BRANDS
Dave, you’re coming into the cycling industry from the world of IT and consumer electronics. How does this shape your view of doing business? My working background saw me manage the distribution channels across Europe and Latin America for Jabra and Plantronics. It really gives you a data-driven approach. One of the things that you really look for is transparency of information flow from the distribution chain, through the retailers, to go into your systems.
This ensures that, at any one time, you can see exactly what’s happening across the landscape of your market: Who your top resellers are. Who’s growing fast? Who’s not growing? Who’s engaging in your partner portal? How many people have completed the training? All basic information to get a rich picture of the market. We’d structure our programmes based on the sales data. My feeling is that as we see new investors funding
cycling brands, professionalisation will take hold. Knowing your sell-out data (what your retail partners
have sold, when, and for how much) is critical business information.
How will Ciovita shape its business here in the UK? From a sales data point of view, the UK is a blank piece of paper as far as Ciovita is concerned. Dean Norman has done a great job with opening conversations, establishing partnerships, making relationships across the events, and identifying people to become Brand Champions. As a new market entrant, a challenger brand, we are
executing a plan which has a Brand Champion programme as one of the founding elements.
What is a Ciovita Brand Champion? Many things to be honest. In the context of the business, Brand Champions represent that way we will showcase Ciovita in the UK. First and foremost, they will be active cyclists, in clubs and groups, active on social media, be driven by charitable interests and, of course, be happy to wear our kit on all their rides.
PHOTO BY JOHN CAMERON ON UNSPLASH
‘THE UK IS A BLANK PIECE OF PAPER AS FAR AS CIOVITA IS CONCERNED’
Driving business to
www.ciovita.com for retail and
custom kit designs for clubs and charities. We are not ruling out a select number of retailers, but right now the focus is on the Brand Champion. In time we can foresee having retail stores aligned to a Brand Champion for local synergy. This way we can build retailer partnerships which are valued and supported.
Can you give some insight into how you’ve identified and interviewed your Brand Champions?
Sure. What we’ve looked for are people who organically post about their cycling, so enthusiastic cyclists who post regularly. At this stage in our UK journey, we want to build a fan base, which our Brand Champions are critical for. To also make it clear, we’re not looking for those with big social media follower stats at this point.
There is a crossover for sure, a tipping point where the
content creation becomes professional and it becomes a business. We want regular people with a passion. We definitely do see social media - LinkedIn, Instagram,
Facebook, TikTok, and Strava - as a prime means to engage with cyclists, forming connections with a community that our Brand Champions have organically built.
Why not a big audience, professional content creator?
As just one example, chatting with athletes of any level it becomes clear they will post content, but training is, understandably, the primary focus. Getting involved in community building and sales enablement isn’t high on the priority list for many. We will still work with athletes of course, but in a slightly different way.
Right now, we are not focused on paid content creation or advertising. Yes, it has its place, but our investment is in the Brand Champions at this point.
Ciovita Brand Champions are people who cycle with friends, social groups, and cycling clubs. Offering a promo code will be something that Brand Champions can do organically, via these friendship circles.
I’d call this a ‘friends of Ciovita’ approach, which is the right method for us as a new market entrant in the UK. We’ve already interviewed several high-quality business people, with good networks, and are active on social media with their cycling escapades, and strong local audience. So far, we have recruited 14 absolutely stellar Brand
www.bikebiz.com October 2024 | 47
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