I want to discuss an observation I made through my trawling of various outdoor brands I associate with. (aside: should I admit to associating with a brand? I don’t like being labelled. So maybe it’s better to just say “product websites I touch base with once in a while.”). I have found that I am increasingly going back to salomonfreeski.com and naishkites.com over and over again, despite the fact that my purchase cycle for their products might be 4 years at best. These firms are banking on the fact that I will give my money to them once decision time comes, but how can they be sure? Well, the nice thing about the internet is that it’s cheap to try to grab my loyalty, and the lifetime value is what they’re gunning for.

So how exactly are they nabbing me time and time again? It’s the once-a-month video episodes that are on the landing page, and the brands’ association with a specific place and lifestyle. The videos are front and centre on the landing page and are touted as “TV episodes”. They’re short (5-8min) and cover a variety of topics (exotic locations, athlete profiles, history) with a healthy dose of kite or ski porn. What surprised me the most on my first few visits were the high production standards of the shows. It seems to me they know how to get the repeat customer. Furthermore, the web-technology allows for an interactive experience where at the end of the video, you can click on the relevant players for that episode and get more information or biographies (or specifics about the gear they’re wearing in the show).

With regards to the associations the brands create, I have found that relating the product to a geographical location is an extremely tangible way to make an emotional connection.  And I have to say, it works well with me. For example, #Naish goes to great lengths to communicate that Mauii is where they’re headquarters are and that everything Mauii is also Naish. Similarly, Salomon has a local flair with Whistler being one of its activity hubs. Both those locations draw on some instant memories for me, and emotional recollections of great life experiences in nature. Both brands also create a mellow lifestyle messaging that is in concert with the locales and products alike. What’s interesting here is that they’ve used the web to evoke a more grand response within me and I’m not sure any other medium could achieve the same goal. Further to that, I haven’t started following these firms on twitter or Facebook. Those channels don’t create the same type of connection in my opinion. The flip-side is that the twitter+FB combo is often used to drive the user to the website, so the point might be moot in my case. Perhaps I’ll experiment with myself, and actually see if I can’t get anything out of their feeds?…Perhaps that can be Part III.