Once the Great Silk Road was a caravan trade road connecting the East with the West, along which Chinese merchants brought silk, from India they brought spices and gems, from Iran - silver products. Now, when the strengthening of cultural and economic ties between East and West is especially significant, it was decided to symbolically revive the Great Silk Road. The famous Russian traveler Fyodor Konyukhov decided to repeat it again and became the main ideologist of the international expedition "In the footsteps of the Great Silk Road". This year, the Danish company ECCO became a TEST PARTNER of the expedition (this status means that the expedition members are provided with footwear that they will test in various conditions over several seasons - in the Mongolian steppes and semi-deserts, while climbing mountains and crossing rivers) ... This is one of the largest campaigns on the Russian footwear market. How strong is the influence of the promotion on the minds of visitors to ECCO stores?
First, let's talk about the project itself. The start was given 7 years ago, all this time preparatory work was going on, in the spring of 2009 the second stage began - already on real roads: the participants of the expedition had to overcome part of the Great Way along the same route along which our ancestors did millennia ago. It is clear that even with such an authentic approach, technological progress is still indispensable, therefore a caravan of camels and horses is accompanied by vehicles of organizational and technical support.
The project started on May 13 from the headquarters of Genghis Khan in Ulan Bator (Mongolia), and the finishing point will be Elista (Russia, Republic of Kalmykia), where the participants will arrive in December 2009. The total length of the route is over 7000 km. All these many thousands of kilometers, the participants were shod in ECCO, every day they overcome 40-45 kilometers, every day, in summer heat and autumn slush, in snow and hail, and ECCO shoes provide expedition members with the opportunity to comfortably follow the paved route.
The coincidence of the brand positioning and the project idea is obvious: the company has always promoted the idea of “Shoes exist for feet”. Here she had the opportunity to prove that shoes exist for feet and will not let the wearer down even in the most extreme conditions.
In ECCO stores, shoe models provided to expedition members were distinguished by special POS materials. Audio clips telling about the trip were also spinning there. The action caused not only a commercial resonance (the demand for these models increased), people came to stores to find out about Konyukhov's health, when he fell ill during the expedition, shared their impressions and observations.
In our opinion, the effectiveness of the action was determined by the fact that the emphasis was not so much on the properties of the shoe itself, but on what place it occupies in a person’s life.
Five reasons to support the expedition
- Convenience. ECCO shoes perfectly match the anatomical features of the foot. While many shoe companies think about shoes, Danes think about the foot. How it works, how it reacts to various surfaces, how fifty-two bones and fifty-six tendons allow a person to move in space. Only by thoroughly studying the foot can you create the most comfortable shoes in the world.
- Materials. Only the finest materials are used to create ECCO shoes - ECCO has its own tanneries and is constantly looking for innovative materials that could make shoes even more comfortable.
- Symbiosis of approaches. ECCO footwear combines traditional and innovative approaches. The possibilities of technology are limited, and the possibilities of manual labor are also limited. ECCO knows that together machines and people can work wonders. The company knows exactly where the balance lies between traditional methods and the latest technological research.
- Design. ECCO is a completely Scandinavian design. That is, style is an extension of the functionality of the shoe. The combination of great looks and comfort for the feet is an advantage in every pair of ECCO shoes.
- Quality and ethics. Only by fully controlling the entire process of creating shoes, you can get really high quality products. It is thanks to the control of the entire process that ECCO provides even more guarantees and ensures a polite and respectful attitude towards our employees, regardless of where in the world they work.
People in ECCO shoes, wherever they are, in Elista or Copenhagen, will always be in the most comfortable place on Earth. Today, ECCO shoes are represented in 97 countries, and almost 15 million pairs of ECCO men's, women's and children's shoes are sold annually in the world.
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