Being a ski or snowboard instructor involves a lot of personal selling when delivering a lesson, I know that since I am one. But the instructor itself cannot do too much without the proper back up of the Ski and Snowboard School and the ski resort’s promotion of the lessons.

Of course, sometimes, anywhere on the mountain, when engaging with customers helping them to get around (for example) could lead to the selling of a lesson.

As one of my supervisors once said: “You just have to give them the never ending lesson”. Yes, I know, it’s super cheesy! But it makes sense…

When instructors are out there teaching their customers how to ski or ride they are delivering a tailored service. There is also a relationship between the provider and the client, and the longer and bigger this relationship is the more specific the service gets according to the customer needs. For example, lets say there is a student that wants to learn how to turn better but at the same time is afraid of mid-steep slopes. Then, the instructor would have to get to know this person, find out what makes he or she tic, and create an exercise (or drill) with a certain progression to make the student learn without fear.

Being an instructor is a high selling job, but not in a way that you open your jacket and you have a full store ready to be sold, it is more as in keeping the customer hooked with the lesson and the learning process. Therefore, the relationship approach is very useful: lessons have a long-term focus (you want this customer to keep on coming and getting lessons with you) and the problem-solving role has to up and running from the get go (adapting your teaching methods to different types of learners have to endure throughout).

Looking for some funny outdoor ads I run in to this blog (http://great-ads.blogspot.com/2011/03/durex-performa-scores-in-their-extra.html) and found something very interesting:

(Source: http://great-ads.blogspot.com/2011/03/durex-performa-scores-in-their-extra.html)

What do condoms and Soccer have in common? Not much, but Durex made a really funny connection between the sport and their new “Durex Performa” product. This spot-on genius ad was created by the McCann Erickson agency. This new type of condom gives men, with the help of Benzocaine, a longer-lasting climax.  

Going back to the AIDA model, this ad is one of the best examples to describe it. Spectators will remember this link between the new condom’s features and the extra time light board (attention). This experience might lead them to try out the new product (interest) to the point that they will desire it and then take the action of purchasing it.

Ad campaigns like this are the ones that succeed the most since the amount of word-of-mouth that this campaign would generate will even travel outside the market location it was targeted for: Asian Soccer.

In-N-Out is one of the most popular burger restaurants in western USA, especially in California. Founded in 1948 by Henry Snyder with one objective: to provide the best burger experience with the freshest ingredients and the cleanest environment. The company’s motto, “Quality you can taste”.

This family owned chain has around 258 locations and still growing. How did they make it so far with so many rivals out there? Easy, they created a culture around the Californian burger-eating population. They kept it nice and simple: 4 item menu (burgers, fries, sodas, and milk shakes), burgers land on the grill as soon as they are ordered, buying local fresh vegetables, and of course a secret menu for the hard core fans. In the end having a burger at In-n-Out was a trendy experience, and still is.

In-n-Out’s dedication to the best burger experience generated a successful word-of-moth advertising, leaving no desire to pay for big ad campaigns. The company would only invest in few radio commercials, highway billboards, bumper stickers, and merchandise like t-shirts and hats.

Even though there is so much “noise” in the air (like McDonalds, Burger King, etc.) it was not too hard for INO to communicate with its customers. Thanks to the burger culture that INO imposed to their public, customers were/are highly educated, making the encoding and decoding of INO’s messages highly efficient.

Last weekend I flew to Cali for the weekend and I took the liberty of spoiling myself with a great double double animal style with fries and a soda! Here is the evidence:

Few companies, like Walmart and Staples, are downsizing but not in a way where they close stores, they are coming with a smaller size store concept which can penetrate smaller markets and increase the already falling revenues. Walmart and Staples are synonyms of big stores, and they can only be in big open places, but with this smaller store concept can reach more urban towns and/or small towns far from big cities. In other words, switching to a smaller artillery caliber will enable them to hunt more prays in more places (existing and/or new markets). This will also be possible thanks to online retailing; small stores will not have the need of big stock spaces since they will carry the essentials  and be able to order online and ship from the distribution centers.  

The new strategy might even open some community doors and maybe increase some customer loyalty since reducing size and get closer to town would increase the one-on-one customer-retailer relationship.

