By Kathryn Loewenstein, Stephanie Giltner, Shianne Smelker, Colin Stein, Tyler Nevell

Table of Contents

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………....2

Situation Analysis………………………………………………………………………….3-5

Target Market…………………………………………………………………………….…5

Brand Concept Formulation……………………………………………………………….6

Product Design and Pricing…………………………………………………………….....6-7

Integrated Marketing Communication…………………………………………………..7-12

References…………………………………………………………………………………...13

Appendices………………………………………………………………………………...14-21

1

Introduction

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Patagonia is a well respected company specializing in outdoor clothing and gear. The

company was started in 1973 by Yvon Chouinard and first started selling rock climbing gear.

Patagonia has evolved into ski, surf and climbing apparel, as well as fleeces, rain jackets and

winter coats. Patagonia stands for quality, sustainability, appreciation for nature, and

adventure.We are proposing that Patagonia enters the ski industry by specializing in ski

equipment. Patagonia already offers ski apparel so this brand extension will go hand in hand with

the products already offered by the company. Patagonia has a long history of being a trusted

company for outdoor activities. Patagonia brand reflects a sense of adventure, social

responsibility and quality. Patagonia can enter the ski industry category with high quality skis

and a strong brand presence.

Situational Analysis

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Company Analysis

Patagonia began as a small company that focused on making tools for climbers. With a

focus on sports that honor the connection between humans and nature, Patagonia began to grow

into making clothing for more sports like skiing, fishing, paddling, trail running, and surfing.

Patagonia believes in a minimalistic style that's implemented into product design and the way the

company is run. With a huge appreciation and concern for the environmental health of the planet,

Patagonia focuses time and money on supporting grassroots environmental groups around the

world. They have a passion for reversing the harm that running a clothing company inevitably

has on the environment. With programs like “Worn Wear” that celebrates wearing their products

long past their expected value by having a “repair van” travel around the world to repair old

Patagonia clothing, and “The Footprint Chronicles” that tracks their environmental impact and

supports transparency, Patagonia is the face of corporate responsibility.

Patagonia goes way beyond just comfortable and reliable outdoor clothing and gear

company. Patagonia has always had an anti-materialistic stance which is best reflected in their

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“Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign that went viral. In 2011, on Black Friday, Patagonia released

a full page advertisement that broke down the entire environmental costs of their top-selling

fleece sweater. They asked the consumer to think twice before buying an unnecessary jacket, or

anything for that matter. They promote a sustainable future in which people buy less at higher

prices, and support innovation to reduce impacts. Patagonia really differentiates themselves

because they are such advocates for social responsibility through maintaining superior quality

and standards.

Therefore their strengths are their high standards, respect for the environment, superior

products, and great rapport with their consumers. However, with their strong environmental

stance comes some weaknesses. Patagonia has low inventory turnover, lower sales, as well as

limited store locations.

Product Category

The number of freeski participants has increased from 2,950,000 in 2010 to 4,464,000 in

2015. This 51% growth in the market proves to be a viable opportunity for Patagonia.

Additionally, “A notable trend were the sales of flat skis were increasing as the season wore on,

in fact sales in November, December, January and February all surpassed sales for those months

during the 2013/2014 season. A significant trend we are seeing in the Nordic equipment data is

the bundling of skis and bindings sold as systems in the retail and wholesale markets. Wholesale

sales of Nordic equipment were up by double digits this season” (N.p., snowsports.org).

The growth of the market and increase in sales prove to be significant opportunities.

However, the following threats must be considered. First off, there proves to be a high barrier to

entry due to the large number of competitors in the market with similar products. Patagonia

must figure out a way to steal market share from the existing competitors and also forecast for

the off season. The freeski market is a viable opportunity for Patagonia, but given the current

perception of Patagonia it makes more sense for them to position their skis as a backcountry ski

product offering. The backcountry product category proves to be surging in recent years, and the

strength of the Patagonia brand would place the new Patagonia skis in a promising arena.

3

Competitor Analysis

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4FRNT

4FRNT is at the top of young, independent, and technological innovators in the ski

industry. Started in 2002 in Utah, Founder Matt Sterbenz was growing tired of how homogenous

the ski industry had become. It was stale and lacking in innovation. Matt started by incorporating

technologies he wanted to see in skis and using these novel ideas to attract pros to sponsor his

skis. Now 4FRNT is one of the top independent ski brands out there. Their flagship ski “The

Hoji” goes for around $760 with the cheapest ski being $660 and most expensive being $835.

