Market Niches; Gimme One! Now! But How?

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Last issue I took most of this space to discuss some tactical measures businesses could take to respond to the extremely difficult competitive conditions in the snowboard industry. I went on to say in what may have seemed like an after thought that none of those measures mattered if you didn’t have a way to compete. That is, a market niche you can succeed  in.

Then I ran out of space.
 
So it’s a month later and time to talk about market niches as part of your business’  strategy.
 
What’s a Niche?
 
Well, for one thing, it’s a term that’s thrown around a lot without much specificity. A market niche exists when you can offer features and benefits in your product or service that appeal to a specific customer group. These features and benefits have to be ones that your competitors are unable or unwilling to offer. Put another way, it’s  a portion of the market where growth prospects are acceptable and competitive pressures are manageable.
 
Niches can also be very difficult to identify, and your success in identifying them will ultimately determine your company’s success.   Is snowboard boots a market niche? How about women’s’ boots? Maybe women’s’ step-in boots? Perhaps women’s step-in boots with heel/toe lockdown. Let’s go one more step further and say that they can only be made of leather.
 
I suppose those are all niches,  but all or none of them may be a niche in which a successful business can be built. That depends not only on identifying the product characteristics and customer base, but the specific resources and capabilities of the company trying to succeed in the niche. And that, I suppose is why defining market niches is so difficult. They don’t actually exist until somebody has succeeded in creating or exploiting them.
 
Market niches are very dynamic. They change in response to economic conditions and the actions of all the players in the industry. What was the most popular highback binding three years ago would be tough to sell today.
 
Even the strongest niche doesn’t necessarily last forever.    When was the last time you sent a Western Union telegram? Okay, how many of you have even heard of a telegram? Visi Calc was the first computer spreadsheet program and was an incredible advance. But Lotus ate it for lunch and, in its turn Lotus, is being munched on by Excel. 
 
To companies that aren’t already industry leaders in snowboarding, a niche strategy means reduced expectations and cutting back operations. This is consistent with the general concept of market niches representing a small part of a market.   But that’s not always the case. The best market niches in the world are those in which the product is identified with the product category; Coke in colas, Kleenex in tissues. Maybe Burton in snowboards?
 
Burton’s market image is based on brand recognition built up over a period of years. They spent a lot of money on dealer brochures, riders, ads, and promotions when most other players didn’t have the resources to match them. Switch and K2 are trying to establish the technical standard for the step in binding as a market niche. Mervin Manufacturing’s market niche is based on their consistent appeal to a clearly defined group of young consumers. Sims seems to be focusing on being pure to the roots of snowboarding as a way to distinguish their products.
 
A market niche isn’t enough to insure a successful company. Beta was a better technical format for videotapes than VHS, but guess which one we all rent? Switch and K2 know that being first into the market and having the best technology (if they do) by itself does  not guarantee  their products will be adopted as industry standards. They are both involved in licensing programs to expand their market penetration.
 
Why Do Niches Exist?
 
A niche strategy is viable because smaller companies can take advantage of the compromises that larger players have to make as they expand their reach. As they expand their reach into more and more segments, over performance for some customers and under performance for others is inevitable.
 
In the snowboard business, we’ve seen some industry leaders increase minimum orders and impose other terms and conditions that all retailers can’t meet. Those leaders have found that it doesn’t pay to do business with an account if it can’t do a minimum amount of business with them. This perfectly rational business decision may create a niche opportunity for other players.
 
Community banks have survived the ongoing consolidation in banking (or have positioned themselves to be bought out at high multiples) by offering better service and being part of their community.
 
Continued growth means an inevitable reliance on larger accounts. Look at the numbers. Let’s say you are a five million-dollar company looking to grow ten percent. That means you have to sell another five hundred thousand dollars in merchandise. If you were to accomplish it all in new accounts, that would mean fifty accounts each buying ten thousand dollars of merchandise- not easy, but theoretically possible.
 
Now let’s say you’re doing twenty five million in business and want to grow ten percent, or two and a half million dollars. Finding two hundred and fifty new shops to buy ten thousand dollars each is probably not in the cards- especially in an environment where most of the possible customers are already carrying your product or your competitor’s. Larger dollar sales increases usually have to come from bigger customers.
 
Can You Create Your Own Niche?
 
Four things seem clear from the discussion above. First, even the most powerful niches don’t guarantee a company’s financial success. You have to do all the other things well, if not quite as well as your competitors.
 
Let’s say your new snowboard jacket hits the season’s colors and style dead on.  It’s got the latest fabric and the technical features everybody is lusting for. Maybe you can price it a little higher than the competition; but not double. You can be a week or two late delivering; but not a month or two. You’ll still have to finance your production. 
 
