Sources:
Profile
Terence Reilly is a shadowy figure who lurks behind the curtain of the once non-sexy products like Crocs and Stanley. These two products are not the goto for hype and exclusivity but in recent years Reilly had really position them as such, whether it was his intentions or not.
Reilly, a New Jersey native joined Crocs in 2013 after a lengthy career in retail, footwear and financial services marketing. He’s an avid runner, Springsteen aficionado and passionate fan of the Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots. He’s also a three time marathoner and is comfortable in his own shoes.
Crocs
Crocs was founded in 2002 by founders Scott Seamans, Lyndon Hanson, and George Boedecker Jr. for their form and function. The trio bought the design of Crocs from Andrew Reddyhoffs at Foam Creations, Inc.
The first model, the Beach, was showcase at the Fort Lauderdale boat show in 2002 which then amply sold out of its 200 pairs. This prove to be an instant success to the founders.
In 2005, Crocs underwent a rebranding and restructuring that ramped up its eventual IPO. With a redesign of it’s logo, Crocs then launched their first national ad campaign, “Ugly can be beautiful”, which helped position them within the American mainstream culture.
During the years of 2008-2015, Crocs were having a decline in revenue due to the 2008 recession. Crocs had to restructure its organization by laying off 100s of workers in certain plants regionally and globally. Its stock price dropped to a low of $0.79 as most companies faced an intense financial crisis.
With the disclosure from Private Equity firms like SAC Capital partners and The Blackstone group investing large sums of capital into Crocs, this might have been where their resurgence began. In 2016 to the present day, especially since the tenure of Reilly as Chief Marketing Officer, Crocs started to see an eventual increase in sales.
Reilly tenure at crocs began in 2013, a time when crocs was not even at the top of everyone’s mind as a goto fashion footwear. Before he left in 2020, Crocs became the ‘pinnacle of cool’.
With Reilly at the helm as Chief Marketing Officer he took crocs from a utility footwear to a ‘must-have’ for Gen Z.
Reilly’s playbook was to incorporate connections to customers through partnerships such as endorsement deals with celebrities like Justin Bieber, Post Malone, Drew Barrymore, etc. This helped solidify the brand because most of these partnerships were authentic since some of these celebrities were wearing crocs before receiving an offer to collaborate such as Post Malone who was spotted wearing it.
Scarcity played a key factor with some styles of crocs becoming viral due to limited releases in stores and online.
Reilly’s investment into digital channels also helped created viral moments with the hashtags #StrapBack, #AfterpayXCrocs, and #Cronation on TikTok. It was a collaboration with Afterpay, the fintech startup, for the annual upcoming ‘Croctober’ month celebration in October 23, 2020 that welcomed Afterpay as a partner.
Croctober is a celebration for fans and enthusiasts to help spread the importance of being yourself. Afterpay and Crocs thought to celebrate their brand collaboration by encouraging TikTok creators to demonstrate the possibility of their back strap engaged. A debate amongst gen z on whether to have their crocs relaxed or engaged (sport mode).
#StrapBack challenge garnered over 6.8 Billion views with 1.3 million videos created using the #strapback hashtag.
Reilly left Crocs in 2020 in a good position if its leadership continue to sail them in the right direction for new growth areas. Only time will tell if their resurgence was a trend or a long-term play.
At Stanley, Reilly’s new role as Global President did not see him change his playbook in marketing. He took what he learned from Crocs and applied it to the 110 year old company.
TikTok creators to show us what was possible with the backstrap of their Crocs engaged, settling the age-old “Sport Mode” debate.
Stanley
With its rich 100 year history, Stanley has developed a generational fan base that led to it being a heritage brand. Someone’s dad or grandad owned a Stanley before. It was by this same token that Reilly used his marketing playbook to shift that perspective to a new target market, Women.
He sought mommy influencers but utilized what he learned from Crocs to properly curate authentic brand partnerships. Reilly focus on partnerships was an organic approach. It would help the brand if those influencers are already using Stanley or similar products that way their audience can resonate with Stanley, a synergy of sorts.
