Task:
This Final Assessment piece is available for download from the Assignment section of Canvas for Assessment 3 from Monday 25th October at 9am Melbourne time (AEDT). It contains five (5) questions, all are compulsory. These questions will be marked out of 100. This Final Assessment Piece is worth 50% of your total marks for this course.
You are expected to complete in-depth secondary research to answer EVERY question on this Final Assessment Piece. You are required to use the Harvard referencing system using in-text citations and a Reference List. All submissions will go through Turnitin as they are submitted.
You must submit your final assessment piece via the Submit button in the Assignment part of our canvas site, in the Assessment 3 section. The due date is Monday 8th November at 11.59pm Melbourne time (AEDT). The rubric can be found in the Assessment 3 section as well.
The word limit for this Final Assessment Piece is 1,750 words (+-10%). Any appendices, diagrams, tables, headings, in-text citations and the reference list are NOT included in the word count. Mockups are also not included in the word count.
Please develop your own Title Page to use as the front page of your FAP. Please write your full (RMIT registered) name as well as your student no, your tutor’s name, tute time and day. This should be the front page of your Final Assessment Piece (.docx or .pdf)
You must submit your final assessment piece via the Submit button in the Assignment part of our canvas site, in the Assessment 3 section. The due date is Monday 8th November at 11.59pm Melbourne time (AEDT). The rubric can be found in the Assessment 3 section as well.
The word limit for this Final Assessment Piece is 1,750 words (+-10%). Any appendices, diagrams, tables, headings, in-text citations and the reference list are NOT included in the word count. Mockups are also not included in the word count.
Please develop your own Title Page to use as the front page of your FAP. Please write your full (RMIT registered) name as well as your student no, your tutor’s name, tute time and day. This should be the front page of your Final Assessment Piece (.docx or .pdf)
UGG BOOTS
Ugg boots are iconic in Australia. Incredibly, it was an industry born in the trenches of WWI. Australian companies realised clothing made from sheepskin could protect our troops to prevent our soldiers from dying from exposure-related illnesses. It worked. And in the years that followed, the sheepskin industry slowly grew into making peacetime products. In fact, the humble ugg boot, now a popular fashion item, was traditionally considered dowdy.
The word “UGG” originated in Australia and is used to describe a particular style of sheepskin footwear, not the brand. In Australia, where the term is considered generic, more than 70 registered trademarks include the term “UGG” in various logos and designs.
The Ugg Boot War
In 1971, a local surf champion decided to capitalise on the growing popularity of ugg boots among surfers in Australia. He began selling Ugg boots and registered the name “Ugg”.
In 1979, a visitor from the US went home to New York with a few pairs of ugg boots in his backpack and set up a US company called Ugg Holdings Inc. He registered the Ugg trademark in 25 countries, including Australia. In 1995, he sold it to a US company called Deckers Outdoor Corporation. Years later, Deckers instigated legal action against more than 20 Australian companies, demanding they stop using the trademarked name “Ugg” to describe their boots!
Outraged by this attempt to monopolise the international market, Australian manufacturers banded together to form the Australian Sheepskin Association. A fighting fund was established, and with the help of concerned community members, the trademarks were deregistered in Australia. On 16th January 2006, the Trademarks Office handed down their decision that the evidence was “overwhelming” that the terms “ugg boots”, “ug boots” and “ugh boots” were generic terms and could be used by anyone in Australia to refer to sheepskin boots, and that the trademark “ugh-boots” and “ugh” be removed from the Register. This win was a significant boost for the small business Ugg boots manufacturing community, and numerous jobs have been saved.
Deckers, and other global companies, will continue defending their trademarks in the age of online shopping and digital advertising. Therefore, ugg businesses who are selling online to international destinations may inadvertently infringe overseas trademarks. Trademark owners will enforce their rights and stop smaller traders infringing their rights on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, all of the sales platforms which are multi-national platforms.
Currently there is a court case in the US Court hearing a trademark dispute between Deckers, the owner of the trademark in the US and many other countries against the company Australian Leather. If this is successful, all Ugg boot companies will be prevented from selling their range online to international destinations.
In Australia, there are many companies that sell products labelled as Ugg boots, and Deckers only owns the trademark for its own stylised logo. But in other markets, including the US and the UK, it has registered the trademark for the term ‘UGG’.
The value of the products Australian Leather sold online into the US was only around $2000. Australian Leather argued that the word “ugg” was not only considered generic in Australia, where it is commonly understood to mean sheepskin boots but also in the US.
Our work wardrobes have changed dramatically since 2020. Within a matter of days, we went from wearing business suits to gym pants or track pants, and the shift had a massive impact on what we purchased. Suddenly, everyone wanted to buy Ugg boots. People are doing online business through Zoom, Teams or FaceTime. Business people are often sitting in a shirt and a tie or a top and even jewellery also wearing pyjamas or tracksuit pants. Ugg boots finish their new business attire. People like their creature comforts. And who wouldn’t? There have been tales of people putting on a pair of Ugg boots just before winter in April and not taking them off until September.
