SWOT Analysis I. Marketing Objectives The brand s inherent strengths lie with the knowledge that the Village Surf Shoppe expects the inland market to increase sales by 20% within the next three years. There is currently a high level of brand awareness in the local community, and VSS has been successful in its local use of guerilla marketing tactics. Weaknesses may be that the brand is too embedded in the local market, so the inland market may not identify as well. Traditional advertising methods have also been limited and sporadic. Opportunities include the recent boom in surf culture which allows VSS to expand its consumer base. There are many opportunities for event marketing in inland areas, and the internet surfing community will also provide a forum for word-of-mouth and digital advertising. Threats include a budget of only $200,000 allocated for promotion and VSS s low market share currently within the inland community. II. Competitive Considerations Strengths of the Village Surf Shoppe brand include its uniqueness compared to large inland retail chains, and its current positioning not only as a business but as a casual hangout. Weaknesses to be noted are the lack of variety in surfboard brands being sold, as Perfection is the only one. Opportunities include the fact that Waller Bear s, Surf City, and Eternal Wave are only local competitors at this point in time, having given no indication of plans to fight for inland market share; additionally, they utilize social media ineffectively. Also, the opportunity to advertise in national surf magazines gives VSS an edge alongside national competition. Threats include the potential physical inconvenience of traveling to VSS over more common national retailers, the market share of large chains like Ron Jon who are already established in the inland market, the more extensive budget of a large competitor, and the variety of surfboards available at other stores, beyond the Perfection brand. III. Creative History Strengths inherent in the Village Surf Shoppe brand s creative history include standing the test of time since 1969 with a slogan that not only highlights this but conveys dedication to the consumer ( Hardcore since 1969 ), and working to establish a relationship with the consumer that will inspire brand loyalty. Additionally the psychological benefit of belonging and feeling at home within such a community creates brand equity. Weaknesses include the potential for VSS to alienate the inland consumer if not careful with how it portrays the exclusivity of the brand. Opportunities are found within the lifestyle of the target, who is willing to drive 1-3 hours for the experience of VSS. Also, the underutilized online market is consumed constantly as well as off-season. Threats include the potential for coastal guerilla marketing tactics to not translate as effectively to the inland environment, as well as any external negative publicity from any merchandise supplier associated with VSS. VILLAGE SURF SHOPPE 1
IV. Target Audience The Village Surf Shoppe has targeted consumers who are active and pursue an adventurous lifestyle. This target audience is strong because most people who frequent the shop are surfers who are extremely active. On the other hand, a weakness inherent in the target audience is that they possess a low income which may prevent them from shopping at VSS as frequently. Two opportunities can be seen for this target. First, surfing is becoming more popular through media exposure which in turn allows for an increase in brand awareness. Second, the growing tendency of people to use the internet to gather information ties into the choice of VSS to target people who are heavy consumers of online media. The only major threat comes from the target s distance from the shop s location. V. Geography Village Surf Shoppe has a major advantage in being located in Garden City Beach, near South Carolina s Grand Strand, a very popular surfing area. Located within the Myrtle beach retail trade area, the shop attracts both surfers and shoppers at the same time. One weakness of the geography comes from the target market. These consumers live far from the shop, making it harder to get them to frequent the store. Some geographical opportunities include the emerging surf markets in neighboring states that can increase the shop s business, as well as the fact that VSS is located in the heart of a huge tourist attraction area. VSS faces some threats from its competitors. Waller Bear s, Eternal Wave, and Surf City are crowding out VSS s local market share. Another major threat is the higher level of convenience that large national surf retailers with multiple locations provide to the target market. VI. Timing The major strength of the campaign s timing is that sales are extremely high during summer months which means advertising efforts are more effective in leading to purchases. At the opposite end, sales are lower in winter so advertising is less effective. VSS can find opportunities in advertising during winter months because consumers will be researching the more high involvement products. There is also less clutter of surf advertising in the offseason. Some potential threats include the actions of competitors in terms of advertising in the winter months, as well as the the fact that surfing is not as popular during this time period so consumers are not out buying products or frequenting the store to hang out. 2 VILLAGE SURF SHOPPE
VII. Media Mix The Village Surf Shoppe has taken advantage of many marketing tactics that have increased the brand s awareness including guerilla marketing, event marketing, word of mouth, and personal selling. These have been extremely effective in driving sales. Some weaknesses in the shop s media mix include lack of radio and television advertising, lack of Facebook likes (only 4,400), ineffectiveness of guerilla marketing and word of mouth to the target market because they do not live in areas close enough to see these promotional items or hear about the store. Another weakness is the shop s budget of $200,000 which does not allow for more expensive forms of advertising to be used. Some opportunities in the media mix include social media since the target market consists of heavy internet users, out of home advertising on highways, and music event sponsorships since the target market consumes music heavily. The major threats to the media mix come from competitors advertising abilities and budgets. VILLAGE SURF SHOPPE 3
