We recently published a new Case Study examining the competitive scenario between two leading retailers of cycling gear and supplies – Bike Nashbar and Performance Bike. There is a de-facto advantage to one of the players and a key channel that the other can leverage to fight back.

The ultimate question: What would you do if wearing the moccasins of either Chief Marketing Officer?

Loyalty Truth recruited a panel of experts to review this Case Study and offer insights into what it will take for Bike Nashbar to put forth a differentiated Customer Strategy and how it should revamp its email marketing strategy. Now that all 3 of our experts have weighed in, look for a compilation of responses in our Resource section soon.

Loyalty Truth is proud to share Stephanie Scuderi’s thoughts on this case study as our newest contributing author. Please read more about Stephanie, a veteran of the Loyalty Marketing industry, at the end of this article.

In the age old challenge of newcomer vs. established brand, the newcomer, or Bike Nashbar in this case, has the ’scrappy’ advantage.  Without the momentum of established brand experience, Bike Nashbar’s brand strategy is a clean slate – nothing terrible to overcome…and a point of established relativity – or Performance Bike in this case. Creative ideas quickly fall into acquisition, brand and customer strategies. At a high level, the following considerations could be explored.

Brand Strategy

• Give it a personality…if Bike Nashbar was a person, who would they be?
• Appeal to the segment – sponsor or be a founding partner of global amateur racing – designed for the wealthy who are looking to blend experience with exertion
• Enlist a spokesperson relevant to the target – Instead of Lance Armstrong, get Jack Dorsey (twitter founder) or someone equally contemporary, making a difference, using his head, thinking out of the box, and oh yea, biking off the steam.  Publish his race times or self-bests — how do you stack up?

THEN…within that framework…

• Take it offline:  make the relationship tangible – can be done with a physical mailing – cleverly designed or worded.
• Partner with biking merchants to create a Bike Nashbar network.  BN becomes the face of all mom and pop shops online…providing a few templates, BN essentially private labels their web site to shops who couldn’t otherwise afford the complexity afforded in a co-op structure.
• Host “the world’s largest recreational biking” party – all members invited to the local Bike Nashbar network partner – with streaming video, a la the You Tube Symphony – get everyone across the world together – have it be newsworthy enough that the press alone is value.

Reward and Recognize…

• Set a goal to get to know customers – and communicate with them with respect to the relationship they have with you…don’t send everyone the same emails…they’re not sending you the same amount of business – reflect knowledge and insight in messaging.
• Set up a program that motivates people to spend more with Bike Nashbar — and reward for bike-related activities – even if they aren’t a direct revenue stream.  Jack Smith completed his first race, give him bonus points to congratulate him and get him to race another…the more he races, and the more he knows you’re in his corner, the more he’s going to spend with you and tell you about his experiences.

Finally, the Acquisition Strategy…with ideas for brand direction and how to keep customers in the loop, how to attract those prospects?

• Start a “What was your first bicycle?” campaign to get people to go online, register, and indirectly get acquainted with Bike Nashbar.
• Take them back to the beginning…ask the question why they fell in love with biking…I’m not a biker, other than around the neighborhood with my son on his tricycle, but I still remember my first bike, it was yellow with a black racing stripe and training wheels.  Then, I graduated to a Huffy Sweet Pea (yellow and pea green – loved it).  Point being, by tapping into a basic memory, prospects who aren’t currently avid bikers may be lured into the brand introduction experience and fall into the fold of occasional customers — who can then be targeted for growth in spend.
• Conversion:  be a race portal
• Create a race log…have all “registered” bike races online, with registration forms
• Partner with bike racing organizations to automatically load all times for racers belonging to Bike Nashbar network
• Users can link with bikers of similar skill/time level to see how others like themselves are training to improve

Success lies in the blend of meeting basic needs with a new twist — elegant new ways to do and think about everyday things associated with the sport and hobby of biking.  By re-engineering its brand, Bike Nashbar has an opportunity to reset expectations and redefine the biker’s experience.

More about Stephanie Scuderi: Currently focused on business development and marketing for Centennial Bank, a $2.7 billion financial institution, Stephanie has deep roots in data-driven business development strategies that build engagement and drive customer loyalty.  Having worked with Brierley & Partners, Frequency Marketing, Inc. and Alliance Data’s Colloquy consulting group, Stephanie has developed customer strategies for a diverse group of companies including Verizon, classmates.com and JP Morgan Chase.

We recently published a new Case Study examining the competitive scenario between two leading retailers of cycling gear and supplies – Bike Nashbar and Performance Bike. There is a de-facto advantage to one of the players and a key channel that the other can leverage to fight back.

