Question
How does GoPro promote its products?
a. What tools does it use?
b. How does it use sponsorships? Who does it sponsor? Why does GoPro believe that sponsorships are a good tool to use to promote its products?
c. How does GoPro use content marketing to promote its products? Why is User Generated Content a particularly powerful tool for GoPro to use to promote its products?
I connect VIDEO CASE 9 GoPro: Making All of Us Heroes with Exciting New Products GoPro CEO Nick Woodman Wilkenfeld, "one of the biggest challenges of devel- and his college friends loved oping technology is getting ahead of the consumer eo case to surf. It was a passion. As and developing things that you think they are going Video 9-4 GoPro Vid GoPro Vice President of to need Brand Integrity, Justin Wilkenfeld, explains "we would run down to th beach to surf every day, trying to balance that with THE COMPANY going to classes." The passion turned into a great new GoPro's history of new product development is truly product idea when Woodman was surfing in Australia nspirational, particularly when the current product and wanted to capture the experience but couldn't get ine is compared to the first offering. As Kelly Baker, photographers close enough to obtain good photos. Director of Media Relations, explains "the first prod The result was the first GoPro camera which attached uct out on the market was in this big, kind of clunky, to a wrist strap. "The idea was that you could capture plastic housing attached to your wrist that you could that experience hands-free and really focus on enjoy- flip up and down. It captured images on 35mm film ing your passion as opposed to worrying about what's that you would take into a pharmacy or photography studio and get your pictures printed." That product on the other side of a screen" Wilkenfeld says Chances are that you've viewed some of the millions was replaced by the Digital HERO camera which was of videos created by surfers, snowboarders, rock stars, powered by one AAA battery and provided silent hockey players, parents, sky divers, scuba divers, pilots, 10-second VGA videos and just about anyone with a passion for their life. In fact, GoPro estimates that more than 1 billion minutes audio capabilities, wide-angle lenses, and time lapse of GoPro video are viewed each year, just on YouTube! features. In addition, mountable versions Woodman and his friends call "The GoPro cluded Helmet HERO, Motorsports HERO, and Surf Movement." 2 Other new products soon followed. GoPro added ch in HERO expanded its "Joining the GoPro movement is all about joining the GoPro community around the market beyond the wrist amera positioning. The biggest shift in popularity, however, occurred when GoPro added the HD Hero featuring 1080p im ages. Complementary products such as remov- able battery packs, video editing tools, a GoPro app, and Wi-Fi remote controls were also added o the product line world," says Wiken Be a HERO feld. "This is a group of passionate people that live a big life and love to experienc things." GoPro's suc- cess at attracting cus- tomers from around the world is supported by its commitment to developing new prod ucts that meet their needs. According to GoPro, Inc. 00:01 HERO4 As the popularity of GoPro products grew so did the company, leading to its IPO on the Nasdaq
Explanation / Answer
GoPro promotes its products using a comprehensive toolbox of marketing activities.
a. The different tools used by GoPro ranges from traditional media like print ads in magazines and Super Bowl ads to tools like social media advertising and promotion, sponsorship as well as content marketing. Different social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc are used by the company for its marketing purpose.
b. The company uses sponsorships by sponsoring different athletes from its list of 140 athletes. These athletes represent different sports and the company sponsors them with the purpose of making these athletes excellent, purposeful and relevant ambassadors for the GoPro brand. GoPro believes that sponsorships are a good tool to use to promote its products due to the fact that sponsorships help in not only enhancing the image of its products but also in shaping the attitudes of its customers. The perception of the target audience is improved due to sponsorship. This generates a positive reaction and positively shapes the buying attitudes and behavior of the consumers in the long run.
c. Through content marketing the company makes use of contents like web pages, videos, podcasts etc. These contents are considered to be valuable as well as relevant and help in attracting (the initial phase) and then retaining (the secondary phase) a pre-defined and pre-identified audience. User generated content is a particularly powerful tool for GoPro to use to promote its products because these contents helps the company to reach to its target market of extreme sports enthusiasts and adventure enthusiasts. User generated content also helps the company to seek and reach out to new audiences like movie directors and producers as well. Eventually it helps in driving and propelling profitable customer action.
