Klient:
case study
Family business defies much stronger competition and sells shoes all the way to New Zealand
946 %
month-on-month increase in turnover
CZK 1,5 milion
revenue from one campaign
over 450
pairs of shoes sold abroad last year
their story
QUALITY LEATHER SHOES WITH A STORY THAT WILL LAST FOR YEARS
One company, four people, thousands of pairs of shoes sold. That`s LUKS shoes in a nutshell. Mr. Václav Luks started producing shoes about thirty years ago and gradually worked his way up to his own company, where, in addition to his wife, his daughter Lenka and son Václav Jr. work. While their parents are sewing the shoes, Lenka and Václav handle marketing and customer support.
The company has quickly built a reputation for producing quality shoes that not only last a long time, but also look good. Over time, they began to specialise in so-called barefoot shoes, a type of shoe that resembles walking barefoot. Compared to conventional shoes, barefoot shoes have a thinner sole and are wider, so they give plenty of room for the toes and do not deform the arch of the foot.
Today, the company offers a wide range of shoes for women, men and children, both for year-round wear and special variants for different seasons.
However, due to extremely strong competition, the Covid-19 pandemic and a number of other adverse circumstances, including a failed previous collaboration with another marketing agency, LUKS Shoes faced problems that required urgent resolution.
their goal
RESTART THE BUSINESS, INCREASE SALES AND BUILD THE BRAND
LUKS Shoes approached us at Four Bros with positive references for comprehensive assistance. First and foremost, the company’s finances needed to be stabilized, and stagnant sales and revenue needed to be increased. Marketing activities also needed a complete reboot. It was also necessary to strengthen the brand.
In addition to the standard marketing activities including advertising campaigns, e-mailing or checking and setting up SEO, we also arranged for a financial analysis and an assessment of the company’s overall condition, a detailed competitor analysis and business consulting. The main goal was to increase the sales of bots and to link marketing with the rest of the activities in the company so that they complement and support each other.
Another goal was to start building the brand and differentiating it from the competition, which is extremely strong in the barefoot footwear market.
our solution
MARKETING TIED TO PROCESSES, CAMPAIGNS AND TAILORED E-MAILING
The Luks and I worked everything out in regular consultations. The situation appeared to be very serious from what they told us, and the first “peek under the hood” unfortunately confirmed it in full. Nevertheless, we said that we would use all our skills and do our best to save the company.
It would be a great shame to see a long and laboriously built family business, which prides itself on quality, personal approach and honesty with customers, come to an end due to often uncontrollable circumstances.
1
TAILORED BUSINESS CONSULTING, NEW BUSINESS AND MARKETING STRATEGY
Before we started campaigning, we focused on an in-depth analysis of the company’s situation. We believe that you can’t do really good marketing without careful research into the state of the company’s finances and an overall understanding of how the company operates.
We first focused on financial analysis. For example, we were interested in pricing, all costs related to the operation of the company or investments. We really examined every detail, because it is the little things that make up the whole from which a true picture of the state of the company can be formed, and marketing must build on that.
Once the financial research was complete, we could move on to creating a business strategy. Simply put, the Luks and I put together a plan of what, how and where the company will sell in the coming period, how much it can invest, how much it must earn and what the possible future prospects are. The marketing strategy and the resulting marketing mix were then adapted to this.
An integral part of this was also the correct setting of KPI’s, which in simple terms are indicators that tell how much a company needs to earn in order for the campaign and marketing to be successful overall. Although these indicators are absolutely essential, many companies or entrepreneurs pay no attention to them when creating a marketing strategy.
2
FINE-TUNED CONTENT AND E-MAILING, PRECISELY SET PERFORMANCE CAMPAIGNS
After the necessary “preparatory groundwork,” we were able to move on to the actual campaigns. We primarily focused on Facebook and email marketing. We knew that Boty LUKS had a loyal community of fans who could help the company. We took a risk and reached out to them with an honest depiction of the situation, explaining how things were, and asked for their help by simply purchasing new shoes.