This tactic (short term planning) might end up being the strategy that in the long run big box companies need in order to adapt and survive the economic down turn.

Going over Jae-Ah Ho’s blogs I found a very interesting topic: Ipad 2 and Apple’s pricing strategy. In deed Apple is coming with a lot of momentum when talking about the launching of the Ipad 2. This light weight champion is coming lighter, two times faster, and 2 cameras than its predecessor. The best part of all, at the same price! Like Jae-Ah mentioned on his blog, they are using a market-minus pricing, but why? Because of Samsung’s second tablet generation. Samsung is working on a new “Galaxy Tab”, the 10.1 model, which has a bigger screen than the previous one and is more of an Ipad rival. Unfortunately for Samsung this shocking Ipad 2 release made them freeze the release of their all new Galaxy tab and work on a few last minute details to be a bit more competitive against the Ipad 2. What it hurts the most to the South Korean electronics giant is the competitor’s price. Did Apple succeeded with their pricing strategy? So far there are no signs of the new Galaxy Tab release date, just a mere “coming soon”. To top things up, Apple brought Steve Jobs to the stage, who is on a medical leave, to increase expectations (If jobs is introducing the Ipad 2 you know is going to be a hit!) and maintain the already starling Apple customer loyalty.

Like Jobs said on his last appearance “2011 is the year of the copy cat”, I think that is why Apple is coming strong and trying to kick everyone out of the Tablet band wagon before it even starts moving.

Some brands nowadays employ “fusioning”, the combination of 2 brands, in order to vamp up their sales. They try to create unique products using market penetration and/ or diversification strategies (target more sectors of the population and/ or even create new markets) for this “one of a kind” products.

In the case of 686, a outerwear company founded in 1992, in the season of 2005/06 launched a new clothing line called “Times Series” featuring two brands: Dragon Optics for men and Hello Kitty for women and girls. This was a great success since it was the first time that a outerwear clothing company would bring another named brand next to their logo. This does not stop here, this line was made to stay… Season after season 686 will team up with different companies to make great “limited edition” clothing.

Few seasons ago 686 teamed up with Levi’s to create the ultimate denim experience: A full waterproof Levi’s jacket. This line got sold out in most places, and because of that 686 saw the opportunity to do it again this season. This time they replicated more specific “686 x Levi’s” outerwear pants (the 515, 511 and a vintage); two types of denim jackets and a denim softshell. This year’s “Times line” was a bit more ample than the previous “686 x Levi’s” and is promising to be again another HIT.

Besides the Levi’s partnership, 686 also joined with New Balance Shoe Company this season. But this time this seasonally line extension became a sort of brand extension; the “686 x New Balance” is composed of snowboard boots,  street shoes and the regular outerwear.

It is pretty amazing how the fusion power of 2 named brands (in their own markets) into limited edition products, if done properly, can result in a superb fashionable and functional creation.  

Watch this ad first:

Now what do you think about it? Do you relate to the ad? Would you tell a friend about it?

This is the kind of strategy Guerrilla Marketing uses, a sort of psychological way of thinking. This kind of advertisement plays with our minds and helps us in some way to remember what we see, it builds an instant relationship or interaction with the viewer. Who does not relate to Star Wars? VW made a great link between the “force” and the features of the new car line, the perfect word of mouth.

For the carmaker this ad could have been a bit expensive, but there are many many cases that this kind of marketing tactic results very inexpensive. For example, a Dutch car insurance (http://www.vrijverzekerd.nl)  to build brand awareness launched a street campaign by placing static paper, with scratch marks and info about the company with discounts about their services on it, on cars around certain areas of their targeted cities.

 All cars with the static papers were filmed in order to capture the reaction of the cars’ owners when discovering the fake scratch on their cars. The campaign ended up having a great success thanks to all the reactions people had when looking at the videos on youtube. The best thing of all is that the marketing company charged them only 1000 euro for the campaign, and of course they regretted it.

Guerrilla Marketing is not something new, but since it’s strongly linked with technology it’s becoming more popular nowadays.

Surfing on the web looking for some research for my assignment I came across a girl’s only outdoor clothing company, Cilla, that started somewhere in Whistler 4 years ago… The main icon Cilla offers is the “Cilla’s Band” which is basically an interchangeable skirt attached to selected tops. This band works as a water repellent for your back (since snowboarders are resting a lot on their bottoms on the hill) and is also interchangeable with many colors and designs.

