Marketing Case Study

Burton Snowboards: Building a Sport

California State University, Los Angeles

Principals of Marketing: MKT 500

Dr. Iksuk Kim

Fall Quarter 2007

Arredondo, Belen

Enriquez-Marquez, Martin

Fuentes, William

Hung, Sheng - Hsiung

Wei, Dan

1) The environmental forces influencing the snowboarding industry are:

Social:

Winter Sports declining

 Alpine Skiers 1993 10.6 million 4.6% USA

 Alpine Skiers 2003 6.3 million 2.6% USA

Demographics

* 80% participants were under 24 years old, median age 15.7 years, 74+% male

* Y Generation - 72 Million

Economic:

* 30% of ski passes are snowboarding passes

* Ski lodges losing 1/3 of market share

* Price range for equipment $300 - $800

* Affluent Caucasian market

Technological:

* Innovative sleek designs

Competitive:

Burton 38%

Competition 62%

* K2: 31%

* Lamar 7%

* Salomon 6%

* Rossignol 4%

* Gnu 3%

Regulatory:

* Lobbying ski resorts for more access to ski slopes

2) The differences in marketing goals for Burton Snowboarding in both

(a) Its early years while developing the industry:

 Become sole/leading supplier of Snowboards

 Introduce the sport of Snowboarding

 Lobby ski resorts to allow Snowboarders on their slopes

 Maximize profits

 Profit Responsibility

(b) Today with growing competition:

 Stakeholder responsibility

 Societal responsibility

 Ads in Snowboarder and Transworld SNOWboarding Magazines

 Sponsor Athletes: Global Team (17), Kelly Clark, Chris Klug and Ross Powers

 Innovative

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