The foundation of the campaign was carefully crafted texts, through which we tried to engage people and persuade them to buy in a non-aggressive manner. These were accompanied by visual elements, one of the most important being a photograph of the entire Luks family. It was crucial for buyers to see specific faces behind such a personal story, so that Boty LUKS wouldn’t just appear as an anonymous company reaching out with some request.
This approach proved to be a bullseye. Orders came pouring in, and the month-on-month turnover increased by an unbelievable 946%. In numerical terms, this amounted to more than 1.5 million CZK.
What’s more, the campaign worked beyond expectations. At one point, the Luks family couldn’t keep up with the demand, both producing and shipping the shoes on time, and there was a real danger that the campaign would end up frustrating people. We quickly sent another email explaining the current situation, asked customers for their patience, and reassured them that they would receive their shoes as soon as possible.
In the end, we managed to handle everything, and the company was out of the worst of it.
We have also set up a schedule for emailing campaigns so that they can be conveniently planned and prepared in advance. They are aligned with social content and performance campaigns, making them much more effective.
Google, until then incomprehensibly overlooked, has not escaped our attention. At the end of March 2022, we launched shopping and search campaigns designed primarily to attract new customers. We chose loafers and ballerinas as the most popular products.
Along with them, we are also running YouTube ads. The results here are not insignificant either. By the end of June, these campaigns had received around 740,000 impressions, were clicked on by over 6,000 people and earned over CZK 320,000. They have therefore fully proven themselves as a means of support.
Along with the performance and emailing campaigns, we’ve also put our energies into other places. We tweaked the content of the site to make it more customer-friendly and not unnecessarily hide important information that could interest people and make it easier to convince them to buy. For example, we’ve added a top bar that provides information about shipping, exchanges and free returns.
We have also added a section with products on sale, which in our experience is often visited by shoppers. We have also optimized the product availability listing, which gives shoppers more accurate information about delivery times.
When building the brand, we decided to promote Boty LUKS as a purely Czech family company, where shoes are sewn by hand and with an emphasis on maximum quality. It would be a shame if buyers didn’t know that. SEO analysis then helped us to fine-tune the content for search engines as well. The site has risen very high as a result.
common success
Although we took over the client during a very challenging period, the trust we have in each other, our mutual cooperation, and our ability to cover marketing in a truly comprehensive manner eventually led to positive results. The company managed to survive the critical weeks, bounced back, and stabilized enough to start thinking about the future. Regular expansion of the product range with new additions is planned, so the company can confidently compete with much larger and stronger brands.
Further strengthening of the brand itself is also planned, as well as expansion into foreign markets, which offer great potential. In this regard, there is definitely a strong foundation to build on. The company is already successfully selling its shoes in Germany, the UK, Sweden, and other parts of Europe. And not only that—people in the USA, Australia, and even New Zealand are walking in shoes made in Jablonec nad Nisou.
Our collaboration continues. In addition to standard services, we still provide Boty LUKS with strategic consultations, advising on how to further grow and improve the business. Trust from the client is key. Thanks to it, we can truly show all that we are capable of doing for their benefit.
Lenka Luksová, Owner, Boty LUKS
Before we started working together, our initial situation was very bad. And because we don’t just give up, we thought and searched for a team of experts in online advertising and marketing. On the recommendation of friends, we approached Four Bros. From the very beginning of our cooperation, we were pleasantly surprised by the care and precision with which they prepare advertising campaigns. They wanted to know in detail the workings of our company in numbers so that they could set the right strategy for the campaigns. And the success didn’t take long to come. In a very short time, after the first campaign, our sales jumped by hundreds of percent. It’s obvious that they are really interested in getting our company back up and running and it was clear right from the start that they weren’t going to let us down.” They helped us even though we couldn’t pay our first invoices on time, which was a really pleasant surprise and warmed our hearts. From that moment on, it was clear that we could really rely on the Four Bros team and that they were the best thing that could have happened to us in marketing. They have experienced all the successes and failures with us. They would even breathe for our company. They work well above and beyond. They are available to us at any time really, always having new ideas on how we can improve and develop, thought out to the last detail. We have never encountered an approach like this before and they have absolutely exceeded our best expectations.
On our behalf, we can only recommend Four Bros. Simply put, their team is second to none when it comes to marketing!
