CBRS: Independent Bike Dealer (IBD) - What Defines Brand

Courtesy of Flickr - zj

Finally it’s time to focus our energy on the Independent Bike Dealer (IBD) or as some call the Local Bike Shop (LBS). Now this is a crazy creature. The culture surrounding the IBD industry is one of passion, excitement, and has a cult-like following for the specific shop. There is a wide spectrum of customers which leads to more characteristics that could define the IBD brand. Let’s take a look at the characteristics that cyclists use to define their favorite IBD brand.

defining characteristics.

Service – First and foremost, the IBD needs to have a level of service that the cyclist finds acceptable. This level varies from cyclist to cyclist. The better the service the better the brand.

Culture / History –As mentioned in the previous cycling segments, cyclists are huge advocates of culture and history. To be a part of a great history or be involved in an exciting culture is a very big component in building the IBD brand.

Racers / Racing Teams / Affiliations – In the local cycling community, the IBD racing teams and racers become the celebrity endorsements. The racers, teams, and affiliations become a major defining characteristic for the IBD brand. The better these racers and team do the stronger the brand becomes.

Cyclist Generated Content – Communication between cyclists are happening everywhere. These conversations, whether online or offline, create a strong word of mouth and peer understanding for the different IBD brands. As we all know, this word of mouth is the strongest form of marketing. Being a part of these conversations is a necessary act for the IBD.

Bicycle Brands – The bike brands that the IBD carries become a great defining aspect of the IBD brand. Brand loyalty is spread throughout the entire cycling industry, so if one IBD carries a specific brand that a cyclist is loyal to, they will then become loyal to the IBD.

Component / Partner Brands – Just like the bike brands that an IBD carries, the components and product brands that an IBD carries helps define the IBD brand.

Community Involvement – Local cycling communities are a very passionate group. Having a loyalty for an IBD brand and seeing them participate in the cycling community helps strengthen brand. This is an essential offline part of the IBD brand.

Cyclist Engagement – Engaging cyclists on a personal level, both online and offline, by providing local cycling information such as routes, events, techniques, training, or maintenance. This personal engagement with strengthen the brand in the mind of each individual cyclist.

Mechanics – The mechanics an IBD employs is another major factor for some cyclists. As many of you probably agree, a well tuned bike is an essential tool for a great race or enjoyable ride. The mechanics that help you achieve that are a great defining characteristic or the IBD brand.

communication partners.

Independent Bike Dealers have a very integral communication duty in the local cycling community. Not only do they have to communicate to the cyclist about their shop, the brands they carry, and the components and products they stock, but they also have to communicate to the bike, component, and product manufacturers about the needs and voice of the cyclist. These groups need communicated in very different ways. The IBD needs to provide enough information so the user can define the brand in a way that integrates into their own personal lifestyle and fulfills their personal needs. Let’s take a look at these communication partners in more detail.

Cyclist – The main group to communicate to is the cyclist. The cyclists are the group that does the actual defining of the brand. Each cyclist is different. Therefore, the aforementioned characteristics are taken, dissected, and combined to create the brand for their individual personal lifestyle. The question for the cyclist becomes, “does this brand define me as a cyclist?”

Bicycle Manufacturer – Bikes are designed and built to fulfill cyclist needs and increase performance. A major influence on these design specs is the cyclist feedback. This feedback comes from the cyclist through the IBD to the bike manufacturer. The communication between the IBD and bike manufacturer also needs to portray the benefits of the partnership. After all, the IBD brand helps define the bicycle brand and the bicycle brand helps define the IBD brand. Having great communication is essential.

Component / Partner Brands – As with the bicycle brand, components and products are designed and built to fulfill cyclist needs and increase performance. The same level of communication is necessary for the component industry as well.

encouraged communication.

What are your thoughts? What are your favorite aspects of your IBD? What would make the brand experience better in your eyes?
up next…

Independent Bike Dealers:

• How can the brand communicate effectively with each customer
• How social media / branding could facilitate this communication

CBRS: Bicycle Manufacturers – Social Branding Communication

Courtesy of Flickr - tcd123usa

In the post yesterday, we discussed what characteristics are included when the various customer segments use to define the Bicycle Manufacturer brand. The characteristics we identified were:

Performance
Technologies / Innovation
Products /Services
Culture / History
Racers / Racing Teams / Affiliations
Cyclist Generated Content
Component / Partner Brands

what they want.

The communication strategy throughout the customer segments will be very similar to the component manufacturer communication strategy. During this strategy, brands will need to communicate and discuss the various brand characteristics and allow the user to ‘pull’ the information needed to integrate the brand into their own personal lifestyle needs. To illustrate this communication strategy, let’s walk through the three identified customer segments for the component industry and how social strategies could facilitate this communication.

Cyclist:

To illustrate the cycling buying behavior, here’s a comment from Jessica yesterday:

“I think this brand appealed to me because of its history and quality of the materials to manufacture the product. I was sold on the categorized specialty for ‘petite woman.’ I also thought of things like affordability, use, style and uniqueness.”

