In the previous post we talked about building a digital wakeboard brand. Wakeboarding is not a big sport in comparison to other equal sports such as surfing, skateboarding or snowboarding. These sports are way bigger and have more developed markets. In this post we will talk about the differences and similarities between these sports and wakeboarding in regards to digital brand building.
To create a relevant link between these sports and their markets, is it necessary to first give a really quick introduction to these sports. Starting off with skateboarding. Probably the largest sport on this list is skateboarding, because of its easy accessibility. ‘Not only the sport is one of the biggest on this list, the skateboard market is also one of the biggest.’ Skateboarding started in California. In the 1950’s a group of surfers got the bright idea to surf the concrete. From a group of surfers, it grew up to 6.44 million skateboarders in the United States only. From the 50’s till present the skateboards changed a lot, as you can see in the picture below.
From skateboarding we’ll go to where it all began, surfing.
Surfing has no exact record of when it began, but during the 15th century people were already catching some waves in their canoes. This makes it one of the oldest practiced sports on the planet. With this given it is understandable that surfing has a huge market which is relatively developed. The estimated population of American surfers in 2015 was 1.7 million. This shows us how big the surf market actually is. In the picture below you can see how surfboards have changed.
From surfing on the water we go to surfing on frozen water, a.k.a. snowboarding.
In 1964 a surfer named Sherman Poppen built his daughter the very first snowboard, a pair of kids’ skies tied together. One year later Sherman teamed up with a bowling-ball manufacturer and then started producing the snurfer (snow-surfer). This was a great success it was the beginning of a very popular trend. In 2015 there were roughly 5,7 million snowboarders in the United States only. In the picture below you can see how the shape of the snowboards changed.
The most of the brands which are related to any of these board sports use similar brand building strategies. As you can see here: the skate, snowboard, surf or wakeboard brand Instagram accounts are slightly different but also very comparable.
Most of the time you will see content of the riders who are sponsored by the brand or promotion of the (new) products. When the brand building in these sports are compared with brand building in the wakeboard market a few differences are noticeable such as:
- The size of the brands (indirectly the brand building budget)
- The audience of the brands (tone and size)
- The platform of brand building
- The message
The internet is a continuous process, so is social media. This goes hand in hand with the digital brand building strategies and the use of the social media platforms of companies. Couple years ago brands where mainly focussing on the sale of their product. However nowadays brands are more focussing on the delivery of a good and positive online experience instead of promoting their products. A recent trend is posting content of the actual consumers, this creates connection with the brand and can build brand relations.
What do you think the next changes will be in regards to digital board brand building? Do you think consumers get more and more power?
Mik Mags 