Their specialty is in powder skis.

K2

K2 is a powerhouse in the ski manufacturing industry. The made a name for themselves

by introducing fiberglass into their ski line in the 1960s. The brand borrows its name from the

nickname of Mount Godwin-Austen. It was founded in Seattle, Washington and noted for

revolutionizing the ski industry with their fiberglass skis. This established them as a household

brand and through their steady innovation, they’ve maintained high market share ever since.

They’re known for being some of the easiest skis to ride. Their skis can be found for as low as

$400 and can go up to $1000 a pair.

Rossignol

Rossignol is another power-house brand that’s been around for over 100 years. They

started in 1907 by a woodworker in France. The company has transferred owners numerous

times and are one of the most recognizable brands in skiing. Their simple design involves

assigning colors to different qualities of ski and most of them have a similar theme where a black

logo is applied over the color. Their most expensive skis reach $1100 dollars and their cheapest

are $400. They have all-mountain skis, powder skis, and top of the line race skis.

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SWOT

Strengths ● Strong brand exposure ● Great social responsibility ● Strong environmental

awareness/impact

Opportunities ● Seasonal demand for product ● High willingness to pay from

consumers ● High demand for brands products ● Steady population/market growth ● High brand equity in outdoor market ●

Weaknesses ● Limited locations ● High price points

Threats ● High barrier to entry ● Competition w/ more attractive

pricing ● Large competing companies w/

international presence

Target Market

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Demographic

Our target market consists of males and females ages 18-45 across the United States.

Specifically these consumers live in states such as Colorado, Utah, California, Arizona,

Montana, Vermont and Wyoming where ski areas are easily accessible. These consumers

consider themselves to be intermediate or advanced in skill level. They are college educated and

have a high disposable income.

Psychographic

This group of consumers have a desire for adventure sports and values the quality of their

products when performing. This is also a group who is very health conscious and values the

environmental sustainability of a company like Patagonia. They stay up to date on current trends

through magazines, blogs and rely heavily on customer reviews. This consumers is also very

brand loyal and shops with well respected brands. This is a very affluent market that spends

money on leisure activities, travel and hobbies.

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Target market profile

Meet Sean. He is an example of a potential target customer for our product.. He loves adventures sports and anything that gets his blood rushing and adrenaline pumping. He currently shops at patagonia and values their high quality products. Sean values sustainable companies like Patagonia that enhance a cradle to grave product mentality. He shares his love for different brands on social media and more specifically Instagram and Facebook.

Brand Concept Formulation

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Patagonia Powder stands for adventure, quality, and sustainability. We will showcase

these skis as aligning with what customers already love about Patagonia: their environmental

consciousness, high quality, and innovation. Patagonia's product design approach encompasses

simplicity and utility above everything else. Patagonia will stand out amongst their competitors

as skis that were manufactured and sold in an environmentally conscious manner. We are

focusing on backcountry skiing, versus freestyle. These will be high quality, high value,

luxurious product with value created through the Patagonia brand association.

Key associations: Quality, Sustainability, Good values, Outdoor, Adventure, Innovation

Product Design and Pricing Fundamentals

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Product Name

Patagonia Powder is the brand name for this new category. We chose Patagonia Powder because

Patagonia already has a very strong, reliable, and respected connotation in the marketplace and

Powder reflects the new product category that we are entering. Associating the new brand with

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the already established company will capture the brand loyal customers. It will enhance the

transfer of a positive association with the new brand extension line of skis.

Product Design

The Patagonia Powder line will feature

products designed for backcountry

skiers. While any ski can theoretically

be used in the backcountry, the recent

explosion in the popularity of

backcountry skiing has spawned a whole

new subset of gear specifically designed

for the sport subcategory. Backcountry

skis range from super-svelte trekking

and ski-mountaineering styles focused

primarily on uphill mobility, to more

freeride-focused models that offer the

same larger dimensions and profiles of

traditional downhill skis. Generally, backcountry skis employ lightweight construction and offer

touring features like notches in the tip and tail for attaching climbing skins. From a physical

design standpoint, Patagonia Powder skis will feature this lightweight construction and thin

profile. Themes will include winter, mountains, wilderness, animals, and traditional Nordic

patterns. The color pallet will reflect pre-existing colors in Patagonia’s product line, featuring

blacks, whites, and vibrant, saturated, semi-neon colors.