Second, market niches don’t spring forth fully articulated in a blaze of customer acclaim. Fred Smith, the founder of Federal Express, identified a powerful, distinct market niche but it still took time, work, money, faith and some good timing to make his idea into an industry leading company.
 
“The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ‘C,’ the idea must be feasible,” said a Yale University management professor in response to Mr. Smith’s paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service.
 
Burton didn’t exactly spring to the top of the pack over night either. I recall the story about Jake being unwilling to leave his trade show booth for a bathroom break because he was the only one in the booth and was afraid he’d miss a sale. It would be going too far to say that having a stronger bladder than your competition represents a market niche, but it’s indicative of how tough it can be to define one.
 
Third, the customer must perceive and accept the qualities of the product or company that you are offering, or there is no niche. If 300,000 1996-97 snowboards from Japan of almost any brand you can imagine show up in various chain stores this summer/fall for prices not too far over $100 (“Attention shoppers, we have a K-Mart Blue Light Special today on snowboards…….”) you are going to need a hell of a niche to sell many for north of 300 dollars. I have, by the way, no information that is going to happen, but I am concerned.
 
Finally, if too many companies pursue the same market niche, it’s no market niche at all. There’s no room in the snowboard market for another brand that wants to be “the high end board sold to core shops.”
 
Now What?
 
If you don’t have a market niche now, it’s probably too late to create one in the snowboard business. That’s not to say that somebody won’t succeed in doing it, but because of where we are in the business cycle, the odds against you are long indeed.
 
Just because you’re already in business doesn’t mean you have a market niche; just a customer base. Whether that base is sufficient to make you successful in creating a niche in a maturing market is another question. Make a start on figuring that out by asking: Who are my customers? Why do they buy my products?
 
Hunches don’t count. The usual glib and imprecise answers that seemed adequate when you could sell all the product you could get won’t be any help. Answering these questions is hard work. It takes time, planning and effort. The answer may never be “right” but it can keep getting better.
 
With that information in hand, stand in front of a full-length mirror. With the most serious demeanor you can muster (difficult, granted when you’re talking to yourself in a mirror) repeat the following, one at a time, with firm conviction
 
·         I can compete based on price.
·         I can compete based on image.
·         I can provide better customer service.
·         My technology differentiates me.
·         I’m king in one geographic area.
·         My graphics are better than anybody else’s.
·         We’re closer to the market than the competition.
 
The list above is by no means complete, and you should modify it to fit your situation. The ones that don’t leave you feeling ridiculous or laughing hysterically are probably worth exploring if you really understand your customers.
 
The above exercise may appear goofy, but the business of determining your market niche and basis of competition is deadly serious whether you’re a materials supplier, brand, or retailer. If you can’t annunciate it clearly and quantitatively in no more than a paragraph, you’ve got work to do. Don’t put it off any longer.
 

 

 

Winter Resorts and Snowboarding; Why Does It Seem Like an Arranged Marriage?

/0 Comments/in , , /by

The Medici family of Italy rose to commercial prominence during the renaissance at least partly because of their ability to make or receive payments in widely dispersed geographic locations. Lacking a wire transfer system, they arranged marriages between family members and other prominent merchants in commercial centers that gave them the ability to move money or goods through somebody they could trust. There was no love lost, but the commercial opportunities were too good to pass up.

 Sound a little like winter resorts and snowboarding?   The antagonism of past years has largely evaporated. We don’t have complete enthusiasm, but it seems like we’ve at least worked our way past grudging acceptance. We’re certainly a long way from understanding. If we weren’t, we wouldn’t have had Animal foisted on us as a mascot.
 
At the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) last May, the moderator asked the panel of four CEOs of major resorts, “What about snowboarding?” There was a pause before Adam Aron, CEO of Vail and, interestingly enough, a newcomer to the winter sports business said something like, “It’s here, it’s not going away, that’s it.”   There was another pause before the conversations moved on, with what I thought was palpable relief, to another subject. 
 
Is this any way to treat the sport that represents 17% of lift tickets, is growing rapidly, and, frankly, has saved your posterior quarter while skiing has stagnated?
 
Maybe. There’s a couple of things that may explain this can’t live with us, can’t live without us attitude and behavior.
 
Legitimate Lifestyle Differences
 
The NSAA meeting was my first exposure to a ski industry gathering. Those of you in snowboarding who have never been to one should try it. It really brings home the differences between the two sports. It was more subdued than a snowboard gathering, dress was more conservative (tuckers in button down shirts) and the average age, higher. The number of relationships that went back thirty plus years seemed astounding. The meeting was about business and, for better or worse, the passion and concern for the sport that has been so common in snowboarding was less obvious. A number of ski industry veterans commented on that fact with concern.
 