The ultimate question: What would you do if wearing the moccasins of either Chief Marketing Officer?

Since I don’t have all the answers, I recruited a panel of experts to review this Case Study and offer insights into what it will take for Bike Nashbar to put forth a differentiated Customer Strategy and how it should revamp its email marketing strategy.

Tom Rapsas, a Contributing Author to this blog and an independent Creative Director, Writer and Strategist offers up some powerful suggestions here:

I’ve got just one question for the marketing folks at both Performance Bicycle and Bike Nashbar.

Where’s the passion?

As Bill points out in the Case Study, cycling now ranks as the second most popular recreational activity in the U.S. and is growing in popularity among the racing/triathlon set who are plunking down on average $3,500 per new bike. Yet, judging by the non-stop stream of promotional e-mails these retailers are sending out, they’ve decided to play a “lowest price wins” game.

This is further evidenced at their respective Web sites. During a visit to Bike Nashbar, I was greeted by a colossal 90-point headline that read “TAKE AN ADDITIONAL 20% OFF!” Not to be outdone, the primary image on the Performance Bicycle home page was “FREE SHIPPING.”

If the Web-only Bike Nashbar wants to truly separate itself from its bigger, bulkier competitor, it needs to lead not with price but with passion. It needs to make an emotional connection with its customers, by showing that it knows and loves the sport of cycling as much as they do.

This approach starts with something lacking from both Web sites–attractive, compelling images that show the target market at play, whether it’s recreational cyclists, weekend warriors or competitive triathletes—or some combination of all three. Sure, I know you want to show me the goods, but you can make an emotional connection as well, by showing me the joy and excitement of cycling, the camaraderie, the beautiful places it can take me.

Then, start sending me e-mail communications tailored to my personal interests. Base it on my past purchases or browsing history, or better yet ask me to take a survey to find out if I’m a recreational or competitive cyclist, if I’m a street or trail rider and if I’m in the market for a new bike or specific accessories. Then, keep me posted on the latest products and trends that most interest me.

You’re not done yet, Bike Nashbar. Take the steps necessary to become the “go to” source for biking information and education.   How?

• Post Web-based cycling tutorials on your site and YouTube.
• Add employee reviews of products.
• Send out regular updates on bike races, trails and events in each customer’s geographic area.
• Start a Bike Nashbar blog manned by your company’s most avid cyclist (don’t have one? hire one!) and invite a dialogue with your customers.

By making an emotional connection with its customers and winning the passion game, Bike Nashbar has the opportunity to escape the no-win “our prices beat their prices” approach. As Bill once reminded me, there can be only one WalMart in any category–and Bike Nashbar, I don’t think this is the game you want to compete in.

Tom Rapsas is an independent Creative Director, Writer and Strategist. He can be reached at tomrapsas@gmail.com.

We recently published a new Case Study examining the competitive scenario between two leading retailers of cycling gear and supplies – Bike Nashbar and Performance Bike. There is a de-facto advantage to one of the players and a key channel that the other can leverage to fight back.

The ultimate question: What would you do if wearing the moccasins of either Chief Marketing Officer?

I recruited a panel of experts to review this Case Study and offer insights into what it will take for Bike Nashbar to put forth a differentiated Customer Strategy and how it should revamp its email marketing strategy.

Michael Della Penna, the Co-Founder & President Aiti Solutions, LLC offers up the first round of insights and critique here:

Five Email Marketing Fixes for Performance Bike & Bike Nasbar:

The experience Bill observed from both Performance Bike and Bike Nasbar is not uncommon.  As brands increasingly look to grow sales and reduce costs in a tough economy, many are turning to the power of email to do so.  Email’s proven ability to drive ROI seduces many of us to send more to sell more without thinking about the consequences.  As a result email marketing is losing its effectiveness.  In fact, the DMA projects email will generate $43.52 for every dollar spent in 2009.  Not bad, but this is down 10% from the $48.34 reported in the 2007 study.  The DMA also goes on to predict emails steady declines through 2013.  With cluttered inboxes and a continued batch and blast mentality, it is easy to see why.  So what should Performance Bike and Bike Nashbar do to grow the success of their e-communications program?  Re-examine their approach for one.

Email is about building an ongoing dialog and relationship with your prospects and customers.  To do so requires both companies to take a new look at their email marketing strategies and tactics.  Here’s how.

