I want an Ocean Kayak! 06/29/2009
 Last time I took a 3 day kitesurfing holiday, I ended up coming home and collapsing on my kitchen floor. A quick ride in the ambulance and $3,000 worth of medical tests later, it was determined that I had become so dehydrated while on the ocean (kiting each day almost 6hrs straight) somehow my body slipped into toxic shock. So now I only kitesurf on the weekends, I tone it down and I mix in some mountain biking when I can (thank you Ventana). Which brings up Ocean Kayaking. For years, no desire whatsoever to me. But now that I'm getting up there in age, the thought of cruising around on the ocean (with fresh water to drink) and take it easy is incredibly appealing to me. I am an outdoor enthusiast, true and true. My entire basement, all 1,200 sq feet is packed to the gills with gear. I actually lose sleep at night thinking about where I am going to put this 16' water craft. But that is another story. What appeals to me about the Valley brand is that it is a niche product. You can't walk into REI and find these, you can't find them at Dick's, but what you can do is walk into a small dealer (Kennebunk Maine), get some one on one service, get a demo on the product and then get support for life ---at least as long as the smaller retailer stays in business. I really wish more and more smaller niche retailers understood online marketing. Here is the power. If Valley is only distributing its Kayaks through niche retailers, and the niche retailers are on the hook for holding the inventory, why don't the two get together and launch a co-op campaign that targets outdoor enthusiasts? This is so easy to do its mind boggling. Valley could allocate a certain amount of its marketing budget to online. They could find a network like our Outdoor Channel, and then we could make sure that the ads are only targeted to a 60 mile radius around the cities where they have supporting dealers. This accomplishes a couple of things. It drives retail traffic to the stores, it shows the stores that the brand is behind them, and by leveraging the reach of a targeted network, the campaign would most attract new entrants to the sport.....the kinds who may be more willing to pay full retail in the expectation of a demo and support. Why this in fact describes me! So how did I find out about Valley? Did I look through the ads in the various print magazines? No. Did I have a friend who suggested one? No, remember I am just getting into this. So what did I do? Two things. One, is I found out about a group ride occuring in my area and I went into the parking lot to watch, ask questions, and then suvey the brands being loaded into the water. There were lots of Valley Kayaks. Second thing I did was I went to the Valley website and searched their dealer database to find a retailer close to me. From here it was just a matter of swinging up to Maine to see them live. But what I'm sure Valley completely understands, is that not everyone is like me. But what they should know is that I spend 4 hours a day online while at work, often visiting my favorite gear forums ( rockclimbing.com, gear junkie..etc..etc) and that with just ONE targeted ad to me noting that Valley kayaks were a niche brand and available in Maine -- a short 30 minute drive, the need for me to go to a parking lot and see the brands rep'd first to focus on Valley could have been avoided. What if I went to the parking lot and everyone was on Necky? Wilderness ? The point here is that in order to succeed in attracting new customers, you have to be advertising where they hang out, even before they are in the market for your product. I'm going to explain this a little more in another post. Add Comment So with the last two posts, I have pointed out two companies ( REI and Navionics) who have launched their own iPhone app as a means to garner more mind share with their brand enthusiasts. So which model is better? Free or paid? iPhone integration for Navionics 06/29/2009
 A little more research over the weekend to find an outdoor brand with its own iPhone app...but not the larger type advertising budget reserved for companies like REI (see post below). The point here being an example of how a brand can reach into the lives of its customers (and brand enthisiasts) by providing something useful and doing so in a way that still brings in an ROI on the campaign and covers the cost of development. I think the outdoor industry as a whole is very aware of this concept. In one part, the old ways of traditional branding have left many a marketing manager asking themselves what they need to do in order to maximize their advertising budget without breaking the bank. And whenever someone can come up with a tool that makes the lives of its brand enthusiasts easier to engage their activity, you have a winner on your hands. Navionics knows this very well. Having provided critical mapping software for boating and fishing enthusiasts since 1984, it was a only a matter of time for them to get the electronic side of the business pumping, and then to further this with an iPhone App. In March of 2009, Navionics came up with a nifty way to offer “anytime & anywhere” viewing of detailed marine charts, lake maps, and outdoor & ski trails all from the comfort of your iPhone. While the app does have a cost associated with it, as a brand what they are doing is not only reaching the marine enthusiasts (bread and butter to bottom line) but also opening themselves up more for the fishing and hiking enthusiasts. The wide array of demographics they are reaching with this app are impressive. What is more impressive is the fact that here is a company no where close to the size of REI, but still they have managed to put something on the table and really embrace the whole social media aspect of the outdoor arena. iPhone Apps for branding 06/26/2009
 REI iphone app Seems like everywhere you turn around, there is another brand attempting to capture more mind share with your wallet. But unlike the past, more and more mindshare is being gained in a way that your customer doesn't even notice. That's the point. Reaching an \"engaged\" consumer 06/25/2009
[SNIP] from Bloomberg: If the average internet users spends 28.8 minutes online ( June 09 Comscore Media Metrix) and you can find an area where your customers are spending 4:31 minutes each day, then esentially you have locked down 15% mind share with them. Getting back to my earlier post, here are some highlights from a study released by Comscore on the 18th of June: Print has no ROI but online should? 06/18/2009
I had an interesting exchange of emails today with a marketing manager for a top 10 outdoor retailer. A classic brand in the outdoor space if there ever was one. Stats! 06/17/2009
When you are looking to establish your brand in the outdoor space, making sure you are reaching the right people at the right time is probably one of the most important considerations. Here is an example of some basic info you should know about every site or network you advertise on. This is for our own network of outdoor sites: Reach and Activity:
For the sites in our network, 952,263 people swing by each month. Of those, 397,669 are unique ( meaning that 397,669 people hit our sites at least 3x , which gets you to the 952K number). When hitting our sites, the outdoor folk scroll through the sites reading news, chatting it up with friends and looking at cool videos. They do this 7,787,425 times each month. And it takes them on average 6:05 to look at the 7.8 million pages. WOW! That is a ton of time to be spending on our sites.....and they're doing this probably while at work no less. For the visitors on our sites, if they register as a member then they can play in the forums and post away. On average, our sites will generate 67,000 new conversations each month. The folks that are doing this are mostly male (83%) and are between the ages of 18-34. A little more than half graduated from college. By knowing the details behing a website, as a marketer you can make sure you are reaching the right people. Nice campaign idea from New Balance 06/16/2009
 As a brand, New Balance dominates the outdoor market. I'm fortunate enough to have them in my backyard, just down the street in Boston. One of the things about New Balance that has always impressed me was their focus on keeping jobs in the USA. No rush decisions, just the long and steady. Heck, they've been at it since 1938 so why rock the boat. Target the right demographic 06/15/2009
The Outdoor Business update from SportsOne Source had an interesting article earlier in the month that pointed to a surge in interest for all things camping from a demo you wouldn't expect. |   "Outdoor Mojo" is my where I apply my real world passion for the outdoors with my freelance experience in digital and social media.
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