Een kijkje in de keuken van Slingshot op het gebied van marketing en ontwikkeling:
The Company
Jeff and Tony Logosz, the founding brothers of Slingshot Sports, turned their love of water sports in the Columbia River Gorge into an internationally recognized brand of kiteboards and wakeboards that has raised the bar for graphic design, flexibility and durability. From the company’s manufacturing facility in North Bonneville, Wash., Slingshot continues to grow its success by testing and implementing new technologies and being an active participant in the tight-knit community of water sports enthusiasts and competitors.
The Challenge
Slingshot kiteboards helped create the market for the sport at a time when there were few competitors and the company quickly found distributors eager to take their products to international markets. It started when a distributor from the United Kingdom landed at the Slingshot offices to say he wanted to import its kiteboards. “We looked up at him and said, ‘how do we do that?’” said Jeff Logosz. “We quickly realized that the world market is much bigger than just one U.S. market, and for us to be a global market share leader with brand recognition, we had to play on the global scale.”
By the new millennium, Slingshot had become a seasoned exporter, thanks to its network of faithful distributors. But when it expanded to wakeboards, the market was a little different. “We were entering a more mature market,” he said. “Suddenly our customers weren’t coming to see us, we had to go to them.”