Acting through their respective national trade associations, Spaf and Asmas, sporting goods brands and retailers operating in Switzerland have joined forces to organize and finance a massive nationwide communication campaign, telling Swiss people that they should buy their products in Swiss stores. The aim is to discourage them from buying sporting goods on the internet because of price considerations or in stores across the border because of the recent strong appreciation of the Swiss franc.
The campaign, which has a budget of almost 1 million Swiss francs (€815,000-$1.1m), reached its climax today, at the start of the crucial Christmas selling season, with the launch of dedicated websites in German and French under www.hier-gekauft.ch and www.achete-ici.ch. Besides listing the arguments in favor of shopping in Switzerland, they invite customers to participate in various contests until Feb. 29 by visiting any of the 600-odd Swiss retailers participating in the program. They can win vouchers or special sports experiences with champions in the areas of running, cycling, climbing and skiing.
Adidas, Amer Sports, Catrade, Chris Sports, Intersport, Lowa, Nike, Swissski and WS4Sports are cited as co-sponsors of the campaign. They and other members of Spaf and Asmas have already agreed to lower their prices to help retain clients. These companies estimate that they are giving up gross profits of CHF150 million (€122m-$165m) on the products being sold for the current fall/winter season by lowering the recommended retail prices by 5 to 20 percent. While most of the products they sell have been bought in cheaper euros or dollars, many of the contracts they signed for the current season's merchandise were based on higher parities.
On the other hand, the campaign wants to convince consumers that they are better off buying any sporting goods in a regular Swiss specialty store because of its proximity, the quality of its products and the advice that they can get from the store personnel. This claim is partly supported by a recent survey, conducted by the University of St. Gallen and reported by the trade magazine Schweizer Sport + Mode, showing that 68 percent of Swiss consumers trust the advice of the staff in a sporting goods store, compared with ratios of 48 percent in a fashion boutique or 46 percent in a food store. The study also shows that 44 percent of consumers don't check or use the internet to buy a sports product, while 7 percent buy such products on the internet regularly and 22 percent do so occasionally.
The campaign started on Nov. 8 with a series of press conferences that have led to reports in the daily newspapers, on the radio and on television. It is going to continue with posters, billboards and POS displays in the participating stores. It is backed up by the testimonials of well-known Swiss sports champions such as Martina Schild, Ueli Steck and Kilian Wenger.
There are no estimates about the damage that the strong Swiss franc has already done to Swiss sporting goods retailers so far this year, but there have been many reports of consumers crossing the border into neighboring foreign towns such as Konstanz to pay less at the local stores for food and many other kinds of products. Because of higher operating costs and lower economies of scale, Swiss retailers have been less competitive than their German or French counterparts for years, but on top of that, the exchange rate of the Swiss franc has gone down to around CHF 1.20 against the euro from CHF 1.50 a couple of years ago.
A similar campaign has not been launched in any other sector of the Swiss economy, but then, for the country's sporting goods retailers, the appreciation of their currency has come at a time when their sales have been suffering the worst declines in the last 20 to 25 years because of other factors as well, including the weather and the poor economy. Year-on-year, they fell by an estimated 10 percent in the first quarter, by 3 percent in the second quarter and by 10 percent in the third quarter. According to Schweizer Sport + Mode, some of the stores in the ski resorts have already booked a drop of 20 percent for the current season. As of yesterday, there was still no snow on any mountains below 4,000 meters of altitude, so it will probably be impossible for them to match the very strong fourth quarter of 2010.
For Spaf and Asmas, the new campaign is going to be a major common project that may be a prelude to their possible merger into a single organization, as is already the case in Austria, Norway and Sweden. Discussions in this direction have already taken place for a while, and they have been partly triggered by the departure last September of Peter Hug, general manager of Spaf, who is retiring. He has agreed to make himself available until next June to ensure a smooth transition, but he has already been replaced by another manager, Gabi Nauer, who has worked for Catrade Sportmarketing and Marc Staiger. The general manager of Asmas, Claude Benoit, who is also secretary general of the European shoe retailers' federation, Fedas, is about to reach the age of 63, and he has already started to recruit new people.
