Burton Snowboarding Essay

Burton Snowboards: Building a Sport

California State University, Los Angeles
Principals of Marketing: MKT 500
Dr. Iksuk Kim
Fall Quarter 2007

Arredondo, Belen
Enriquez-Marquez, Martin
Fuentes, William
Hung, Sheng – Hsiung
Wei, Dan

1) The environmental forces influencing the snowboarding industry are: Social: Winter Sports declining
 Alpine Skiers 1993 10.6 million 4.6% USA
 Alpine Skiers 2003 6.3 million 2.6% USA Demographics
• 80% participants were under 24 years old, median age 15.7 years, 74+% male
• Y Generation – 72 Million

Economic:
• 30% of ski passes are snowboarding passes
• Ski lodges losing 1/3 of market share
• Price range for equipment $300 - $800
• Affluent Caucasian market

Technological:
•
Innovative sleek designs

Competitive:
Burton 38%
Competition 62%
• K2: 31%
• Lamar 7%
• Salomon 6%
• Rossignol 4%
• Gnu 3%

Regulatory:
• Lobbying ski resorts for more access to ski slopes

2) The differences in marketing goals for Burton Snowboarding in both (a) Its early years while developing the industry:
 Become sole/leading supplier of Snowboards
 Introduce the sport of Snowboarding
 Lobby ski resorts to allow Snowboarders on their slopes
 Maximize profits
 Profit Responsibility

(b) Today with growing competition:
 Stakeholder responsibility
 Societal responsibility
 Ads in Snowboarder and Transworld SNOWboarding Magazines
 Sponsor Athletes: Global Team (17), Kelly Clark, Chris Klug and Ross Powers
 Innovative sleek designs
 Advertise to younger crowd
 Retaining original customers happy (baby boomers)
 Additional merchandise such as clothing and pipe boards

3) The marketing mix we would recommend for Burton given the changes occurring in the snowboarding marketplace is:
Product
• Offer an innovative, sleek designed product that appeals to everyone individually (ex.
Children, teens, athletes, women, etc.); clothing and accessories
Price
• A competitively priced product that has a variety of price ranges that everyone can afford respectively ($300 - $800)
Promotion
• Hold events at local and major ski resorts all around the world
• provide incentives such as discount coupons or buy one get one free alternatives Advertise with celebrities
• Special discounts for long term customers
Place
• Stores
• Ski Resorts
• Schools in areas where snow is available during the season
• Specialty stores,
• National chains

4) The image of snowboarding will be affected if more skiers or older participants take up the sport because:
• More revenue from skiers
• Stimulate innovation due to a new client base
• Snowboarding might not be considered edgy enough (older participants)
• Profits continue to grow or level off due to baby boomers
• Reputable due to long term customers
• May shift from an older audience to a much younger one (15.7 years of age)