Cycling Social Media Participation

I had a conversation yesterday with a couple Independent Bike Dealers yesterday about the cycling community really embracing the communication styles of social media. It really got me thinking. What is the percentage of all cyclists engaging in social media? So this morning I went out to find that answer.

In the Industry Overview 2008 performed by the NBDA, they identified there were 44.7 million cycling participants in the US in 2008. A pretty good number if you ask me, but still plenty of room to grow.

With the dynamic nature of social media, the actual cyclist participation is a little hard to narrow down. I used an aggregate search across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Ning, and blogs to identify over 5.6 million identified cyclists are participating on some kind of social media platform. That’s over 12.5% of all cyclists participating on some form of social media platform.

the point.

These 5.6 million cyclists that are participating in social media are discussing their cycling life, bikes, components, bike shops, experiences, racing, etc. If you’re a bike manufacturer, component manufacturer, IBD, product supplier, or race promoter chances are, there are discussions happening about your cause, product, or service. Are you listening and engaging in these conversations?

thoughts.

What are your thoughts about these numbers?

CBRS: Component Manufacturers – Social Branding Communication

Courtesy of Flickr - jimgskoop

Yesterday we identified the numerous characteristics that can define a component manufacturer brand across the three main customer segments. These characteristics included:

Performance
Technologies / Innovation
Products /Services
Culture / History
Racers / Racing Teams / Affiliations
Cyclist Generated Content.

Each characteristic will have a different effect on each individual in each customer segment. By communicating these characteristics individually as well as in combination, we can begin to create a malleable brand where the user can receive exactly what they want out of the particular brand experience.

As I’ve mentioned numerous times on this blog, there is a power transition happening in the marketing world today. It used to be that we, as marketers, would ‘push’ messages to our customer segments through a mass channel. Now with the advent of Web 2.0 (social) strategies and the consumers need to communicate on an individual basis, consumers are now ‘pulling’ information from companies and brands to better fulfill their individual needs. This is where the malleable brand communication coupled with the individual empowerment of social media will provide the exact communication strategies for each individual within each customer segment. It basically puts the brand into the hands of the user, allowing them to create the brand to integrate into their own personal life.

what they want.

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:

Cyclists will be the most dynamic segment to communicate with. All aspects of the brand are 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 components 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.

Bike Manufacturer (OEM):

The bike manufacturer brand is highly defined by the component groups on new bikes. Therefore, the communication with the bike manufacturer is a very personal, very intrinsic communication channel. The bike manufacturer will have the narrowest need of characteristics from the component brand that not only includes performance, technologies / innovation, and products / services but also the demand of the cyclist and LBS. With the highly personal nature of the relationship between the component manufacturer and the bike manufacturer coupled with the outside influences of the LBS and the cyclist, these characteristics need to be communicated in a network of conversations that include all the voices in the industry.

social media facilitation.

With the dynamic nature of the communication that surrounds the component 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, component 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 component 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 component brand?

CBRS: Component Manufacturers - What Defines Brand

Courtesy of Flickr - Kayak49

Welcome to the first installment of the Cycling Brand Relationship Series (CBRS). As we take the journey down through the Cycling Brand Relationship Hierarchy, we are going to identify the different aspects that not only define brands, but also how they interact with other brands and the cyclist. The first stop in the Cycling Brand Hierarchy is component manufacturer.

The component manufacturer plays a major role in brand loyalty throughout the entire cycling brand hierarchy. The brand is defined by numerous characteristics and is communicated to more segments than any other level in the hierarchy. It is the blood that flows through the industry. Let’s take a look on what defines these brands and who they have to be communicated to.

defining characteristics.

Performance - First and foremost, the products have to perform. Enough said.

Technologies / Innovation – Keeping on the bleeding edge of technology is key in the component environment. Faster, lighter, smoother is what the cyclists want. Standing still is falling backwards in this industry. The specific technologies and innovation are a major part of a company’s brand definition.

Products /Services – Every rider has different needs. Therefore the company needs to provide products at different levels across the different riding segments (road, MTB, Cyclo-cross). This vast array of products is an ever growing list which individual cyclists become loyal to specific products. Discontinuing one small product could be devastating to the certain extremely loyal cyclists.

Culture / History – Culture plays a huge part in the cycling industry. As Seth Godin points out, people buy stories not products. This is very true in the cycling industry. Being a part of a certain culture or history is a great feeling for a cyclist; one that could be worn as a badge proudly by the cyclist. The culture and history of the company has a tremendous effect on the brand.

Racers / Racing Teams / Affiliations – The racers, racing teams, and affiliations become the Celebrity Endorsement in the cycling industry. The personality of these iconic racers or the mantra of the racing team play a role in defining the component brand. If they perform, the brand is strengthened.

Cyclist Generated Content – With the power of word of mouth in the cycling industry and the increase in cyclist generated content online, more and more decisions are being made through peer communication. This communication plays a major role in brand development. We’ll look more into this in a later post.

communication partners.

In the component manufacturer environment, there is a tremendous amount of communication. Probably more than any other level in the cycling brand hierarchy. There are three main groups that the component manufacturer needs to communicate its brand to. They are:

Cyclist – The components have to be proven in real world situations. Once the products are proven, the component manufacturer then needs to communicate the brand and advantages to the cyclist. This communication would drive the cyclist to their local bike shop to push for the particular component manufacturer.

Local Bike Shops (LBS) – With the support of cyclists, the component manufacturer then has to turn to the independent bike dealer or local bike shop to convince owners of the advantages of their products, services, and brands. Communication needs to come from both the cyclist and the component manufacturer.

Bike Manufacturers (OEM) – Only after there is a demand from the local bike shops can the component manufacturer go bike manufacturer (OEM) to start to push them to install the components on new bikes.

encouraged communication.

What are your thoughts? What defines the component brand for you as a cyclist?

This being such a dynamic topic, I encourage you to interact with me and one another on the coming posts. Agree, disagree, raise questions, dream big… Be sure to subscribe to the feed and invite your friends to follow along too.

up next…

Component Manufacturers ;

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