Just For Feet Hits National Media Big Leagues with $25M Warchest - continued from September 28, 1998 issue, cover page

Editor's note. The bulk of this story, which began on the cover of Brandweek last issue (Sept. 28), was inadvertently omitted from the magazine following the introductory paragraph. We regret any inconvenience this production problem may have caused to our readers. The entire story is being reprinted here.

As it surpasses the 100-superstore mark, athletic footwear category killer Just For Feet is looking to concentrate marketing resources into a national advertising overlay and is lining up some of the country's biggest agencies in competition to unleash a $25 million brand campaign on the beleaguered Foot Lockers and Athlete's Foots of the sneaker market.

Since opening its first freestanding superstore in Birmingham, Ala., 10 years ago, the Birmingham-based chain of 16,000 to 25,000 square-foot stores will have 131 superstores in operation by next march, and is expecting $600 million in sales for this year.

"We've been advertising [only] product and price, and right now it really turns me off," said Harold Ruttenberg, founder and chairman of Just For Feet. "People don't know who we are; they think maybe we are a discount store and that made me think our message is wrong."

Agencies thus far in the hunt for the Just For Feet account are TBWA Chiat/Day, Venice, Calif., and respective offices representing competitors Saatchi & Saatchi, Foot Cone & Belding and DDB Needham.

Presentations are expected by the end of the year, and Ruttenberg is hoping for a new campaign in the first half of 1999.

The new agency's assignment will be to communicate the unique shopping experience at JFF, which has been likened to Old Navy. Just For Feet stores combine Disneyesque "shopping as entertainment" elements such as basketball courts, restaurants and huge video walls, with a dizzying selection of up to 5,000 SKUs, and some of the best trained salespeople in perhaps the most overretailed industry in America.

JFF is also looking for a concept that personifies the chain and will be the centerpiece of the marketing approach.

"Ours is one of the most fun retail concepts," said Ruttenberg. "All we have to do is get people in the store once. I'm looking for a [brand] icon like [Chiat's] Taco Bell dog; something creative and fun that will allow us to tell the public who we are without just shoving a lot of sneakers in their faces."

JFF will spend $70 million on advertising this year, all in local media, with the national budget jacking that to upwards of $100 million next year, Ruttenberg said.

Rogers Advertising, Birmingham, now handles the spot work for the retailer.

Industry leader Foot Locker spent $40 million on measured media in 1997, just $15.9 million in the first half of this year, while 500-store FootAction spent $13 million on media in 1997 and $4.6 million in the first half of '98. Both retail chains are expected to post flat to infinitesimal sales growth figures this year in a market that has slowed severely in 1998.

Meanwhile, Just For Feet's same-store sales grew 2.8% in the first half of '98. JFF is expected to claim 4% of a $12.4 billion retail market, according to New York-based brokerage firm BT Alex Brown.

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