The Four P's of Alpine Ski Marketing

As the first snow of the year falls in Bozeman, I begin to look forward to the coming ski season and dream of "getting pitted in some gnarly blower," " tossing some steezy airs," and "hucking some naty bangers."

Made a short edit of the first two days of the new year skiing Lost Trail. A couple of great days with great people. @jonathanwfinch @kylefinch52 @peanutbrittle7 #armada #smithoptics #saga #losttrail #dakine #lange #pow #gopro #gopro4black #hookit #ski

A video posted by Austin Finch (@finch.austin) on Jan 3, 2015 at 12:30pm PST

I have recently begun the search for a couple of new sets of skis, and in the process noticed a few interesting things about the way that skis are marketed. Most all skis cost around the same amount. In some cases, it's actually the lack of traditional marketing and advertising that draw people to certain skis. For these reasons, I've decided to dig a little deeper into the marketing of alpine skis.

Product
In the alpine ski market there are many different ways to separate your product from those of you competitors. The first of these is in the primary use of your ski. With so many different options; ranging from all-mountain, big-mountain, backcountry, park, racing, and moguls, just a slight tweak in a products design can dramatically change it's targeted use. A perfect example of this is the implementation of "rocker" or reverse-camber in modern ski design. This change in design has allowed for skis to perform much better in deep snow than the traditional camber ski, without sacrificing on-piste performance.
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When creating a ski I would argue the product is likely the most important part of it's marketing plan. A simple mistake or flaw in the design and a brand is likely to lose a customer for years to come.

Price
In the alpine ski market there are very few companies that try to differentiate themselves through price. A quick search through Evo or Backcountry will show most skis fall between the $600 and $900 range with some custom, racing, and high performance skis easily exceeding $1200. Prominent companies such as K2 and Rossignol are able to sell their skis for a slightly lower price because they manufacture many of their products in Europe and China, where as pricier companies such as ON3P, Moment, and Icelantic handmake their skis in the U.S. When creating a marketing plan in the alpine ski industry, price does not seem to be a big selling point for many consumers.

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Promotion
Promotion is very important in marketing alpine skis. Most companies sponsor yearly films, competitions, and support a team of athletes. Companies use these athletes to get their products shown at competitions, in films, and into print publications such as Freeskier. Many brands also use personal marketing techniques and send representatives around the country to promote and demo their products at resorts or shows. It is very important their skis get good reviews and testimonials so most companies submit their products to publishers who release gear guides at the beginning of every ski season. The final and possibly most important means of promoting a product is through word of mouth. The skiing community is pretty tight knit and many people buy products solely based off of suggestions from their friends. For this reason, it is important to make the best product possible.

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Place
Most skis are sold in one of two places, online or in a standard brick and mortar store. In order for a ski to gain traction, it is very important that they become available on a large website such as Evo or Backcountry. These retailers sell hundreds of different models and are able to reach a very large market that some companies would be unable to cover by solely stocking in ski shops.