Pricing Considerations

We will enter the market at a high price point due to our target markets value for the best quality

products. The product will retail from $700-$1000 to reflect the high quality and positive

association Patagonia brings. Our main competitors K2 and 4FRNT powder skis are priced

between $350-$1000. By offering this price point for Patagonia Powder we are penetrating the

market at higher price points where our competitors are not as competitive.

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Integrated Marketing Communication

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Communication Objectives

1. Awareness: Spark curiosity and interest in what Patagonia is releasing

First off we want to foster curiosity and interest from current and future customers around the

new direction Patagonia is taking. With advertisements that get people talking and thinking about

what Patagonia is about to reveal. In order to execute awareness we will release the first

“Coming Soon” advertisement, pictured below.

2. Encourage current and new customers to try Patagonia Powder.

We want to establish a program to allow consumers to demo our skis. We want our consumers to

know that the product is quality and that we believe so strongly in the product that we want them

to test it out. Therefore, we will utilize current Patagonia ski brand ambassadors to endorse the

product. Max Hammer, link to bio found in resources, is an avid backcountry skier and will be

crucial to current and new customers jumping on board with Patagonia Powder (“Max

Hammer”).

Messaging Strategy

All of the messaging will be clear and simple to show this sense of appreciation for nature, for

being outdoors. This will follow the style of ads Patagonia currently uses with a minimalistic feel

and great shots of nature. We want the messaging and imaging to reflect the value of high quality

products and Patagonia’s passion for getting people to have adventures.We want to push the

product to customers using big ads as we are less concerned with branding and more concerned

with creating an instant desire for the ads. We want to reach the entirety of the current Patagonia

customers.

Media Strategy

Print and flyers

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We will start with big “reveal” print ads

to get the current customers excited

about what's to come from Patagonia.

We want to showcase a series of ads that

will get people curious, excited, and

wanting to know more. We want these

ads to spark curiosity, gain traction and

excitement that will lead to the big

reveal of the new Patagonia Powder

brand. The main idea behind these ads is

3 seperate ones that will be done via

print and placed in ski and outdoor

magazines like Ski Magazine,

Backcountry Magazine, and post them

around Patagonia stores, at ski rental

stores, and at ski resorts.

The first ad in the series is titled

“coming soon”. It shows a group of

skiers from a distance. With the words

“coming soon” and the Patagonia logo,

this will spark interest and curiosity.

The second ad will be called “getting

closer” and shows a skier skiing closer to

the viewer to gain even more excitement.

People will already be curious as to what

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Patagonia is about to reveal, and now the product is actually shown on the screen.

The final ad will be called “arrived” and obviously show that patagonia is now selling skis and

boots. It is a close up of actual skis and showcased the new brand logo “Patagonia Powder”. This

will be revealed the day that the skis go on sale and will really get current and future customers

excited.

We decided to show market rates for the our magazine spreads by highlighting one magazine

with the highest skier readership and one with one of the lowest skier readership. Ski Magazine’s

will run us about $84,000. Backcountry Magazine will cost us $6,315 for a full page spread.

CPM:

● Ski Magazine CPM: 84,000x1000/1,260,000=$66.67 (Media Kit 2016)

● BackCountry Magazine CPM: 6,315x1000/31,000=$203.71 (Media Kit 2014-15)

Out of Home (OOH)

We will have three different messages pictured on huge billboards to spark interest. We

want these billboards to be displayed in mountain towns or areas catering to high ski traffic.

TV Commercial

The idea behind the commercial is similar to the print advertisements. Using a very minimalistic

feel, we would follow a skier in deep powder in the backcountry. With no music and just the

sound of the skis carving through the snow. Then the

screen would go black and “coming soon” would

appear on the bottom of the screen. Followed by a

skier launching into the air, then it would cut back to

the black screen and the patagonia logo would

appear. This simple commercial would grasp the

attention of the audience and intrigue them to want

to know more. Currently, ski movies are all the rage

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and people love watching talented skiers land incredible tricks. This ad would spark a sense of

adventure and curiosity within the viewer.

