Customer FOCUS: The key to Havaianas’s success during the COVID-19
Always Change, Adapt, and Evolve!
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed enormously around the world, especially the customers’ life and shopping habits. It seems a disaster in the footwear industry since people spend more time at home; consumers seem no need to buy more footwear. Indeed, according to Mckinsey’s survey results, except in China, global consumers are willing to spend less on the footwear category. However, it’s startled to know that the flip-flop brand Havaianas had increased sales at this challenging time; it achieved record net earnings of 3.1 billion Brazilian reais (approximately $547 million) in 2020, representing a 6 percent increase from the previous year. Wow! It’s unbelievable to know a brand that used to target tourism has thrived during this gloomy period!
How did this brand make it? Let’s now have a look at Havaianas's adaption to this tough period!
Change to what customers need.
Havaianas’s positive performance did not come without challenges. Because of the pandemic, it has first suffered due to customers “lacking wearing occasions” as they could not travel for holidays, while the second was affected by the decline of domestic and international tourism. It’s a hard hit for the brand that is mainly producing beach products.
However, Havaianas has converted this challenge into an opportunity by reshaping its fashion and introduce new styles during this period. Instead of beach flip-flop, it has changed to promote more products like Slide and the St Tropez, which are more fit to wear at home. To adapt to what was happening and what the customers need, this brand has really done great jobs to overcome the difficulties and win customers’ hearts with these new categories.
Adapt to new customer touchpoints.
Since pandemic has changed so much in customer’s life and shopping habits, it also changed the touchpoints for brands to communicate with them. Instead of perfect physical samples and service in the brick-and-mortar stores, customers expect a more convenient and inspiring experience online. With this insight, Havaianas has put more effort into the digital platform swiftly and wonderfully.
First, transform to digital.
Suffering three-month store closures during the COVID-19, Havaianas has accelerated its transition from physical to digital and introduced the Digital Showroom software to its EMEA market. It’s impressive to know that Havaianas has only used eight weeks in constructed this Digital showroom and help the brand decrease the loss. With this move, Havaianas could easily conduct remote appointments with customers during this difficult time and provide customers with what they want faster than ever before. In my opinion, this is an intelligent move to respond to the pandemic and can help the brand communicate with its customers efficiently in the long run!
Second, leverage the influencer’s power.
Influencers have been a powerful tool for brands promoting online during the pandemic since their content always creates more trust and more relevant to consumers stuck at home situation. Havaianas caught this trend as well. This brand has integrated its digital platform to leverage the impact of word of mouth. It has encouraged consumers to share their inspiring photos with Havaiana’s footwear on social media with the hashtag#LetsSummer and @HavaianasEurope on its website.
Havaianas has increased its social buzz through this move and offered more insight and guidance to potential customers. Leveraging the influencer’s power is a positive step for the brand to communicate effectively with the customers!
Third, communicate with the contents customers love.
It’s common knowledge that the coronavirus has led to large-scale increases in online media usage, particularly online video streamers are spending dramatically more time looking at screens each day. It’s brilliant for Havaianas to capture this insight and seize this opportunity by collaborating with Netflix. Havaianas has launched three flip-flops with iconic Netflix heroines to celebrate International Women’s day and encourage consumers to share “the traits of other inspiring women” with #FollowMyVoice on social media. This campaign helps Havaianas connect with its at-home consumers more effectively and helps the brand have an emotional connection with consumers through the powerful characters of Netflix’s heroines. It seems not a complex idea to come up with, but it’s a smart move for Havaianas to find its customers precisely and communicate with them influentially!
Evolve into the NEW normal mode
Overall, although I have a negative attitude about the User Experience of the Havaianas US website in my previous blog, I think Havaianas has a great reaction to the pandemic. This brand perfectly knows what has changed in their customers’ habits and rapidly adapts to the changes.
Even though the first light of the “post-COVID-19 eras” is getting closer, I think the changes in customers' habits will not go away since these adaptions are so convenient. As a result, brands should still focus on the digital platform, communicating with customers with the way they like and the contents they love. Although Havaianas has done a great job, it’s hard to conclude a template of its success to emulate. In my opinion, no matter in what situation, marketing's panacea is always focusing on your consumer needs, changing, adapting, and evolving to it agilely.
I wish you all good luck and win in the next normal!
See you next blog!!
