Words: 1035
Executive Summary Epic Board Shop is a recently founded retail store offering equipment and apparel for on-land board sports. The Managing team consists of: Dan Dapper (CEO), Adam Strawberry (COO), Patrick Squiggle (SCOFF), and Ell Dapper (Director of purchasing) – Just to name a few. There are also many other team members who are indispensable and wear many hats in this young company. Starting with a shop in Park City and expanding to a second location in Salt Lake City, The Epic Board Shop offers the highest quality products to their clients to give them the best experience there is to offer.
They strive to provide the next best experience for aspiring athletes, employing staff with the knowledge and passion to give this high standard of service. Currently, Epic Board Shop is in the infantile stages but has goals to expand to a common name in the extreme sports industry, with the prominent goal to put an Epic Board Shop next to every Gummier location in the country. The impact they are attempting on the public includes community events, competitions, and social media. With their closely knit team they have a good concept of what the target demographic is looking for and hey continue increase their appeal constantly.
Merchandise offered by the Epic Board Shop is high quality and highly specific. They offer clothing and apparel that gratifies the target market, boards including: skateboarding, longstanding and snowboarding; as well all major names in hardware and accessories. Because of the passion and field knowledge this team has first-hand experience and knowledge of the area and technology they are working with. As a Marketing Team, we want to improve the hospitality and positive responsiveness from the general public while increasing the frequency of loyal customers.
The plan to accomplish this will be to create a loyalty program, whether that meaner something as simple as a punch card or e-mail list, or a more complex purchase based tracking system that applies rewards and discounts. We also want to encourage a positive friendly atmosphere, where people that have never been to the Boards and also people that don’t board, will feel comfortable and confident entering. There is a very closed off vibe that I noticed the first time I entered, the only reason I returned was because I knew t was a small business and I like to support small businesses.
We want to also encourage more structure so they can better delegate and specialize in every area of their business, from marketing to customer service. GOALS CLIENT * Firmer establishment of Epic Boards on the market * Open an Epic Boards next to every Gummier in the United States TEAM * Build a comprehensive plan for our client * Aid the increase of client brand and awareness STOW Epic Boardroom’s strengths come from the close knit relationships between the employees, they have a common goal and are working towards it together.
The current store locations are suited to and stocked according to their demographic, ‘e. The Gateway store in Salt Lake City deals more with Skate equipment and accessories, while the Park City store is angled towards mountain and winter sports. WEAKNESSES: Epic Boards is still more of a Boutique store, albeit one with ideals of expansion. As such, costs can be a little higher than the average department style store such as Dicks or Gummier where a larger variety of items is available. Currently, the promotion for Epic Boards seems to be negligible.
At a recent event held in Gateway while Epic Boards was mentioned over the loudspeaker as being a Sponsor of the event, no actual signage was up to indicate this or to promote the Store despite being in the same location. Epic Boards does have an online media presence via Faceable and Instating but the posts are irregular and not very dynamic. One of the posts was even quite negative towards vandals who caused an event to be cancelled. This negativity online, may be understandable but is not the right forum for a professional operation hoping to establish their name.
OPPORTUNITIES: The popularity of board sports in the United States is growing at a rate of 3% per year – it is a slow growth industry, but the retention rates are quite high which is something Epic Boards can take advantage of. They also have the opportunity to improve their current marketing by looking over what has and what has not worked for them in the past and putting into action new marketing plans. THREATS: Board sports are increasing in popularity with an expanding demographic. This could lead to increased competition and market saturation.
Larger department stores with their wider range of products tend to be more popular than boutiques as they are able to provide more competitive prices. SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS STEP Segmentation: Markets can be broken down into separate segments, each made up of customers with similar wants, needs and buying habits. Ex. : boarders, sports, radical adventures. Targeting: You need to identify the consumers you want to market your product to and determine the growth potential of the product in the market you choose to target.
Ex. : skateboarders, landholders, snowboarders. Positioning: involves a process of defining the marketing mix variables so that target customers have a clear, distinctive, desirable understanding of what the product does or represents in comparison with competing products. Ex. : custom products, quality product, different brands. Product: Currently, Epic Boards stocks high quality, long lasting products from established brand names. They offer custom designs and features as well as a variety to sizes.
Price: Prices are comparable to similar boutiques although they may still be considered on the expensive side for those looking at board sports as an occasional rather than a constant activity. Place: Both stores are well suited to their demographic and as per the business aim, each store is in close proximity to a Gummier store. The Salt Lake City store concentrates more on its street sports providing skate boards, longboat’s and accessories suited to the Salt Lake lifestyle.