This company actually is a clear example of the Segmentation part of the STP. This brand uses a mix of demographic, psychographic, and product-related segmentation bases.

Pricilla Levac, the founder, is a well known professional snowboarder especially in Canada.

She focused her products on girls who snowboard and care about the environment at the beginning, but she saw more potential in her products than just snowboarding; and now they work for any type of activity (such as Yoga, hiking, and even skiing).

When she first started she segmented her product towards females of ages between 13 and up (demographic variables), who snowboard (psychographic variable), and look for a product which looks good and is waterproof (product-related variables).

Within the years Pricilla sought for more environmental fabrics, it is up to date that she manufactures her clothing with the latest eco-friendly materials. (www.cilla.ca/environment)

• Bamboo: is naturally “green”, fully sustainable, requires no pesticides, requires little irrigation, regenerates in 50 to 60 days and is fully biodegradable.
• Repreve: is yarn made from recycled material (mainly plastic bottles) and takes less energy to make than starting from scratch. It’s one of the most Earth-Friendly fabric ingredients in the world.
• ChitoSante: a fabric that is made from a natural biomass called “ChitoSan”. ChitoSan is made from crab and shrimp shells, it is absorbent, breathable, durable, fast dying and pilling resistent. Along with these benefits, ChitoSante has natural and durable anti-bacterial properties. It inhibits the growth of bacteria, stays fresh, hygienic, and odor resistant. 

Thanks to these eco-technology fabrics she was able to expand her psychographic segmentation with an ecological lifestyle variable.

The only down side of this company is that they only target females, I would love to have clothing with these kind of eco-tech features!

For more info about Cilla or Pricilla check her website: www.cilla.ca

After reading Marc Werthmoeller’s blog “Post #1: All I Can” (https://blogs.ubc.ca/marcw/) last week about the skiing industry I knew that I had to write about the Snowboarding industry on my next blog. I have to agree with Marc that I also get stoked when the first snow hits the ground every winter…

The ski and snowboard industry had grown enormously within the past 6 years not only thanks to the great contribution of “pushing the limits” by the athletes, but also by big sponsors (Red Bull, Monster, Telus, Burton, among others) who bring these athletes together into amazing events every season. Winter X-Games in Aspen, CO; any of the Burton Open competitions hosted around the world; Grenade Games and Orage Masters hosted in Whistler; and even the Winter Olympics, integrate both sports into bigger and bigger audiences. 

Ski resorts, like WhistlerBlackcomb (WB) for example, benefit big time out of these sports growth with their Snow Sports Schools throughout “effective” marketing techniques. Learning the sport, for the first time or refining skills, get people involved with what they see from an event, magazine or home.

Now what I do not understand is why there are still so many ski lessons compare to snowboard lessons? Why isn’t WB investing more time into developing a better marketing strategy in snowboard where there is so much revenue potential? Yes, there are more skiers in the whole world than snowboarders and skiing it has been out for longer, but why not bring skiers that would take a lesson, or not take a lesson because they are “good enough”, to a new sport?

As a snowboard coach, and ski also, I see a huge loss of potential business every time I go to work. WB Ski School could do so much better by implementing some kind of promotion, or highlight an old one, and focus it towards snowboarding. Funny thing is that every time I go up the mountain I run into one of the many WB surveyors on the gondola and  I never hear them asking to any skier if they would take a snowboard lesson (even if they are offered an incentive). Instead of coming up with their usual “Discover Whistlerblackcomb Days” (30% off of selected lessons), why not get a more snowboard focused promo to channel more business into the company?

If you like cars watch this ad:

I am a car fan and I think that I have extensive auto industry knowledge. And of course I love Audi cars. When I first saw this commercial I could not believe it! This represents such a reality in terms of companies trying hard to sell their products and engrave certain ideas into their customers/ consumers’ minds.

I have to say that I’m not a supporter of this kind of ads that compare and say bad things about their competitors, but this one is such a true thing about the involvement and consumer buying decisions (Ch. 5 of the book). Some consumers do not do the proper research about the product they are going to buy and some end up regretting their actions; or like the commercial says, “The spell has been broken” and they see the reality.