More core division (MCD)
In the late 80’s, Gotcha had expanded far beyond its specific market. What had started as a targeted brand and personality, was becoming Fad ” and sales team, while deepened in the mass market, began to impose their preferences on basic allocation decisions and directions of the brand.
It was an incredible period of prosperity for the company, but Michael Tomson Gotcha realized that he could not maintain this pace of growth and, in fact, the super distribution undermined the interests of long-term brand. Tomson had a motto — “The quantity is the enemy of quality” and in this case certainly was. Gotcha was losing some of its prestige among consumers core. Tomson and designer Jack Denny had the idea of creating a new brand-within-a-brand dedicated exclusively to the core market. With the exception of Tomson, there were few in the company so strongly committed to maintaining the integrity of the brand before consumers core as Denny.
“Jack and I were dealing constantly”Says Tomson. “He kept pressuring me, challenged me to never accept the current situation”
Michael Tomson and Jack Denny soon determined what was and what was not “Surfing”, And, as the Gotcha expanded into a vast market, means that the influence of the core parent brand rapidly decreased. The MCD was a return to roots. “All concerned MCD was real” said Mike Savage, who was brought in to manage the Gotcha brand. “It’s so much in fashion surfing in California, which in the late ’80s, the neon was booming, people walked up and down in crazy colors. Surfing had become too commercial. The MCD was the opposite. There was a liberating feeling to do what you really believe. ” To launch the new brand, Tomson met with his long-time partner Mike Salisbury to create the first ad campaign. The name chosen for the brand at that time was between: Bash, and Noise, which were discarded in the future. The name More Core Division, ie, MCD, seemingly came out of the movie Surfers: The Movie. “One of the guys interviewed said that surfers in Northern California were “more core” than others, ” Tomson says. “And the name just stuck.”
The first step was the presentation of the team and the concept of the brand. Tomson selected the top riders of the team Gotcha for MCD. It was a real “Who’s Who elite surfing: Martin Porter, Cheyne Horan, Dino Andino, Michael and Derek Ho, Mike Stewart, Brock Little, Matt Archbold, and Gerry Lopez. The new super team entered the studio of Mike Funk in Costa Mesa, California at the end of 1989 to the monumental black and white photo in the group, which was entitled “Superior Mothers.”
“They were all great champions in their own styles and characteristics,” recalls Funk And each one thought it was better than the other. The attitude and strong personality of each member of this team was evident when he entered the studio ” The campaign Superior Mothers ran for about nine months and was essential to establish the credibility of MCD with surfers core. “Michael Tomson has done its duty,” says Derek Ho. “He rode one of the best teams of all time, in all terms: competition, freesurfing, knowledge and attitude. He was African, Australian, Californian, Hawaiian. He covered the map. We were Team Mother of All Others. “
In 1992, Michael Tomson, proving once again that he was a visionary, has identified a gap to be filled in the market for surfwear and decided to separate the More Core Division of Gotcha, Gotcha maintaining a brand developed for the masses and then creating a MCD. Brand developed and created by and for the elite of the surfing world. A brand of strong-minded and authentic, based on well-defined values and an extremely innovative approach.
After switching off the MCD of Gotcha, the first order was to establish a symbol for the brand. It was a collaborative effort, with Denny in front of the project. Johnny Monson was brought from Gotcha to help make the MCD Denny off. “MT realized that I had a connection with the attitude,” Monson recalls. He entered and Tomson, contributing to the basic design of the logo. Unlike Gotcha, the logo has not changed over time, the MCD was about keeping the core, to maintain authenticity.
The MCD quickly realized what it set out to do: He established a solid reputation as an innovative and bold brand of surfing. Tomson indoctrinated the sales of MCD with this lesson: Do not overdo it. “He knew that depend on the mass market was the kiss of death for a brand concept and personality,” Monson recalls. When the campaign ended Mothers Superior, most surfers returned to their ways, some even resumed their identification with the Gotcha, except for Matt Archbold. The Archbold for 90 years defined itself as a dominant force in Off the Wall and the amount of tattoos covering his skin. Archbold signaled a paradigm shift in which the MCD was established. “I just like the tattoo” Archbold says. “The MCD has worked with it. Fit with the whole image of rebellion. It was more core. ” Archbold became the face of the MCD. He legitimized the authenticity of the brand. “You can not be more authentic than the Archy,” says Mike Savage. “He was the anti-hero of surfing. I think the classic image of the MCD is Archy, photographed from the back, shorts with the MCD, and with the tattoo ‘Build for Speed’ in your neck. “
“I think Michael saw the MCD as a kind of outlaw gang,” Archbold says. “The skull and crossbones, the whole image out of the law. That’s what they did to me – I’m not saying that I was not, but I’ve changed, and the image was still there. The MCD was an underground brand solidly built, focusing on the main.
The MCD produced a video on Archbold, titled Addiction. Filmed entirely in black and white, Addiction, mixed his freestyle surfing and its rebellious image with the image of its sponsor. The title alluded to the almost pathological commitment of Archbold in surfing, but resonating with other meanings. Was walking on the edge – MCD played hard and unsafe.
From the beginning, the MCD was designed and built on strong pillars behavior. Starting with the restless behavior, visionary and creator of her challenger, Michael Tomson, who wanted to create a brand really original and authentic, to translate your personality and that of thousands of surfers who did not fit the profile dictated by the industry of the surfing world.
“The prestige of the MCD behavior as a mark surpassed cultural boundaries of surf Perry Farrel – MCD’s team manager and former member of Janes Addiction
