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Intersport reaches out
Revitalised in the UK, the development of the Intersport buying group is stepping up in 2010 with enhanced branding and a consumer marketing campaign. Barry Mellis, general manager of Intersport in the UK, spoke to Robin Barwick about taking ‘Sport to the People’
Intersport’s UK membership has enjoyed its fastest ever rise in numbers over the past six months, and the recent decision made at Intersport’s global HQ in Switzerland to update the group’s image and send out a strong brand message to consumers, coincides neatly with the group’s UK revival.
Intersport is now concentrating on taking ‘Sport to the People’. That is the strapline the group has introduced as it seeks to extend a global membership that currently includes 5,200 sporting goods stores in 37 countries, from Canada in the west, right across Europe and into the Middle East.
“Sport is for everyone and it is our mission, as well as our daily goal, to bring sport to the people,” says Franz Julien, CEO of Intersport International Corporation, based in Bern. “We want to motivate people to become more active and therefore support them in the pursuit of a healthier lifestyle.”
The home front
On a global scale Intersport boasts an annual retail turnover of €8 billion and it now has its sights set on Asia/Pacific, but at home, there remains plenty of work for UK general manager Barry Mellis and his team at Associated Independent Stores, which holds the UK license for Intersport.
“We have made a concerted effort over the past year to grow the Intersport membership in the UK and to make the group more relevant to the suppliers and members alike,” Mellis tells Sporting Goods Business.
At the beginning of 2009, Intersport’s UK membership was at its lowest ebb in recent times, with 59 members and a total of 158 stores, but in the fastest membership growth spurt since Intersport entered the UK market in 1974, seven new members have joined since June, lifting Intersport’s UK presence to 66 members and 179 stores.
“We have given Intersport a lot more energy and focus,” adds Mellis, “and the re-branding is a way of cementing together everything we are striving to achieve with independent retailers.
“We have identified the need to do more consumer marketing. Intersport is the only recognised buying group with its own brand and a recognised fascia in the UK, and we need to let communities know what Intersport is. A lot of our retailers carry out their own local marketing anyway, so we hope to embellish what they already do and make the marketing more consistent across the Intersport group.”
New Year plans
At the time of writing, the new strapline and enhanced Intersport logo are still being introduced to members and brands in the UK, with a soft launch set for the next Intersport show, January 6-7. Detailed marketing plans will be drawn up in January and February, with a view to the new and improved Intersport image reaching high streets in the Spring and in time for the build up to the 2010 World Cup.
A new in-store concept, reflecting the re-branding, will also be rolled out across the entire Intersport group, with a view to improving product presentation and the user-friendliness of the in-store experience for consumers. Ultimately, the hope is that this strategy will generate customer loyalty, and hence, increased sales.
“We are giving Intersport greater relevance to the UK market,” adds Mellis, who took control of the UK operation in November 2008. “Intersport had become internalised and it fell off the radar, but now people are responding positively to Intersport again, both in terms of the membership and the brands. We need to send out a clear message of who we are to the brands and consumers, and this is key as far as keeping independent retailers profitable is concerned.”
