Lacoste, Tries to Sign Djokovic

Another year begins, with the Australian Open the great tennis tournaments of the ATP. In the big four ones, Lacoste has an important role, as the company dresses both judges and ball-boys and it will continue to do so until 2018 at least. Also some of the best tennis players in the world wear Lacoste, maybe less than the company desires.

In particular, his star player is the Spanish Roberto Bautista, who recently defeated Djokovic (world top one) in the Shanghai Tournament. Guillermo García-López another Spanish tennis player, who is triumphing in Australia in doubles, is another one of them. The sponsorship of Lacoste has been based on two sports, tennis and golf, in whose payroll was found in his days the great Severiano Ballesteros and Chema Olazabal, who still uses articles of the prestigious French brand.

Lacoste is precisely pushing for Novak Djokovic to be universal ambassador for the brand, Novak Djokovic. The Serbian number one, currently has a contract with the Japanese firm Uniqlo that  also dresses Kei Nishikori, the best Japanese tennis player of History, but the contract with the Serbian concludes this spring, and it seems clear that it will not renew.

A long and fruitful history
The famous mark name is due to René Lacoste, one of the greatest tennis players of all time and the reason for the logo is for a prize in the form of crocodile bag that tried to receive this great sportsman. The player asked to be designed a crocodile to wear it on his T-shirts, and he began to trade them, and have already been more than 80 years since.

Moments of ups and downs and of greater or lesser brilliance for the French company that extended to diverse categories of luxury articles, from fragrances to sunglasses, jewelry, even exclusive cars, including its emblematic shirts. In the Swiss group Maus Frerés who was made, with the mark in which at that time the majority of the descendants of the famous tennis player who in a series of corporate operations, not exempt of intrigue, ended up losing that participation.

Complicated positioning in the market
The great value of the brand and its logo in undeniable, however the marketing strategy carried out by its managers has not always worked, especially in a competitive environment where giants like Nike or Adidas take the top players in their payroll. Lacoste’s problems are due to the fact that he has not been able to modernize and reach a younger audience, he is too pigeonholed in these two sports and is perceived as a predominantly masculine brand, although among his patrons there were always found French tennis stars like Tauziat, Or Sandrine Testud, winners of a Federation Cup in the 90s. In present time Lacoste dresses the main French women tennis players, but just 3 % of all the female participants (13 % off men) on Australian Open.

He has also had problems being perceived as a brand for spring/summer and although much of his products, as his clothing poles have been very successful, but has not been able to reach the level of  of brands like Tommy Hilfiger or Polo Ralph Lauren. In fact the only one of the top brands like Fred Perry, with similar history to Lacoste is seen behind both in terms of market share and online presence, according to studies of the Alexa databases. The company that hosts Lacoste is making great efforts to improve its online strategy and have undoubtedly obtained some designs and powerful tools to improve in both the sportswear and in casual/formal fashion. The presence of Djokovic would suppose, no question about that, a big push for Lacoste.

Disclosure: The Luxonomist is not responsible for the views expressed in the article. The text has been written freely expressing their own ideas, without receiving any compensation. The author has no business relationship with any of the companies whose shares are listed in this article.