A NEW ERA OF RETAIL
Ugg boots are iconic in Australia. Incredibly, it was an industry born in the trenches of WWI. Australian companies realised clothing made from sheepskin could protect our troops to prevent our soldiers from dying from exposure-related illnesses. It worked. And in the years that followed, the sheepskin industry slowly grew into making peacetime products. In fact, the humble ugg boot, now a popular fashion item, was traditionally considered dowdy.
The word “UGG” originated in Australia and is used to describe a particular style of sheepskin footwear, not the brand. In Australia, where the term is considered generic, more than 70 registered trademarks include the term “UGG” in various logos and designs.
The Ugg Boot War
In 1971, a local surf champion decided to capitalise on the growing popularity of ugg boots among surfers in Australia. He began selling Ugg boots and registered the name “Ugg”.
In 1979, a visitor from the US went home to New York with a few pairs of ugg boots in his backpack and set up a US company called Ugg Holdings Inc. He registered the Ugg trademark in 25 countries, including Australia. In 1995, he sold it to a US company called Deckers Outdoor Corporation. Years later, Deckers instigated legal action against more than 20 Australian companies, demanding they stop using the trademarked name “Ugg” to describe their boots!
Outraged by this attempt to monopolise the international market, Australian manufacturers banded together to form the Australian Sheepskin Association. A fighting fund was established, and with the help of concerned community members, the trademarks were deregistered in Australia. On 16th January 2006, the Trademarks Office handed down their decision that the evidence was “overwhelming” that the terms “ugg boots”, “ug boots” and “ugh boots” were generic terms and could be used by anyone in Australia to refer to sheepskin boots, and that the trademark “ugh-boots” and “ugh” be removed from the Register. This win was a significant boost for the small business Ugg boots manufacturing community, and numerous jobs have been saved.
Deckers, and other global companies, will continue defending their trademarks in the age of online shopping and digital advertising. Therefore, ugg businesses who are selling online to international destinations may inadvertently infringe overseas trademarks. Trademark owners will enforce their rights and stop smaller traders infringing their rights on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, all of the sales platforms which are multi-national platforms.
Currently there is a court case in the US Court hearing a trademark dispute between Deckers, the owner of the trademark in the US and many other countries against the company Australian Leather. If this is successful, all Ugg boot companies will be prevented from selling their range online to international destinations.
In Australia, there are many companies that sell products labelled as Ugg boots, and Deckers only owns the trademark for its own stylised logo. But in other markets, including the US and the UK, it has registered the trademark for the term ‘UGG’.
The value of the products Australian Leather sold online into the US was only around $2000. Australian Leather argued that the word “ugg” was not only considered generic in Australia, where it is commonly understood to mean sheepskin boots but also in the US.
Our work wardrobes have changed dramatically since 2020. Within a matter of days, we went from wearing business suits to gym pants or track pants, and the shift had a massive impact on what we purchased. Suddenly, everyone wanted to buy Ugg boots. People are doing online business through Zoom, Teams or FaceTime. Business people are often sitting in a shirt and a tie or a top and even jewellery also wearing pyjamas or tracksuit pants. Ugg boots finish their new business attire. People like their creature comforts. And who wouldn’t? There have been tales of people putting on a pair of Ugg boots just before winter in April and not taking them off until September.
A NEW ERA OF RETAIL
Ugg boots are sold by many businesses, in many retail stores and online. It is a crowded market with Mortel’s, Australian Leather, Uggoriginal, Uggdirect, Theuggs, Uggspremium, Uggs, UggAustralia trading in Australia and online. Most of these companies offer similar or the same offers to new customers such as $50-100 orders are shipped for free, most offers are 5-10% off, FB, Insta offers and more.
So how can ugg boot retailers compete if their offerings are generally interchangeable? Why have many of us not seen any of these current retailers online or on social media promotions?
Our Client
Since 2019, our Client’s company has been considering entering the ugg boot market and making Ugg boots, as at that time the price of sheepskins was at an all time low – $7 per skin. Now that Ugg boots have become very popular due to the Covid lockdowns, they think it’s the best time to enter. However, we have done no research and want you to do some for us as our Client. We have found a factory in Melbourne where we can manufacture the Ugg Boots and have found a wonderful site for a retail store in Melbourne’s CBD. So many retailers have gone out of business due to Covid, making stores cheap to rent and the ability to apply for money from each level of government.
1.From your in-depth analysis, describe what changes happened to the ugg boot industry due to COVID-19. Discuss these up until 25th October 2021.
2.If you were advising your client, what two segments of the market would you recommend they target and why.
3.Create a 12-month promotion calendar for each segment, ensuring you add the ideas from your competitor research. Your calendar must include as many traditional, digital and social media promotions as you recommend for the company to achieve its promotion objectives. The calendar is to cover the 12 months in 2022, assuming Covid-normal.
4.Follow each of your calendars with a discussion of what you have planned for each quarter (Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, Jul-Sep, Oct-Dec) and ensure you discuss the evidence as to why each of your segments will respond to your promotions.
5.Develop mock ups for EACH segment. You are required to complete one mock-up for each segment’s traditional, digital and social media, making 6 mock ups in total (3 per segment)
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