The new really great running shoes from the Swiss company On Running is in Denmark!
Or are they??
They are available in one retailer in Copenhagen and on one or two webshops. But no one have heard about these brand new very exciting shoes, nere is no buzz or hype and not even the marketing guys from the competive brands have heard about On Cloudtec.
Running is very popular in DK
Running is very popular in DK, and the number of runners are still growing. We have more than 750.000 people who are running on a regular basis. The vast majority are not organized in clubs, but are running with friends, colleges or alone.
Comunities
We have a lot of different running communities in Denmark, Some are run by single persons (amateurs) and others are run by profesionals as businesses.
These are the meeting point for lots of the more serious runers – often you see the marathon runners and alike dominate the forums and blog areas.
They discuss everything from gadgets to training and runs – and of course equipment.
I think these communities are important for the introduction of ground breaking new equipment, if you don’t have the money to go for a big brand building introduction.
On Running is not present in any of these communities.
In Denmark search is all about Google. 95% of all searches are performed with Google, so you have to be present in the relevant search results – if you want to make an impression on your audience.
If you try to find anything about On Running you are going to be very dissapointed. No branded keywords to be found, no fat tail keywords and certaintly no long tail keywords help me to find the good news about the new tecnology for runners.
Ad to this, that more than 90% of all buys, both on- and offline, in Denmark starts with a search. This is too important to ignore.
It’s not clear what go-to-market strategy On Running are following in Denmark.
The executive summary is something like this:
The shoes are only available in one single running shop in one city, the pricing is very high, and the news about the shoe and the brand is not gotten thru anywhere in this country.
There are several very established running shops in Denmark, some large sports equipment retailers with shops around the country, and we have a lot of webshops that are into running shoes. On Running is only found in one place – Byman.
The pricing is strange. The asking price is dkk. 1.800,- or some EUR 240,-. The shoes are for sale in the On Running eShop for EUR 159,- at the same time. Something is not right.
The On Running Brand is very new, and in my mind there is no doubt that you have to make sure that runners get to hear and learn about the new invention. You have to build some hype, and let people try the shoes out – this is not done from one single shop asking for a very high price for the product. In the Byman webshop the Cloudsurfer is the most expensive running shoe of all in the shop.
To me it looks as if the introduction of On Running in Denmark is gone wrong from the start – actually without a proper strategy.
I think you have to rethink the go-to-market strategy. The marketing strategy (if any) is clearly not working, the pricing is a problem, the retail coverage is close to zero and the brand is more or less invisible.
But first and foremost I propose to you that you need another partner in Denmark, who are able to really make an impact – based on a solid and mutual strategy to introduce On Running in the right and powerfull way.
I think a product as On holds a very big potential, and that there is lots of possibilities to promote the products and make them speek for them selves. You have to take care of the communities, the social aspect, the clubs, the trendsetters, the retailers and so on…
But before this is going to pay off it is necessary to actually get the shoes out on the streets and trails.
As you can see in “about me” i’m a digital professional with a solid experience in retailing and a keen interesest in running. I’m prepared to get in the game with your team – if you would like a more dynamic approach in DK.
If you really think that “fast feels good” you have to rethink!
On Running 