We would have the TV commercial run during the winter X Games in order to maximize

the reach to our target market. Based on past Winter X games data we presume that the reach of

our TV commercial will be about 863,000 homes. Additionally, we will seek to sponsor the

Winter X games to further increase the frequency. Patagonia Powder will be featured on banners,

ramps, giveaway items and helmets. In the Winter X Games, every competition is sponsored by a

brand and that brand will show up numerous times in commercials, clothes worn by athletes and

the product will be used by the athletes (N.p.) With a reach of 863,000 homes and an estimated

frequency of 10, we believe the GRP will be 8,630,000.

After the “big reveal” featured on the Winter X Games, we will show the commercial

during the Winter Olympics and on ESPN in order to ensure broad reach.

Digital and Social Marketing Program

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The objectives of our digital and social marketing program is to spark interest in a new

aspect of the Patagonia brand. We are also helping to grow our base of followers. We want to

parallel the three big ads with smaller ads, maintaining interest and pushing the message to the

consumers. The different promotional channels we are going to use are: email marketing,

website posts, Facebook and Instagram. (See Appendix B).We hope to drive traffic to the

Patagonia website through the use of an email marketing campaign. We also hope to increase our

Facebook and Instagram followers by attracting more of the ski industry.

With email being the number one digital marketing tactic used, we are going to kick off

our digital marketing strategy with email marketing. We will be targeting current Patagonia

customers that are already on our email list with a drip campaign. We want to introduce this

product several months before it arrives in the market to build up anticipation for consumers.

This will allow us to set up email flows about our new product based on our target markets

behavior. For our email marketing campaign we hope to have around a 25% open rate with about

3.5% of those open rates resulting in a conversion(click). Our goal is to drive traffic to the

Patagonia website through emails. We will also be introducing the arrival of the product on the

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actual Patagonia website. This will be the first image and context that appears when a consumer

goes to the website. This images will be the above ads that say (coming soon, getting closer,

arrived).This helps to target consumers that are already shopping for something at Patagonia and

spark an interest in our new product.

In using social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram we hope to increase our

followers by 3%. Patagonia already has 1.7 million followers on Instagram and +600K on

Facebook. They already have a huge following on social media platforms and are able to reach

millions of consumers. By introducing Patagonia Powder we hope to gain and reach more

consumers interested in skiing. CMP on Facebook is $0.66. We hope to spend around $50 dollars

for each post on facebook. This would mean we would be reaching about 75,757 people per post

in the beginning. This would allow us to get the word out about our product and eventually reach

more consumers.

Sales Promotion

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Our objective is to get people to try out the skis and fall in love with our new brand extension.

We are seeking to add value to the purchase of Patagonia Powder skis by offering a gift

certificate with the purchase of the skis for Patagonia apparel. We want to enhance our sales

promotions by adding more value to the purchase thus increasing our brand equity.

Consumer Promotion

We will offer a gift certificate for $50 off of the purchase of Patagonia jacket. Patagonia will also

travel to different ski resorts across the United States and demo skis or partner with rental

companies and have them give our demos to consumers so they are able to try them out. If a

consumer buys directly from the Patagonia website we will offer free shipping.

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Works Cited

Arora, Rohit. "8 P's of Luxury Brand Marketing." Luxury Daily RSS. N.p., 08 May 2013. Web. 27 Apr. 2016

Backcountry Magazine. Media Kit 2014-15. Jeffersonville, VT: Backcountry Magazine, 2014.

Print.

Berg, Meredith. "Why Advertising Is 'Dead Last' Priority at Outerwear Marketer Patagonia." Advertising Age CMO Strategy RSS . N.p., 17 Dec. 2013. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.

"Max Hammer." Patagonia Skiing Ambassador . Web. 27 Apr. 2016.

N.p., n.d. Web. https://emerging-advertising-media.wikispaces.com/X+Games+Ads "Patagonia’s Mission Statement." Patagonia Company Information: Our Reason for Being . N.p.,

n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2016. "SIA Snow Sports Fact Sheet." SIA . N.p., 2015. Web. 15 Apr. 2016. Ski Magazine. 2016 Media Kit. Boulder: Ski Magazine, 2016. Print. Thangavelu, Poonkulali. "The Success Of Patagonia's Marketing Strategy." Investopedia . N.p.,

07 July 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. .

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Appendix

Appendix A:

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Appendix B

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