Brand Positioning: Kitesurfing
In 1957 a UC Berkeley-trained engineer and Olympic gold medalist named Lowell North found the North Sails brand. A committed and driven competitor both on and off the water, North quickly drove his company to the top of its field…. Today the North brand is the world’s premier sail and kite maker with 63 major lofts and 56 service, sales and satellite lofts in 29 countries.
From: www.northkites.com
Introduction
Kiteboarding is an adventure water sport combining techniques from wakeboarding, surfing and windsurfing. Over the past 10 years its popularity has increased substantially among teenagers and young adults thanks to improvements on the equipment and techniques, which greatly reduced the number of accidents involving practitioners.
This paper aims to analyze the market for kiteboarding equipment from the perspective of North Sails, a leading company for sailing equipment that has been working on repositioning its brand to attend the kiteboarding market.
In the first section, we provide a short description of North Sails brand and the market in which the company used to focus its activities. After that, we discuss the emergence of kiteboarding as a popular sport and the demand for specific equipment to attend user’s needs. We also detail the target public in this new market segment and its specific characteristics. Following that, we analyze the strengths and weakness of North Sails while facing a competitor’s position. Finally, we propose alternatives on how it should position itself in the market.
It is worth to point out that most of the information provided in this paper is based on personal experience from the study group members and discussions with other kiteboarding practitioners. Since this is still a new market in which only small private companies operate, there is not substantial public information available about companies’ financial data, market shares, and others. Nevertheless, the group considered the kiteboarding market as an
From: www.northkites.com
Introduction
Kiteboarding is an adventure water sport combining techniques from wakeboarding, surfing and windsurfing. Over the past 10 years its popularity has increased substantially among teenagers and young adults thanks to improvements on the equipment and techniques, which greatly reduced the number of accidents involving practitioners.
This paper aims to analyze the market for kiteboarding equipment from the perspective of North Sails, a leading company for sailing equipment that has been working on repositioning its brand to attend the kiteboarding market.
In the first section, we provide a short description of North Sails brand and the market in which the company used to focus its activities. After that, we discuss the emergence of kiteboarding as a popular sport and the demand for specific equipment to attend user’s needs. We also detail the target public in this new market segment and its specific characteristics. Following that, we analyze the strengths and weakness of North Sails while facing a competitor’s position. Finally, we propose alternatives on how it should position itself in the market.
It is worth to point out that most of the information provided in this paper is based on personal experience from the study group members and discussions with other kiteboarding practitioners. Since this is still a new market in which only small private companies operate, there is not substantial public information available about companies’ financial data, market shares, and others. Nevertheless, the group considered the kiteboarding market as an