Case Study 12 Tropic Feel stud PDF

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CASE STUDY 12 Introduction to Marketing University of Alicante – 2019/20

TROPICFEEL Ana Belén Casado-Díaz

Tropicfeel Wants To Lighten Your Load On Your Next Vacation

Alberto Espinós and Lucas De Gispert are no strangers to world travel. Based in Barcelona, Spain, the two traveled to destinations like Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and nearly 20 countries in Europe as backpackers, carrying all their gear in oversized duffel bags while staying at hostels. On one trip to Thailand, after walking miles and miles in poor footwear — and overusing some shoes to the point of ruin — the duo came to a shared conclusion: “We realized that neither of us were happy with the shoes that we brought to each experience,” says Espinós. It was then, in the summer of 2016, that the two came up with the idea of creating the perfect travel shoe for backpackers. Since backpackers have very limited space and have to hold everything on their backs, the shoe needed to be versatile enough to be the only shoe a traveler would carry. When they returned from Thailand, they spent months connecting with travel bloggers to learn about the footwear needs of frequent travelers. They learned that carrying extra footwear and extra luggage was the most reported travel pain point. Based on those interviews, they aimed to create a shoe that would be as

comfortable as sneakers, technical enough for hiking and off-road adventures, quickdrying enough for ocean and river sports, and stylish enough to be worn in travel photos. So, in early 2017, Espinós and De Gispert founded Tropic, now called Tropicfeel. They started putting the first version of their sneaker together, which they called the Tropicfeel Monsoon owing to it's quick-drying and water-friendly design. Since neither had a background in production or shoe design, they travelled together to Alicante, a Spanish city known for producing much of the country’s footwear. There, they spoke with makers and designers and even managed to create a prototype for their sneaker in less than two weeks. However, the prototype was “really ugly and unuseful,” says Espinós, “and we realized that if we wanted to make a good product, we should have professional help.” So, they soured a professional designer and worked with various factories and producers to find the materials they wanted, like breathable fabrics and grippy, slip-resistant rubber for the outsoles. Their aim was to launch a product as soon as possible, so Espinós pitched local investors to source startup funds. He made his case for the product by pointing to headlines like “Young people aren’t buying homes because they’d rather travel the world,” and “Why Millennials Are The Most Important Consumer Generation For The Travel Industry. ” He was able to secure nearly $47,00 in seed funding, plus an additional loan of about $70,000, and introduced the first version of the tropic sneaker in July 2017. Based on an immediate positive response — they sold about 1,500 pairs right away — they hired a footwear designer later that summer and began developing the next version of the shoe. They listened to user feedback to make changes for the Monsoon 2.0, which included swapping actual laces for elastic no-tie laces that wouldn’t hang off the sides or come undone. The current version of the Monsoon weighs seven ounces, is vegan, and has a removable footbed with an odor-resistant, antibacterial mesh construction. For the introduction of the Monsoon 2.0, they brought the product to Kickstarter, launching their campaign in April 2018. They spent nearly a year prepping for the launch, which paid off: they were fully funded on their goal of $14,000 in less than an hour and reached €100,000 — or about $116,000 — in 24 hours. “We never expected such a great launch,” says Espinós. “Because of the volume that crowdfunding has given us, we’re now able to work with the same supplier as the big Spanish footwear brands, like Kelme, Munich, and Desigual.” Their Kickstarter campaign ran for six weeks and raised just under $2.4 million in funding — 176 times as much as they hoped to raise — via 26,284 buyers. Of the 33,813 design-based products that have been launched on Kickstarter, 12,090, or 36.2%, have been successfully funded. Of that 12,090, 78 have raised more than $1 million, making Tropic Monsoon the 16th highest funded project in Kickstarter’s design history. They're also the highest funded project out of Spain, and the highest funded footwear campaign worldwide. After the Kickstarter campaign ended, the company began production as well as another campaign on rival crowdfunding platform Indiegogo. That campaign will continue to run until October and has already brought in more than $3.4 million via more than 9,050 backers.

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Though the team hasn’t run into production errors with their factory in China, they have run into branding problems relating to the fact that both their company name and the name of the shoe were known as "Tropic." They’ve recently rebranded the company name to Tropicfeel, and plan to deliver the first round of shoes to Kickstarter buyers in October. Espinós isn’t ready to publicly announce what comes next for Tropicfeel, but hints that additional travel-focused items are on way. “What we are building is much more than a crowdfunded project. We are building an amazing company and providing the best and most functional travel gear. We have a lot of things to do.” Retrieved from: https://marketing4ecommerce.net/zapatillas-tropic/ https://www.emprendedores.es/ideas-de-negocio/a25900579/jovenes-emprendedores-tropicfeelcrowdfunding/ https://www.tropicfeel.com/

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QUESTIONS: 1. [Total: 0.1 points] Describe the market of Tropicfeel (e.g. sociodemographic characteristics, needs satisfied). 2. [Total: 0.4 points] From the point of view of Tropicfeel's marketing plan, identify at least one threat, an opportunity, a strength and a weakness. Justify your answers. (0.1 points for each SWOT element well answered and justified) 3. [Total: 0.5 points] In the text, it is said that when they returned from Thailand, they spent months connecting with travel bloggers to learn about the footwear needs of frequent travellers. They learned that carrying extra footwear and extra luggage was the most reported travel pain point. Based on this information, they aimed to create a shoe that would be as comfortable as sneakers, technical enough for hiking and off-road adventures, quick-drying enough for ocean and river sports, and stylish enough to be worn in travel photos. Which type of research technique did they use? (0.2 points) Is it a qualitative or a quantitative technique? (0.1 points) Explain briefly the relationship between marketing research and marketing strategy for companies (0.2 points). 4. [Total: 0.6 points] Thinking about the factors affecting the purchasing decision process of a pair of Tropicfeel sneakers and taking into account your response to question number 1, give two examples of external factors and two examples of internal factors. Explain your response. (0.15 points for each factor well answered and justified) 5. [Total: 0.4 points] “The current version of the Monsoon weighs seven ounces, is vegan, and has a removable footbed with an odor-resistant, antibacterial mesh construction” According to this information, which segmentation criteria have been used? (0.2 points) And which segmentation strategy? (0.2 points). Explain your responses.

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