At The Heel of Success
Bata Malaysia’s managing director Paolo Grassi speaks to Tien Chew on transforming the well-known footwear brand
Like a true blue Italian, Paolo Grassi asks me if I would like a cup of coffee from his country the very moment I step into his office and meet him for the second time. I ask for a long black and we continue on with the interview. The first time I met Grassi was at the Italian National Day celebration in KL and I was intrigued to get to know the man behind such a recognisable brand here in Malaysia, Bata. With only a few hours to spare, I take a sip of my aromatic coffee and dive right into the questions—the first of which was to ask him about the popular notion among Malaysians that Bata is thought of as a local brand. Even I grew up with the misconception that Bata was Malaysian, partly due to the overwhelmingly large number of school students who buy their shoes from the Swiss retail giant. “We have conducted a survey here in Malaysia and the first brand that people mention when you ask them about shoes is Bata. This is our legacy,” says Grassi. “Now, that doesn’t mean that they actually buy our shoes; this is my main concern in a sense that the brand power is there but the legacy of this power is only related to young kids of school-going age.” He goes on to share that Bata Malaysia is in need of an image reshuffling to capture a wider market; something that Grassi is keen on tackling in order to cast Bata as a global modern player in the footwear industry. “A good strategy that Bata has is to think globally and act locally. One of our strengths is that everybody believes that Bata is part of their own country. Ask an Indian and they will say that Bata is Indian. Ask an Italian, Singaporean or even a Thai and they will tell you the same thing,” says Grassi. Although this is quite remarkable for any brand, Grassi wants Bata to be perceived as a global brand in the eyes of the locals, even though it already is. This is certainly an odd predicament for an international brand. Grassi has spent the better part of his time as the company’s Malaysian managing director, analysing the locals’ spending patterns and has come to an understanding that shopping is very much an activity that we partake in frequently. “When you need shoes you go to Bata because it is a brand that is affordable with a good quality price range. But when you want something with emotion and you want to have fun, you don’t go to Bata,” says Grassi.
“One of our strengths is that everybody believes that Bata is part of their own country”
“Our brand is unique in a way because we offer a variety of shoes for the family. There is not really any competitor to Bata,” he adds. With that being said, under Grassi’s direction the company is working together with more brands to increase focus on providing better products to further build upon their standing as a one-stop affordable shoe shop.