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Caselet / Scenario
You are the marketing manager for a new start-up company, ‘Run Trails’. The director of the company is an avid trail runner and has identified a gap in the market for trail shoes that are also very efficient road running shoes. The reason for the innovation is that many trail runs have tar roads as part of the course and majority of trail shoes currently on the market are designed mostly for off road running and are not very comfortable when running on the road.
With the official launch two months away (August 2023), you have quite a bit of work ahead in planning an effective marketing strategy to effectively implement the activities. The previous two months you have done quite a bit of secondary research to understand the market better before devising the requested omnichannel marketing strategy. Two useful resources are findings from Grand View Report (2017), although the research was based in North America, some information can be applied to the African Market, and reading articles by Wild Runner.
Some results from the findings are below: • As per the American Trail Running Association, 83% of runners wore trail-specific shoes while training on trails in 2019, compared to 78% in 2018. Also, 83% of runners wore trail-specific shoes while racing on the same surface during the year, compared to 77% in 2018 (Grand View Research, 2015). • According to Wild Runner (2018), Alex Hawkins from Altra South Africa stated that those new to trail running often ask if there is a shoe that can handle road and trail, or they ask if they can run trail in their road shoes. How long the shoe will last is another burning question asked pre-purchase. He confirms that most road shoes will handle gentle off-road running of the jeep track variety. • Wild Runner (2018) published an article which referred to an interview with Grant Byant, owner of RUN Specialist Store in Cape Town who said that he interacts with newcomers on a daily basis. He noted that “the new or aspirant trail runner is often very conscious about colour, brand and recommendations from friends, as this is all the ‘experience’ they have to go on. We find that after a runner has done a few tough runs or begins training for their first race, and
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