With Beat Feuz, Aksel Lund Svindal and Matthias Mayer taking another clean sweep of the podium in Wengen, what effect does this have on the marketing of the brand? With the race being run on a blue bird day, perfect conditions made this an advertising dream. Branding and building the association with the brand is vital for sales. Head as a brand is very keen to build its association with the athletes and to turn this into sales. It is after all the sales that help keeps the company in business.
Talking as three of the Head athletes made their way onto the podium, Rene Herrer, the Communications Director for Head explained that all the cards had fallen in a perfect way for the brand with this result.
“It is great the that racers all had low numbers as this looks great for the marketing,” Herrer explained. With Feuz bib 1, Svindal bib 3 and Mayer bib 11, low numbers work in subtle way to the viewers consciousness.
This result could not have come at a better time for Head. With the Olympics starting in less than a month, the ban on advertising the sponsorship of their athletes starts prior to the games. By taking a clean sweep of the podium, their second of the season already, this gives the brand a great opportunity to promote the success.
With the perfect weather conditions that the race was run in, this also saw a message sent out from the senior management team to use the pictures of the racers to promote the brand even more. The lifespan of the success will be short and with Kitzbuehel training starting on Wednesday, the marketing machine needs to burst into life.
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WENGEN, SWITZERLAND - JANUARY 13: Beat Feuz of Switzerland takes 1st place during the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Men's Downhill on January 13, 2018 in Wengen, Switzerland. (Photo by Alexis Boichard/Agence Zoom)[/caption]
With probably the strongest speed team and with strength in depth, Head are accustomed to success. With the Globe for Downhill having gone astray the last few seasons, Head are determined to chase this down. The Overall Globe is the holy grail but the discipline globes are just as important in terms of promoting the brand. Nothing talks like success and a clean sweep of the podium in one of the biggest races on the Downhill calendar is worth its weight in ski sales.