Gotcha Grasping for Wider Market in Surf Wear With ‘Irreverent’ Ads
Gotcha Sportswear, a major regional maker of surf wear, is reaching for a bigger chunk of its fast-growing market and has budgeted $2 million for its first national ad campaign in January.
The blitz, which represents about half of Gotcha’s total marketing budget, will pit the Costa Mesa company against Ocean Pacific Sunwear Inc. of Tustin in the national arena.
Gotcha officials said they hope the campaign, being designed by the Los Angeles office of Michigan-based W.B. Doner & Co., will boost sales by almost 50%, to $100 million in 1988.
Doner & Co. has developed an “anti-establishment” theme designed to capture the attention--and dollars--of young surf-wear enthusiasts by appealing to their “mentality of rebellion,” said Nancy Shalek, executive vice president and general manager of Doner’s West Coast office.
Although Ocean Pacific is the nation’s largest surf-wear brand, it has seen its share of the key, coast regional market diminish under an onslaught of competition from companies like Gotcha, Quiksilver and Catchit. OP has maintained its lead by capturing the mainstream market nationally.
But by concentrating on the so-called hard-core surf market, privately held Gotcha says it has risen to No. 2 in the country with $45 million in sales last year and an anticipated $70 million this year--almost all from the Sunbelt and Eastern Seaboard states.
Company officials say 8-year-old Gotcha will continue to target only the youth market as it pushes into the Northeast, Northwest and Midwest.
The new ad campaign will include movie trailers, spot radio ads and exposure in an expanded list of publications, Shalek said.
TV ads will probably start in the fourth quarter of 1988, added Mark Price, Gotcha’s vice president for marketing.
Price said Gotcha is going after 12-to-24-year-olds across the country, aiming at surf and beach enthusiasts along the coast and “the skate(board) market” in inland areas with a “totally irreverent” ad campaign.
Neither price nor Shalek would provide specifics about the content or concept of the campaign.