I had a good time and don’t make the above comments as a criticism, but as a statement of obvious differences. Skiing use to be a lifestyle but now it’s a sport. Snowboarding is still closely associated with participant lifestyle choices in music, clothing, culture, and other sports.  Skiing and snowboarding are of different generations, with different participant concerns and focuses at their different stages of life. It’s not good or bad. It just is.
 
These generational differences go a long way towards explaining why the resorts want the snowboarders’ money, but would just as soon we all took up skiing. We share sliding down a hill, and not much else. Really catering to snowboarding requires that the skiing establishment develop a commitment to lifestyle activities they aren’t attracted to and don’t understand.
 
Remember, this isn’t about finger pointing or right/wrong. We’ve just got groups of people with different life experiences who are at different stages of their life.
 
Financial Realities
 
If you take the time to read through the stock offering prospectuses of Vail Resorts and Intrawest Corporation from earlier this year, you’ll quickly realize that there’s a lot more to their business visions than selling lift tickets. It’s not enough, and it’s not accurate, to say simply that they are in the skiing business, or even the resort management business. It’s closer to the mark to say they are in the business of maximizing asset utilization, but I think a better way to put it is that they are in the theme park business.
 
Yup- just like Disneyland.
 
Walt Disney and successors have spent and are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on castles, monorails, fancy roller coasters, hotels and retail space. Their ongoing maintenance and operating expenses are big numbers. Even if they shut the parks down, interest expense and depreciation by itself would be a huge financial burden.
 
Disney’s revenue in the year ended September 30, 1996 was 18.7 billion dollars. Depreciation expense by itself was 3.94 billion. They had long term debt of over $12 billion on which they have to pay interest. Not all of that is associated with the theme parks, but you get the picture.
 
So how are they going to cover all those expenses and make a buck? By keeping those assets busy. They don’t want you to come for a day and go on a few rides. They want you to come for a least a week, stay in their hotels, eat their food, shop in their stores, play a round on their golf course and ride all the park attractions. And it would be nice if you got there via an airline they have a deal with. Keep those assets busy and hear the cash register go ca-ching!
 
Now, check out this nice juicy quote from Vail’s prospectus.
 
While lift ticket sales….have grown each year over the past ten years, revenues from other sources have grown at a much faster rate and, as a result, have increased as a percentage of Resort Revenue from 36% in fiscal 1985 to 51% in fiscal 1996.
 
The Company’s focus on developing a comprehensive destination resort experience has also allowed it to attract a diverse quest population with an attractive demographic and economic profile, including a significant number of affluent and family-oriented destination guests, who tend to generate higher and more diversified revenues per guest than day skiers from local population centers. While the Company’s Resort Revenue per skier day is currently among the highest in the industry, management believes that the Company currently captures less than 20% of the total vacation expenditures of an average destination guest at its resorts. Vail Resorts’ business strategy is not only to increase skier days and guest visits but also to increase Resort Revenue per skier day by capturing a higher percentage of the total spending by its year round destination and day guests, by continuing to expand the range and enhance the quality of activities and services offered by the Company.
 
Intrawest says much the same thing.
 
Intrawest’s operating strategy is to link the staged modernization and expansion of mountain facilities at its resorts with the controlled development of four-season resort villages focused on high occupancy accommodations.
 
I think it’s a hell of a good strategy, and if I were CEO of a large mountain (not winter!) resort, I’d do the same thing.
 
I wouldn’t do it because I didn’t like snowboarders. I wouldn’t do it because I didn’t want them on my mountain. I wouldn’t do it because I didn’t like/understand/participate in their activities and life style. I’d do it because it made business sense and my first responsibility was to my shareholders or myself as the owner. I’d believe that right now I can attract more destination guests and make more money on a golf course than a skate board park, because the people who golf have more money than the people who skate. That’s just the way it is.
 
But it won’t always be. And so the mountain resort community has to deal with a bit of a conundrum that I think explains their sometimes schizophrenic approach to snowboarding. The larger resort’s strategies seem to require them to focus on the current generation of skiers. Given that this group is constant to shrinking in numbers, skier days can only be increased by taking market share from other mountains. This explains some of the consolidation pressure in winter resorts, but it also represents a marketing opportunity for some smaller mountains (Hey-I think I feel another article coming on!).
 
But those skiers are going to get old and, someday, stop skiing. So are current snowboarders, but not so soon. How do resorts that have to rely on the current skiing generation to achieve their strategic and financial goals keep a growing and important minority of their customers happy?
 
Do they need to do very much at all? Will snowboarders turn into their parents, have similar disposable incomes, and want the same facilities and amenities their parents wanted by the time they are the destination decision makers? Don’t laugh; it’s been known to happen. I wonder if Nike will come out with an adult diaper someday (Just do it?).
 
Maybe snowboarding and snowsboarders need to take the time to understand the ski industry that we wish they would take to understand us. Betcha there’s some business opportunities there somewhere.