1. Audit the customer experience: Step into your customers shoes.  If you were in their spot would you find the emails timely, relevant, valuable?  How do the communications compare to others you’ve seen and appreciate?  If you can’t be objective hire a third party to conduct that audit for you – you’ll be glad you did…remember the internet is social and the cost of not fixing a bad situation can be detrimental to your brand.
2. Think strategically:  If you have a successful website you’ve probably done some research on who visits, common paths and activities they take and perhaps even built some personas and “day in the life vignettes” to design a great experience.  Now its time to leverage all that great work to think about how you build a complementary communication program.  That program should speak to those various customers throughout the purchase process and customer lifecycle.  Email is about building relationship, not just selling – a successful lifecycle program should include acquisition, conversion, retention and winback communications that speak specifically to the customer’s needs, interests and mindset.
3. Nail the tactics:  Exception email is all about the details.  Be sure you work with someone who is going to help you maximize your programs success by providing strategic pointers, best in class practices, deliverability and creative expertise and new ideas.  Remember once you get in the inbox you need to stay in the inbox and get recipients to open and respond to your offers.  Make sure that partner is someone who has the experience and know how to help you scale your dynamic communications and stand out from the crowd.  It is also important for that partner to work with you to set some ambitious goals that can also be measured, so you constantly push the boundaries and ultimately establish your brand as the benchmark for all others to follow.
4. Expand the footprint & encourage participation:  Email is a wonderful communications and relationship platform.  Encourage users to participate with your brand and others.  Include forward-to-a-friend mechanisms and share to social features that allow users to write reviews, share feedback, and post email to their social networks.  Email users are typically your most loyal users so why not engage those users by getting them to participate with your brand.  With their help and participation you may just find that next great new product or promotional idea that further sets your brand apart.
5. Analyze and Optimize:  Email derives its great advantage from the power of immediacy.  Every email communications offers an opportunity to learn something.  Implement a robust testing strategy that helps you optimize every aspect of your communications including creative design templates and offers.  Use surveys to get inside the minds of your users and leverage data and customer actions including website activity to sense and respond to customer needs.

Ultimately email offers a great opportunity to build a relationship and drive sales.  To be successful, you need to break out of the push promotional mentality and embrace email as a participatory medium where the recipient is an equal partner in the dialog.

Michael Della Penna is co-founder and president of SuiteDialog (www.suitedialog), a participatory marketing company that helps leading brands build interactive marketing program that engage users in an ongoing dialog.  Michael also writes a monthly column for eM+C that highlights the strategies and tactics behind exceptional email communications.  Michael’s column can be found at www.emarketingandcommerce.com.

Retailers face an increasingly difficult challenge to be successful.  Not only do they have to outwit competitors with clever merchandising, creative store layout, and careful inventory management – they also have to understand how to best communicate their promotional offers to customers.

The last challenge can be perplexing as not all retailers use the same merchandising channels. For example, competitors in the same category can be single channel in brick and mortar, catalog, or online, or be operating with a mix of all three. Generally speaking, there isn’t a successful catalog retailer operating today without a website, and most brick and mortar retailers have gone online. Some have added a catalog and, to keep things interesting, others avoid the expense of printed catalogs and supplement their online marketing efforts with mass media advertising campaigns.

I’ve published a new Case Study on my web site that examines the competitive scenario between two leading retailers of cycling gear and supplies – Bike Nashbar and Performance Bike. There is a de-facto advantage to one of the players and a key channel that the other can leverage to fight back. The conclusions raise as many questions as it offers answers.

The ultimate question: What would you do if wearing the moccasins of either Chief Marketing Officer?

Since I don’t have all the answers, I’ve asked a panel of experts to review this Case Study and offer insights into what it will take for Bike Nashbar to put forth a differentiated Customer Strategy and how it should revamp its email marketing strategy. Chiming in will be:

• Michael Della Penna, Co-founder and President of SuiteDialog, a participatory marketing company that helps leading brands build interactive marketing programs that engage users in an ongoing dialog.
• Ragy Thomas, Co-founder and CEO of Aiti Solutions. Ragy is the former president of Epsilon Interactive, a division of Alliance Data Systems that was created by combining market leaders, Bigfoot Interactive and DoubleClick’s email solutions group. You can read his blog at The PMN blog.
• Tom Rapsas, an independent Creative Director, Writer and Creative Strategist who has worked for some of the biggest and most respected direct and loyalty marketing firms in the U.S.  Tom is a Contributing Author to Loyalty Truth and has written numerous trade articles on issues related to loyalty and direct marketing.

In the next week, we will post comments from our panel on this Case Study in a new post on Loyalty Truth.  We invite your comments on the case and are interested to know your reaction to the recommendations of our contributing panelists.

Download the Case Study here and join in the conversation.