As mentioned during the component brand discussion, cyclists will be the most dynamic segment to communicate with. All aspects of the bicycling brand could be important to the cyclist. However, the importance of each identified brand characteristic lies within the individual cyclist. Therefore each characteristic needs to be communicated in a way where the cyclist can pull information that is personally important to them as a cyclist.

Local Bike Shop (LBS):

As we’ll identify later in the CBRS, the bicycle brands a local bike shop carries ultimately affects and defines the LBS brand. However, the LBS won’t have as many brand characteristic needs as the cyclist but could include products / services, technologies / innovation, and performance as well as the demand of the cyclist. Just as with the cyclist, each LBS is individually motivated for what aspects are important to them and their brand. Each of these characteristics need to be communicated to the LBS in a way where the decision maker can pull what is important to them, their business, and brand.

Component/Partner Brands

The component/partner brands are ultimately a defining characteristic for the bicycle manufacturer brand. Having a solid, openly communicated relationship allows the partner companies to understand how the brands work together and how they complement each other. The communication will show the benefits of the partnership and discuss how each brand will be affected in combination.

social media facilitation.

With the dynamic nature of the communication that surrounds the bicycle manufacturing industry, social media provides a powerful platform that creates the malleable brand needed to communicate with the individuals in the various customer segments. By educating individuals on the brand characteristics that is important to them and empowering them to discuss and share within their social network, bicycle manufacturing brands would create the network of conversations needed to build the level of awareness, loyalty, advocacy, and evangelism needed to succeed in today’s environment. Identifying the perfect combination of blogs, wikis, social networking platforms, SEO, forums, etc., a bicycle manufacturing brand could build a foundation of support, evangelism, and communication that would ultimately create the passionate, cult-like following needed in the cycling industry.

In a previous series, The Orbea Chronicles, I identified and outlined an in depth strategy that illustrates this kind of social media facilitation. Feel free to revisit the communication strategy.

encouraged communication.

What are your thoughts? How do you want to be communicated with by your favorite bicycle  brand? Why do you ride what you ride?

No Social Media = Missed Opportunity?

Courtesy of Flickr

As some of you know, I took a trip this last weekend to Eureka Springs, AR to get in some hill training for my Ride the Rockies training. It was a fairly good trip with a little too much rain for my liking, but the hills of Northwest Arkansas was a great place to train.

As I was planning my trip I tried to find as much information as I could about Eureka Springs and its road cycling community. I scanned Twitter, Facebook, Google, MapMyRide.com, etc. and couldn’t find much information. So I was kind of going into the hills of the Ozarks blind. Once I got down there and introduced myself to the town, I ran across an adventure sporting goods store, Adventure Mountain Outfitters, which had some great Specialized mountain bikes hanging in the window. I went in and talked to Denton West, the owner. He filled me in on the great mountain biking in the area and had a little knowledge about some local road loops. He showed me around his shop and invited me to contact him before I came back to Eureka Springs to set up a group ride.

what could have happened.

I did have a great trip and some great riding, but what could have happened? Being such a small (pop. 2,400), tourist town there was little competition for my new friend Denton and his Adventure Mountain Outfitters. What if Denton engaged in some minor online marketing strategies? How could that have improved my experience?

SEO – With minor work on his Search Engine Optimization, Adventure Mountain Outfitters could have easily been found with a simple Google search. This would have allowed me to begin my research and to start a conversation with Adventure Mountain Outfitters.

Blog – Having a blog about the cycling community and different rides, Adventure Mountain Outfitters could provide me and other online visitors valuable information about trails (road and mountain), traffic, mileage, expectations, etc. This would have given me a much better understanding of what I was getting myself into.

Twitter – Just by having a Twitter account, Adventure Mountain Outfitters could have answered the questions I posed on Twitter and engaged me as a tourist cyclist before I even stepped foot into Eureka Springs. These conversations would have given Denton some great opportunities to invite me into his shop and to even go ride with him.

Engaged Community – Using a combination of offline marketing and social media, Adventure Mountain Outfitters could have built a solid engaged community around, not only the shop, but also the riding in Eureka Springs. This community would have then felt empowered to engage me as a peer and point me in the right direction for my Eureka Springs training and even send me to Adventure Mountain Outfitters as THE local bike shop.

conclusion.

This example just goes to show that with the smallest engagement on social media, Adventure Mountain Outfitters could have engaged me as a tourist cyclist before I stepped foot in Eureka Springs. This preliminary engagement would have given me the information about the local landscape that I needed to plan accordingly. To take it a step further, Denton could then have the opportunity to invite me and my group on his Saturday group rides that start at his shop, getting us all through the doors for an increased possibility of a purchase.

thoughts.

What are your thoughts? Am I thinking too narrowly? Is there more to the story?