As he did at Crocs, utilizing scarcity in product releases helped Stanley as well with the craze for their limited run of models like the Quencher. It bolster sales and kept the brand at the top of discussion amongst colleagues, friends, and family. It made their main line appealing to those who missed out on limited collaborations such as the Stanley x Lainey Wilson edition, which sold out in minutes.
Reilly’s marketing playbook at Stanley did not change from how he resurrected Croc’s cultural prominence. He of coursed used Stanley’s heritage to help the brand’s new target market of women to create a new growth market for the brand. The rise of sustainability in consumers also helped Stanley to capture that trend. Mommy influencers felt compelled to use something that helps the environment while being cute. It was the perfect timing.
CNBC did an episode on how Stanley turned a 110 year old water bottle into a $750 Million dollar business, yes one product hold a majority of that sale figure.
Lessons he inspired
Reilly’s playbook would work at established companies. It is yet to be seen if he can turn around new modern companies but some of the tactics in his playbook can work for new DTC businesses.
Incorporate the customers
User generated content is a part of social media marketing that invites the customers to interact with you online. It is at times a free way that customers speak about you. It is not a forced way of marketing but just inviting your audience into a social/cultural topic like the #Strapback challenge on TikTok that had creators demonstrate how they wear their crocs help to garner attention.
If you're in a small business or startup environment then using tactics like trending topics you find across Google Trends or a myriad of other tools can help you to create posts relevant to your customers. If positioned right then your company can become the next topic of discussion by hopping on a trend, maybe inviting others to discuss their thoughts.
Be mindful of controversial topics that might damage your company’s brand image instead of help aid in it.
Scarcity
When we don’t get an item that what we wanted, we feel sort of left out. It is the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) that drives our purchase, we think that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Marketers know how to craft a compelling ‘call to action’ message to rope you into making a quick decision.
Reilly had used this method at both Crocs and Stanley with his limited releases. The last release with Target and Starbucks was a frenzy at an El Paso Target. Some shoppers shared videos of the frenzy with commenters replying, "I love Stanley, but I will not do this for a cup." This is the power of scarcity especially since Target announced they won’t be releasing those editions ever again since it caused chaos at one of their stores.
That led to resellers seeing prices bid as high as $200 on eBay and StockX where as in retail it sold for $49.95. Not a bad flip if you happen to get your hands on one of those edition of Stanley.
Lifestyle Marketing
To Reilly, a metric that he looks for to see if a company has reached mainstream success is a location; the airport. When flying, Reilly notices what passengers carry on them. For example, if someone is sporting crocs at the airport then that means they are willing to brand themselves to others that they are exuding comfort.
Something that crocs are usually known for but back then before crocs became popular amongst the younger crowd, wearing crocs to an airport might have been a last minute decision. After Reilly left his role at Crocs, he now notices at the terminal that crocs are not a last minute decision but a fashion choice for travelers.
Embedding your product into the culture is making it a lifestyle product. If consumers find that they can’t ‘live’ without your product then your marketing is a success. Reilly’s imprint at Crocs proved that creating a product that can include your customers input will connect them to a brand. An example of this is the jibbitz that wearers can customize their crocs with. You had exclusive jibbitz like the collaboration with McDonalds that ran for a limited time. Jibbitz resonated with fans as they got to share their style with their friends and family.
Stanley’s sustainability mission was apart of the vision from the founder William Stanley Jr. who built a product to last. Sustainability is a lifestyle and Reilly realized that when he partnered with mommy influencers who understood the importance on using eco-friendly products. Their lifestyle matched what Stanley had built for his products.
Reilly might have had timing on his side as some of these products seems to been set at the right time for success. If this was the case he took the necessary risk with his marketing budget to deploy effective campaigns that spread across mostly digital channels that drove sales.
The lessons above can be used to help new marketers to the industry understand how these time tested tactics will always prove fruitful for attracting new customers. You truly do have to understand your target market on an intimate level.
Reilly used his daughters as a focus group to help him figure out what might be cool. Although some of you might not have kids yet but just using friends, family, and seeing the shift in consumer taste online and in-stores might help you become better marketers. Pay attention to those shifting moments.