Media Objectives and Strategies for Village Surf Shoppe I. Target Audience & Media Mix Most of Village Surf Shoppe s customers consist of avid surfers. The target audience goal for this campaign is to increase sales by 20% among men and women ages 18-24 with active and adventurous lifestyles, who are members of the inland market located 1-3 hours away from the shop. This campaign will create an increase in sales by driving brand awareness and brand desirability. This will be done through an increase in social media activity, internet advertising on surf related sites, mobile apps, YouTube, billboards, radio advertisements, and the sponsorship of local music festivals. i.target Audience & Media Mix Strategy We will use the momentum of growing social media usage among the target audience to implement Twitter and Facebook campaigns. The main Twitter campaign, Catch the Village Bum will feature an actor as the Village Beach Bum, who will tweet clues about where he s hanging out in Garden City Beach from @VillageBeachBum. This will encourage followers to catch him by using the clues to figure out his location. Prizes will be awarded to the first 10 Twitter users (must be followers of @VillageSurfShoppe and @VillageBeachBum) to take a picture with him and tweet it to @VillageBeachBum and @VillageSurfShoppe. This will encourage brand engagement and attract followers to the main VSS Twitter account. The previous success of spreading awareness via word-of-mouth can be capitalized upon by fueling conversation in internet surfing forums and advertising on these same websites. In addition to advertising on surf websites, we will attempt to reach the target audience through ad placement on YouTube and music apps, such as Pandora and Spotify, which capitalize upon the target s heavy consumption of recorded music as well as the social media craze. Outdoor advertising will consist of strategically placed billboards along major highways within a 200-mile radius of Garden City Beach to specifically reach those in our target market who regularly travel 1-3 hours from inland areas to surf on the coast. Radio advertisements will consist of 15- and 30- second spots on popular local stations in targeted inland cities, concentrated on those stations which play genres of music that are popular among the target audience. VSS will partially sponsor large music festivals, during which we will have a booth and hand out free VSS merchandise in exchange for attendee emails. 4 VILLAGE SURF SHOPPE
II. Reach-Frequency Objective Achieve 50% reach in major inland cities within a 200-mile radius of Garden City Beach (for example, Raleigh, Charlotte, Columbia), operating under the assumption that the target consumer base is expanding to include people who are willing to travel 1-3 hours to their surfing destination, with an average frequency of at least 3. i. Reach-Frequency Strategy Traditional media, such as radio advertisements, will run on popular local stations in the inland market area in the mornings while members of the target market are making the commute to work and/or school. Billboards will be located on major highways every 60 miles and evenly distributed within designated cities. ROI on social media sites, mobile apps, and surf-related web sites will be measured through number of click-throughs, likes and shares on Facebook, and retweets and followers on Twitter. Reach at music festivals will be determined by number of emails acquired during the event. III. Scheduling & Timing Objective The social media and online components of the campaign will kick off in the month of November and continue year-round. In the off-season (November- February) the advertisements will focus on the shop s more high involvement products. Then, beginning in March the advertisements will shift to all products and continue through September. i. Scheduling and Timing Strategy Radio campaign will begin running in March to generate awareness in the pre-season, leading up to the influx of tourists in the Garden City Beach area during the summer and continue running while they are visiting in the heavy surfing months of June-August. The radio advertisements will run daily from 6 a.m.- 10 a.m. throughout the campaign. Billboards will be placed in designated locations starting in March and remain in place until August when the peak surf season ends. Teaser campaign titled Catch the Village Beach Bum will begin in April and lead into the actual Twitter promotion featuring @VillageBeachBum running from June-August. Finally, our partial sponsorships of music festivals will occur primarily during the months of March-August when tourism is high. VILLAGE SURF SHOPPE 5
IV. Media Budget Objective The majority of the VSS budget of $200,000 is limited to spending in major inland media markets, including Raleigh, Charlotte, Columbia, and Charleston, and a smaller amount will be designated for local promotions (i.e. Catch the Village Beach Bum campaign). i. Media Budget Strategy The $200,000 budget is allocated as follows: $75,000 in out-of-home advertisements $75,000 in radio advertisements $50,000 for prizes, event sponsorships, and mobile/internet advertising V. Geography Objective The inland market within a 200-mile radius of the Village Surf Shoppe will be the primary target of most promotions. All billboards will be placed along highways leading from major cities within this 200-mile radius to Garden City Beach. All radio promotions will play on stations within this radius, as well. Online advertisements will have some location based targeting, but social media will not be geographically restricted. The sponsorship promotions such as the music festivals and Catch the Village Beach Bum will be restricted to tourists and residents of the Garden City Beach area. i. Geography Strategy Market selection is based on the highest-populated cities within a 200-mile radius of Garden City Beach, according to the 2012 Census. The top five cities to which we will direct our marketing efforts are as follows: Augusta, GA (pop. 196,494) Charleston, SC (pop. 124,632) Charlotte, NC (pop. 751,087) Columbia, SC (pop. 130,591) Greenville, SC (pop. 61,674) 6 VILLAGE SURF SHOPPE
VI. Sales Promotion Objective Offer coupons via social media to increase the number of Facebook page likes by 20% in the first three months. Have at least 500 followers of @VillageBeachBum by the end of June, and create @VillageSurfShoppe, obtaining at least 1000 followers within the first two months of the campaign. Using booths at the music festivals VSS partially sponsors, hand out free merchandise as an incentive for attendees to provide at least 500 unique emails per day. i. Sales Promotion Strategy Guerilla tactics previously utilized, such as handing out T-Shirts and stickers, have been successful in promoting brand awareness locally; we will extend that promotional effort to include the inland market using event sponsorships that are likely to draw our target consumer, including the Spring Jam Music Fest and the Vans Warped Tour. Additionally, the emails received from event attendees will provide opportunities to perpetuate engagement with the consumer after these events have ended. Our social media campaign will provide coupons and merchandise giveaways exclusively to users who have liked our Facebook page or followed @VillageSurfShoppe on Twitter. The first ten Twitter users who Catch the Village Beach Bum each day will receive gift cards not exceeding a value of $20, and three times during the duration of the campaign, a grand prize not exceeding a value of $200 will be awarded to the first Twitter user to Catch the Village Beach Bum. These promotions will help Village Surf Shoppe reach their goals of increasing sales by 20% at the end of the campaign, as well as increase brand engagement and equity. VILLAGE SURF SHOPPE 7