Jason Hausske

Like many consumers around the world, I've been watching the Olympics on a daily basis.

My routine for the last week has been to relax in my family room, with my dog at my feet, the fire burning in the background, multi-tasking between my work on a small laptop perched against my knees and maneuvering through a day’s worth of DVR captured Olympic coverage.

Given my full schedule, I've had to be selective in my Olympic viewing. Have I had time to watch cross country skiing? No. Do I pause to catch the latest curling match? No.

And, of course… with four quick clicks of the yellow, "skip ahead" button on my remote,  I bypass the commercials.

That being said, there are two brands that have jumped out at me…. Fischer Skis and Head Skis. I've never  Nordic skied, so I can't comment much on Fischer other than to assume they have a big market share in Nordic skiing, evidenced by the big yellow Fischer Ski logos prominently displayed in every possible slow motion angle on Ski Jumping.

I do know Alpine skiing however. Head Skis has me puzzled. They've received some great coverage in these Olympics. Lindsey Vonn and Bode Miller both ski on Head skis, which is evident to us consumers during slow motion replays, end-of-race interviews, and reporter commentary on ski equipment.

Now, I've been a consumer of ski equipment for a long time (I ski weekly, I used to ski instruct, etc.)… and I'm now a consumer of ski equipment for my two daughters as well (and will be for another ten years)….  If you asked me to name fifteen ski brands, Head would not have made the list.

Why is that? I did a search on Bing (and on Google) for "Head Skis Boise" to see where in Boise one might be able to go check out a pair of Head skis. Based on the lack of search results, it's logical to infer that buying Head skis in Boise is not an option. Upon further laborious research on the Head website,  I finally determine there are two retailers of Head Skis in Boise. One of which is Greenwood's Ski Haus. (I happen to coach soccer for one of the owner's daughters).

So, my questions are:

• How is Head leveraging this week's Olympic coverage?
  
• Why doesn't Head have more consumer share of voice?
• How is Head going to convert consumers like me into revenues and raving fans?

Head is apparently banking on establishing a relationship directly with the consumer, through their website, social media, etc. They seem to lack interest in marketing to individuals on a local basis via their specialty retail channels (they aren't alone).

I'm a fan of direct brand-to-consumer relationships, but I believe there is a massive opportunity for brands like Head to build market share and to more effectively market locally via their specialty retailers. Most brands just struggle with the complexities of making that a reality.

Here is a very basic, simple example of a local marketing idea that could be utilized by a brand like Head.

• Head produces a professional direct mail marketing template that features Head products/brand messaging on 50% of the piece. The other half of the ad can be branded by the local retailer. The message of the piece leverages the recent success of the Olympic athletes.
• The direct mail is mailed to a highly targeted demographic list of local consumers, and has a call to action to drive the consumer into the store.
• Head agrees to pay 75% of the marketing costs of the direct mail, which means the retailer is getting 300% more marketing exposure for their marketing dollar than if they'd tried to market without the help of Head.
• Head sells more skis, Head builds market share, the retailer captures more customers and revenues, the consumer is excited because they have the same brand of skis that the Olympic skiers use.

Based on my experience of talking to many new brands each month about their marketing, brands have many (historically legitimate) reasons why local marketing is a challenge. These reasons happen to be the same with every brand I talk to.

• Local retailers lack marketing expertise and are overwhelmed with the myriad of marketing media available.
• Brands have offered to do this for their retailers in the past, and the retailers only use 40% of the money available to them.
• Administering this "co-operative advertising" process is a real challenge for the brand and a deterrent to the retailer
• The brand's CFO is putting tremendous pressure on the marketing organization to reduce their co-op/mdf marketing spend. Obviously because there is no ability to measure a positive ROI (otherwise, they'd want to invest more, correct?)

Suffice it to say, these reasons are no longer valid (at least, not for Balihoo's clients).

There should be a race by brands to harness the local marketing capabilities of their specialty retail channels to build customer market share on a very intimate/local basis…. Head, K2, Atomic, Rossignol, Salomon, Blizzard, Nordica… the first one to figure this out will have a unique competitive advantage.

Will Head's revenues increase as a result of the success of their Olympic Athletes? Probably…. Will it be exponential and will they become a market share leader for years to come? Potentially, if they crack the code on how to leverage their specialty retail channels to drive local marketing.

Want to learn how?  Check out our Local Marketing whitepaper or our Co-op Marketing whitepaper, they can get you started. 



Kewords:  trade promotion marketing, local advertising, local marketing ideas, local marketing software, co-op marketing software.