’ leather brand is a strong aspect of their identity as well as one of their core competencies. Recently, Roots has emphasized leather through advertisement and the marketing campaign, “We are Makers”.
Highlighting craftsmanship, the company is currently promoting the superior quality of their leather
goods by exhibiting leather makers and the product in its unfinished stages.
The Passport GMID article relating to womenswear in Canada states that luxury goods are on a
continuing trend of positive growth in the Canadian womenswear market (Euromonitor, Womenswear,
2013). As a result, in our marketing strategy we would like to remain focused on leather as one of Roots’
main core competencies, but reposition the leather brand as offering premium female products.
The tactic to reposition the leather brand is to collaborate with a select group of female Canadian
actresses such as Rachel Mcadams, Evangeline Lilly, Neve Campbell, Ellen Page, Sarah Polly and Colbie
Smulders. As previously mentioned, Roots often collaborates with in-the-spotlight Canadians to promote their product, however the majority of them have been male of late. The collaboration with such
an empowered and confident group of women can then attract a want for the premium, luxury leather
brands, mainly targeted at Roots’ female customers in the 25 to 34 year age range.
As an accompaniment to the collaborations, Roots will launch a social media campaign containing pictures of the collaborators wearing Roots clothing and showcasing a premium, luxury line of
Roots leather accessories accompanied by the hashtag #homegirl. The campaign will create an awareness
and demand for the newly released luxury leather products as well as encourage female customers to
share their own #homegirl photo depicting their Canadian values. The words “home girl” and their endorsement from female collaborators illustrates the idea that even though their image and profession is
a global one, they are still attached to and proud of their Canadian roots.
The market research collected states that this particular segment only encompasses 13.6% of
Roots consumers (Print Measurement Bureau, Women’s Clothing Where Personally Bought/Past 12
Months, 2013). However, with the positive growth of womenswear and luxury goods in Canada, there
is the opportunity to achieve a more significant market share in a large market in which Roots is already
present and equipped to operate. It is important to note that the markets of females between the ages of
12 and 18, and 35 to 49 will not be abandoned, but ideally retained by the collaborations and campaigns.
However, Roots is aiming to recruit new customers in the 25 to 34 year old female consumer market.
Homogenizing the Media
A clear theme and strategy is difficult to discern from Roots’ current activity on their social media
profiles. Social media is an essential tool for communicating with customers and promoting products.
Therefore, concentration will be placed on homogenizing Roots’ values, themes, and strategy on social
media platforms.
For example, with 168,834 likes on Facebook, it is necessary that Roots updates its posts on a daily basis, highlighting their product for potential consumers. Constant updates will expose the followers
to the large breadth of what Roots has to offer. More posts create more touchpoints. We also advise such
posts to continue targeting the urban youth as seen on Instagram and the allocated sections of pinterest.
Alignment between the social media sites is paramount. The message should maintain an appreciation
of the rustic outdoors, but focus on the urban target. More posting engages consistent, routine involvement with all ranges of customers from switchers to loyals.
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This can all be done by integrating Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Whenever a new instagram
post is made, the link will then automatically post on Facebook as such are the capabilities of the social
media. Also, updates of products on Facebook should be tweeted on twitter. By linking all three social
media, a consistency is aligned between the social media sites. The goal is to constantly familiarize the
Facebook user with the Roots products and values on a consistent basis.
Conclusions & Limitations
In conclusion, the objectives for Roots’ marketing strategy are to increase the company’s market share
of womenswear in Canada, reposition the leather brand, and homogenize their overall social media
message. These objectives are based on market research pertaining to apparel, footwear, and accessory
industries in Canada while also focusing on the categories of womenswear and menswear. Furthermore,
the objectives are directed at increasing Roots’ total market share in Canada by focusing on opportunities and communicating more clearly their core competencies and values to existing and potential
customers.
As a private company, there exists limited existing information on Roots Canada Ltd. However,
we were able to find secondary data in the Passport GMID and Print Measurement Bureau database.
Within these databases, the geographic segment addressed was most commonly inclusive to the Canadian market. The lack of information regarding the company in global markets forced us to focus on
strictly the company’s national performance.
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Works Cited
Cunningham, P. Keller, K.L. Kotler, P. & Sivaramakrishnan, S. (2013). Marketing Management. Don
Mills, ON, Canada: Pearson Canada Inc.
Euromonitor. (2013). Apparel and Footwear in Canada. Passport GMID
Euromonitor. (2013). Apparel and Accessories in Canada. Passport GMID
Euromonitor. (2013). Childrenswear in Canada. Passport GMID
Euromonitor. (2013). Internet Retailing in Canada. Passport GMID
Euromonitor. (2013). Menswear in Canada. Passport GMID
Euromonitor. (2013). Womenswear in Canada. Passport GMID
Karen von Hahn. (August 20, 2014). Outdoor-indoor line blurs at renovated Roots flagship store.
Fashion & Style. Toronto Star. http://www.thestar.com/life/fashion_style/2014/08/20/outdoorindoor_line_blurs_at_renovated_roots_flagship_store.html (accessed October 16, 2014)
Piercey, M. & Fabregui, R. (2010, July 18). Roots x Douglas Coupland Pop-up store. Events. Toronto Is Fashion. http://www.torontoisfashion.com/2010/07/roots-limited-edition.html (accessed
October 20, 2014)
Print Measurement Bureau (PMB). (2014). Apparel, Shopping, Misc. Products: Men’s Clothing. PMB
2014 Category Reports: Total Canada
Print Measurement Bureau (PMB). (2014). Apparel, Shopping, Misc. Products: Women’s Clothing.
PMB 2014 Category Reports: Total Canada
Roots Canada. (2014). Corporate Fact Sheet. http://canada.roots.com/on/demandware.store/
Sites-RootsCorporate-Site/default/Home-Show (accessed October 16, 2014)
Roots Canada (2014). Men. http://canada.roots.com/men/men,default,sc.html?psortb1=category-pos_men accessed October 16, 2014)
Roots Canada (2014). Women. http://canada.roots.com/women/women,default,sc.html?psortb1=category-pos_women (accessed October 16, 2014)
Roots Canada (2014). Sweat Style Contest. Customer Service. http://canada.roots.com/140814_
sweatStyleContest/140814_sweatStyleContest,default,pg.html (accessed October 16, 2014)
Roots to invest in three flagship stores in Canada. (February 11, 2014). Story. Newswire. http://www.
newswire.ca/en/story/1304053/roots-to-invest-in-three-flagship-stores-in-canada (accessed October 15, 2014)
Statistics Canada. (October 28, 2013). Electronic commerce, types of goods or services ordered, 2012.
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/131028/t131028a001-eng.htm (accessed Oct 20, 2014)
Women’s Clothing Where Personally Bought/ Past 12 Months Roots. PMB https://www.kmrsoftware.net/netquestapp/pmbquickreports/Default.aspx (accessed October 16, 2014)
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