Until the late seventies, the sport of skiing was only performed facing forward—obviously so that you can see where you’re going. It wasn’t until the mid seventies however that Olin Mark introduced the first twin-tip ski: the Comp IV. This ski separated itself from the competition because you could now ski forwards and backwards down the hill. While Olin Mark introduced twin-tip skis, this new product didn’t catch on until 1997 when Salomon introduced its first twin-tip ski: the 1080.

Once snowboarding started to catch on around the world, skiing began to lose popularity, especially in younger generations. Consumers were turning to snowboarding because of its unique ability to ‘surf on snow’, and to do freestyle tricks—something that skiing at the time could barely offer. In order to combat this snowboarding revolution, Salomon took the existing market of skiing and introduced a new product that had failed in the past—the twin-tip ski. With this new product, adrenaline-seeking consumers at ski hills could now choose between skiing and snowboarding to get their fix.

Introducing this new product helped to maximize customers in this market because freestyle skiing did not cannibalize the sales of Salomon’s snowboards. If consumers already loved skiing and wanted to try a new product, they’d try the 1080. Not a snowboard.

Under the trusted Salomon name, this product did not fail as it had with Olin Mark. Brand loyalty kept the product afloat, and allowed the small market share this product created to snowball into an entire industry. In today’s market, there are countless brands entering the freestyle skiing market, all of which are in debt to the original Salomon 1080.

http://www.salomon.com/caus/activity/alpine-skiing.html

http://www.b2i.us/profiles/investor/fullpage.asp?BzID=1548&to=cp&Nav=0&LangID=1&s=0&ID=6661

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