Recap OutDoor 2014

Just last weekend Gregor Koall and I headed down south to Baden-Wuerttemberg to speak at the OutDoor Retailer Show in Friedrichshafen. We were asked to present few trends that we think will effect and benefit the retail market today and in the future. The OutDoor Show is one of the largest outdoor industry trade fairs worldwide. Industry heads, retailers and outdoor brands from all over the world come to see and share what is going on in their industry. Brands from the likes of Arcteryx, Black Diamond, Lowe Alpine, Marmot and Patagonia all were there. 

It was a great event to get the insights to what is going on in the outdoor scene. One theme that ignited the crowd and which has been the provable “thorn in the side” of marketeers as of late, is content marketing. Brands as well as retailers have been grappling with how to implement this strategic/tactical action for the last years. What I experienced (not only at OutDoor) is that many are struggling with finding the balance between the more classical product marketing on one hand, and brand marketing on the other side of the promotional spectrum. As always there is a reoccurring question which all would love to have answered, “How does content marketing really pay off?” The answer they most likely want to receive looks like this:

Graphics inspired by: Rand Fishkin

This is a highly desirable, but also unrealistic process that is not obtainable when thinking about content marketing. Actually, the process of content marketing looks more like this:

Graphics inspired by: Rand Fishkin

This model might be hard to swallow. Retailers and brands need to find comfort that content marketing is not about activating sales today but more about focusing on the long term effect of telling a great brand story. Business owners and marketeers need to view content marketing like branding, as a long term strategy that is about to build relationships and that over time creates sustainability for a business in the form of reoccurring sales and referral business.

So get outside and tell your story, and tell your customer’s stories. Don’t abandon your product marketing or other marketing actions. Just find a good balance of directly selling your product and at the same time telling your story to those who believe what you believe. This will result in a long term growth for your brand. And yes that sounds easier than it really is, but don’t get discouraged.

The recapping the essential

• Tell your story. Don’t try to emulate other brand stories. You will always get it wrong and it is not genuinely yours.
• Be good and add value. Always ask yourself, “Would I want to read this?” or at least “Would my best friend be interested in our story?”
• Let your customers become a part of the story. Ask them what they think and allow them to be involved in telling the story.
• Stories don’t live in one channel.

The pay offs

• Make advocates, build a community, even make evangelists out of those who are your customers.
• Create a richer experience that prompts emotional affirmation.
• Bring more life into all the channels that your brand uses.
• Motivate your community to buy and become steady customers because they trust you.

Thanks to all from Messe Friedrichshafen for putting on a great event. And a special thanks to Birger Dreher and Stefan Reisinger for inviting both of us to OutDoor 2014. See you again at EuroBike in August!

“Matterhorn” picture: Katharina Wieland Müller/pixelio