KILIAN JORNET BORN TO RUN - Amer Sports

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the consumer decide how and where to buy.” Electronic commerce also boosts interaction Salomon continues to expand its store network. In November, its brand stores will get additional support from a webstore, which will at first offer apparel and accessories. Pascal Clausse is convinced that the web and brand stores will support one another. Small “compact stores”, for example, enable the company to display only one part of its range, but on the Internet consumers can view the whole offering and possibly order the items they want online. “Combining various sales channels opens up very interesting opportunities,” Clausse points out. A webstore, digital advertising and social media pres- “Research tells us that consumers are looking for much stronger connections to their brands.” 1 A preview of Salomon’s future webstore. 32 || 3.2010 3 An illustration of Salomon and Atomic’s joint store and test station in Sölden. ence create a novel environment for customer interaction. “Our purpose online is not only to approach customers, but also to let them be our salespeople and potential product developers,” Duran explains. “Salomon has put together a great community of experts and trendsetters who help to drive our product sales. The opportunities for interaction and shopping will further improve when we go live with e-commerce. And all of our brands have similar communities with which we can work.” Many reasons to go for direct sales The B2C team is confident about the potential for creating disproportionate growth in the coming years. Several examples from the sports equipment business go to prove this point. Lululemon Athletica began to sell yoga-inspired apparel on a very small scale in Vancouver in the late 90s and now has over 100 stores in addition to a successful webstore. Under Armour first made technical underwear and later expanded to other sports clothing. In ten years, the company’s revenue has gone from zero to nearly one billion US dollars. Duran believes that Amer Sports can use these high growth brands as potential models and benchmarks. “Research is telling us that consumers are looking for much stronger connections to their brands. Amer Sports is blessed with some terrific brands, and retail or e-commerce are some of the most powerful ways to create a real brand dream and drive breakthrough growth.” Both Duran and Clausse believe that direct consumer sales are extremely important in the modern world. “Selling directly to consumers helps us to better
understand consumers, especially the changes in their behavior. It is crucial to identify these changes because it helps us make products or services that are truly unique and better than competition,” Duran explains. Another important reason is that brand stores also boost sales in traditional distribution channels. Salomon’s example is indisputable proof that the model really works. “Many brands still believe that opening their own store leads to competition with their customers—and that’s what it may feel like at first. However, experience clearly shows that when you open a store, demand for products also increases in the region’s other retail businesses. When demand begins to rise and the region’s other retailers see what you have to offer, they too want to jump on board. In the end, it’s a win-win-situation.” The third reason is that brand stores establish the brand more prominently in people’s minds. “Salomon’s 100 plus stores have already created ten million new interfaces between the brand and consumers,” Clausse estimates. Interaction between the brand and consumers is most efficient in brand stores where the products are displayed in just the right kind of environment and interior. A Salomon store in the center of a big city is like a little piece of the mountains where you can almost feel a fresh breeze. “Of course, our retailers know how to tell our story. The problem, however, is that they also tell the story of others. In an environment of our own, we can tell the brand story ourselves instead of having others speak for us,” says Duran. Brand stores are also useful for product development, helping to ensure that new products are to the customers’ liking. They also speed up the whole process. “We decided to display the new shoe in our brand stores during product development and used customer feedback to create the final design,” notes Clausse. Stores that are run by the company quickly show exactly which products sell well and which do not. “We currently get this information too late. Our best products sell out, while other products may pile up in the warehouse. A change of just five to ten percent in favor of our best-selling products would make a huge impact,” says Duran. Leverage our company’s scale A single-brand store is a straightforward concept, but is it possible to mix several brands in one store? “Each brand must be unique, have a distinctive positioning and create its own dream, which we can can then carry into the market place. If this is done well, it opens a lot of doors for us. We obviously have a number of monobrand stores, but we also have a lot of multi-brand stores as well. Going forward, we will leverage our scale across the company as this will let us grow more quickly and New business in two years Before joining Amer Sports, Victor Duran had a long career at Procter & Gamble, the Global consumer goods company. So what can the sports equipment industry learn from the fast moving consumer goods business? “Before answering that question, I’d like to start by saying that there are a lot of things the P&G’s of the world could learn from Amer Sports. Across all of our brands, I have seen an incredible 1-1 connection with our consumers – particularly the top level and influencers. This allows us to be at the leading edge of performance in many of our categories. Large companies tend to primarily rely on quantitative information, but many times they miss the true insights that come from personal knowledge.” “On the other hand, there are some principles I think we can apply here. When planning a new business, Procter & Gamble spends a lot of time determining how big of an opportunity it is dealing with,” Duran explains. “Once it is certain about the size of the opportunity and the model used to achieve it, the company heads toward the goal as quickly as possible. Using this approach, Procter & Gamble can create a significant business in three to four years. This is what we plan to do now. We have specific targets between now and 2016, a detailed plan to get there, and a good probability of success.” According to Duran, the beginning has been promising. “Salomon has spent the last few years creating and testing its retail model. We know for sure that it works. Now we need to leverage this experience, develop the right model for our other brands and grow as quickly as possible.” efficiently,” says Duran. Some combinations make sense nevertheless. “Arc’teryx, Salomon and Suunto are strong players in the outdoor world. Together they would form a more attractive shopping place for consumers than on their own. In ski resorts, where ski testing is a vital part of service, Salomon and Atomic can operate perfectly well in the same facilities,” Clausse explains. “This model will, in fact, be tested in practice on the Sölden glaciers this fall. A third possible form of joint operations is an outlet where price is crucial in addition to the brand image”. Cooperation will, in any case, be an essential element of the B2C strategy. “Amer Sports will really benefit from leveraging scale in both retail and e-commerce across all of our brands. We will be able to create something only once and then quickly roll it out across the company,” Duran adds. 3.2010 || 33
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Page 3 and 4: t John Flynn, Regina Stanger/Crocod
Page 5 and 6: The World Championship Series of tr
Page 7 and 8: t Arc’teryx Adam Campbell victori
Page 9 and 10: New irons for 2011 Wilson Golf anno
Page 11 and 12: FOR FREESKIERS. The Atomic Tracker
Page 13 and 14: Your guide to an active lifestyle T
Page 15 and 16: Making strategy familiar to investo
Page 17 and 18: trend: ULTRA The popularity of ultr
Page 19 and 20: 80 percent of those heading out mak
Page 21 and 22: Creek FIT AND PERFORMANCE Rain ride
Page 23 and 24: first, and a decent reporting syste
Page 25 and 26: Wilson talks directly to consumers
Page 27 and 28: IN KILIAN’S FOOTSTEPS In June Kil
Page 29 and 30: France’s Puymorens pass. A 150-ki
Page 31: Amer Sports continues to develop it
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Page 37 and 38: ADVENTURES WITH A FISHING ROD The K
Page 39 and 40: something of a luxury. The latest m
Page 41 and 42: t Niko Peltola Late in the season t
Page 43 and 44: SOLUTION 3.2010 || 43
Page 45 and 46: To glacier with Pilatus Porter F &
Page 47: Runners’ destinations Ultra-dista

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