Kurt Geiger is one of the UK’s leading shoe retailers with over 50 stores across the country. The pandemic saw all retail stores close with media criticism for furloughing staff. Kurt Geiger’s challenge was to drive customers online and highlight its best Corporate Social Responsibility practices.
Our objectives
- To position Kurt Geiger favourably across print, broadcast and online media despite the closure of all of its UK stores amidst the coronavirus crisis
- To position Kurt Geiger and CEO, Neil Clifford, as the spokesperson for the retail industry throughout the pandemic
- To highlight Kurt Geiger’s new company ethos, promoting ‘kindness as the new luxury’
- To promote Kurt Geiger’s charitable initiatives to raise money for the NHS
- To ensure that Kurt Geiger was front of mind when shops reopened
- To promote Kurt Geiger’s subsidiaries, Carvela and Shoeaholics, as separate/standalone brands
Our execution
We recommended using initiatives such as donations of stock to NHS and frontline workers to generate positive coverage. Kurt Geiger also kept all of its staff on full pay while encouraging them to volunteer for the NHS whilst the CEO, Neil Clifford, suspended his salary. Both of these initiatives were leveraged to provide newsworthy stories to the media whilst positioning the brand positively in the public eye. This strategy generated widespread coverage across national, trade, magazines and broadcast and following this coverage, the firm’s online sales went up from 25% to 40% of normal revenue.