On another foot

What happens when a shoe brand that's been Kumfs since 1995 decides it's time for a change?

MOST OF US remember Kumfs. Our mums and grandmas swore by them – “the most comfortable shoes around”.

Not surprising. The company was founded 80 years ago by two brother-in-law podiatrists, who studied 10,000 women’s feet in the search for orthopaedically sound shoes to recommend to their clients.

The present CEO, Andrew Robertson, is the grandson of the original co-founder. So why, Idealog wondered, did he decide to take the company from a well-worn-in brand to the edgy, unfamiliar Ziera?

“Four years ago we kicked off a branding project. We didn’t go into it wanting to change the name, but it quickly became obvious that it was needed – we’d boxed ourselves into the older market, and needed to broaden our appeal.

“We could see our customer base was (literally) dying off – it was time for younger, working women in become part of our story.”

“Plus, no one could spell it! International markets hated it too – they felt it was very ‘hard’ sounding, quite Germanic.”

It was no small exercise. With 316 staff and 5 1 stores throughout Australia and New Zealand, getting everyone internally on the same page was the hardest part of the rebrand.

“It seemed like we were communicating 150%, but it was never enough,” Robertson says. “There was confusion. People weren’t aligned. It was like, ‘Are we a comfort brand now, or a fashion brand? Or are we exactly the same, just with a new name?’ The truth was actually somewhere between those two points.”

Many workshops on brand identity and values ensued, until Robertson was fairly confident people shared a common view.

“It’s such a journey. To be honest, it’s four years later and I feel like internally and production-wise we’re only just catching up with the vision of what Ziera is.” What would he do differently if he did it again? “Again? God forbid … I guess we’d be less led along by well-meaning consultants. They were all convinced they were right, but really only we could know who we were and what we wanted to become. We had to own that journey.

“I also would have tried staging the rebrand – we