Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
only for a small part, in technical products related
to surf activities.
Quiksilver's revenues illustrate this trend:
the majority of profits come from the apparel
segment, which the company sells through its
network shops and through department and sports
specialty stores. Originally specialized in surf
equipment, Quiksilver had opted for a diversifica-
tion strategy in order to take a lead position in the
global “outdoor” segment. This was in particular
the purpose of the acquisitions of Rossignol and
Cleveland Golf in 2005. However, while Qui-
ksilver's clothing and footwear sales have been
strong, its equipment segment has been lagging
since 2007, in particular with difficulties faced
by the snow business. The company is now re-
centering its activities to lessen its exposure to
the equipment slow-down
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need to cope with a wider and less experienced
market than the ones exploited by companies like
Patagonia, specialised in the sale of top-of-the-
range environmental-friendly products to a niche
of experts and well-informed consumers.
This said, branding naturally constitutes a key
component of these companies' mid-term strat-
egy. Selling dream and sensations are indeed the
main objective, as the targeted consumers make
their purchase decision according to the symbols
conveyed by the brands and their capability to
embody the values of a community of young,
casual outdoorsy consumers.
Somehow, the surf industry has missed an
opportunity to capitalise at its very beginning on
its natural relation to environment to expand its
economic activity. Whereas environment is the
original target, it was not materialised as such in
the way to conceive the business development.
Their value configuration led the companies to
focus their core-business on the apposition of
fashionable brands on a large set of products, which
explains the predominance of brand marketing in
the vision of their strategies. It led them to lose
control on the production chain, as these activities
ended-up to be externalised (from material sup-
pliers to production factories). These companies
rather specialised in the capture of the more value-
added segment of the chain, which relies on the
intangible fluctuations of fashion. If a large part
of the production chain is externalised, strategic
elements such as R&D on technical products and
marketing policies remain obviously in the hands
of these companies.
Eco-Branding as Differentiation?
The targeted consumers and the related value
configuration allow some consideration in the
identification of possible drivers to environmental
integration in business. The targeted consumers
express strong ambivalence as regards environ-
ment. The products initially targeted a community
that has a strong relationship to nature and that
did not find the need to put many efforts in en-
vironmental protection. Quiksilver and Ripcurl
now acknowledge that their main buyers are not
experts but mostly young non-practitioners. Sellers
feedback on consumer's behaviour reveal that they
are little aware of environment, express confusion
on the identification of environmental challenges
and on the interrelation with their consumption
choices. Companies however did not enhance
their environmental practices in accordance to the
sociological evolution of the consumer's profile.
All in all, the final market is very similar to any
mass-consumption market, underpinned by strong
hedonism references. It is a key element that will
structure the environmental vision of these main-
The Potential of Innovation and
Inter-Industry Collaboration
Innovation on technical products is decisive. It
creates the main differentiation criteria among
the companies on the market, they are therefore
fiercely competing on the technical segment. In
this specific case, performance is the primary
