BizDev IDEAS

RoadID and Other Ways to Express Myself

Short Introduction (Can Be Skipped)

I bought my RoadID tag several months ago (RoadID.com) and never ran without it since then. Of course initially I got it just in case something happens to me on the road. Bu it is also an important piece of my runner’s identity, something I “subconsciously” wear to identify myself with the runners’ community. It caries also my motto – something I never had before it came to ordering the RoadID, by the way :-)

Unmet Market Need

Individuality pushes us to stand out in the crowd. But I would not necessarily say it is all about showing off. It is rather a need to share your personal experience with someone having similar interests, obsessions, mindset. In the race events I participated in, I saw a few people that expressed their individuality via… well, attaching a piece of paper to the back of their t-shirts. It could have been running for a race cause like fundraising, or running for the family with the names of the kids written all over it, or team identity, or just something funny like “Are we there yet?” or “The older I am the faster I was!”

The point I am trying to make here is – it all sounds like a need, which is not quite met on the US quickly-growing running gear market. All cool t-shirts I could find are cotton ones I will never wear even on a 5-mile training run, let alone a marathon race. All high-tech polyester t-shirts and tanks are faceless – “Nike training” is the best inscription I managed to find so far.

Suggested Solution

As most of the needs usually encompass an opportunity to monetize on them, let’s see what can be done about it. I envision several things that can be done at the same time:

• We take the full spectrum of running clothes & equipment (except for running shoes) – dry-fit t-shirts, shorts, running wind-breakers, gloves, socks, fuel/water belts, caps – and we make them cool and funny
• It will include customizable stuff through a web site: add images and mottos to your gear – tell us what to write there or pick something from a bunch of ready-to-use variants from our web site (exactly as RoadID did it)
• Then I would try to get some shelf space in department stories selling also sport clothes (e.g. KOHLS) and in specialized sport shops (like Sport Authority or Sport Chalet) selling gear with some popular mottos and pictures – it would look good next to dull faceless stuff from Nike and Adidas. And prices could be even lower than that – technically the difference between a $25 Nike dry-fit t-shirt and a similar one I can by for $9 in Old Navy is negligible.
• The next step after we get some traction is to try some sponsorship programs. For example, next to a $15-20 dry-fit t-shirt with some cool motto I can place a sponsored $10 t-shirt of the same quality but with HP or IBM logo and probably some cool ad or funny motto. Consumers will save money buying those, while manufacturers associated with sport will get additional inexpensive and untapped advertising channel.

Side Note A: Marketing

To reach the end buyers I would use the same approach as RoadID.com: advertising in specialized running magazines, on Active.com (where people register for the races) and would also potentially leverage some running events.

Side Note B: Partnerships

As a part of going-to-market strategy it might make sense to team up with some niche player like RoadID or Snail’s Pace and either cross advertise each others’ products or even cross sell them through the partner’s web site.

Side Note C: Collecting Ideas

To collect cool mottos and logos for the gear I would probably choose the same approach as some race events, when they arrange online competitions for the best race medal design and hold the right to reuse any of submitted variants in the following years. A lot of this stuff will be tossed and never used, but there certainly will be some diamonds among them.
Do you remember “It happens!” bumper sticker idea from the Forest Gump movie, for example?

Side Note D: Fuel Belts

As soon as we are talking about customization, fuel belts and running bottles seem to be another opportunity. One of the requirements to the Malibu Bulldog trail race is having a belt with 2 water bottles. I did a quite intensive search on the Internet and in at specialized stores around, and have not managed to find anything suitable. Belts are created using “one size fits all” principle, and very few with two bottle holders are bulky and are hardly suitable for running. I specifically looked at the belts worn by other runners around me during my half marathons, and did not find anything new. Bottles come in two sizes – too small and too big. Selection of belts is limited too. Feels like another unmet need, does not it?

posted by Dmitri @ 1:57 PM