Week 5 Post 2: Silicon Skate Target Market Analysis

Statement of intent:

This target market analysis is being created by Troy B. Lunn to inform my class and professor of my fictitious company's intentions to market its products to select individuals, as well as providing an informed analysis regarding the thinking and behaviors of proposed select individuals.

Introduction-

    The fictitious company "Silicon Skate" is a company that designs, rebrands, manufactures, purchases, sells, resells, and markets electrically propelled skateboards. "Silicon Skate" may choose to purchase pre-manufactured devices to rebrand and distribute, and/or design, manufacture, and distribute devices of its own design, possibly in conjunction with company partners. The target market of "Silicon Skate" are predominantly men and women between the ages of 18 and 34 years old, with a net personal income above(no cap income) 15 thousand USD per fiscal year, who live within metropolitan districts. Proposed targeted individuals will have an interest in new technology, outdoor recreation, and alternative forms of transportation, as well as having environmentally friendly intentions.
   

Description-

     A major tendency of the proposed target market of the fictitious company "Silicon Skate" include the extensive use of social media apps and websites including, but not limited to, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and YouTube. The majority of "Silicon Skate's" advertising budget will be spent on creating video marketing content to be shared on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, with a smaller portion of the budget being spent on Twitter and Snapchat. In addition to the tendency to use social media extensively, the target market of "Silicon Skate" has the tendency to vote liberally. For this reason, "Silicon Skate" will attempt to target those who have claimed, on social media, to have liberal views. Based on 2010 US Census data stating that in 2017 approximately 47 million millennials(currently 18-34 years old) would live within urban regions. 84% of which are above the poverty threshold of $15,000 per year per capita. 55% of which have liberal views, and data from www.infusionsoft.com estimating that approximately 95% of millennials follow brands on social media, we can estimate that the target market size of  "Silicone Skates" in the United States is roughly 20 million persons, while keeping in mind there is a percentage of overlap between certain statistics.

Market Research- 

     Determining my target market was based on over two years of following electric skateboard trends on websites including, but not limited to, boostedboards.com, evolveskateboardsusa.com, www.enertionboards.com, and www.electric-skateboard.builders. As well as research done on public social media websites including YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, that has given me a rough idea of what target demographics and psychographics tend to have interest in electric skateboards as well as which niches would have an interest in electric skateboards, if they were marketed to differently than the current norms. Data collected to roughly estimate the size of this market was gathered from the United States Census Bureau from  www.census.gov, as well as articles containing statistics gathered by various market research firms from www.citylab.com and www.infusionsoft.com.
     

Market Trends-

     The largely liberal, millennial market has seen a strong shift towards the use of, and interest in, electric vehicles as well as other forms of reducing carbon emissions. This in conjunction with a trend of a growing urban millennial population, where traffic is a problem, drives a growing need for alternative forms of environmentally friendly transportation amongst urban millennials. There is also a large gap in the market for electric skateboards being marketed as environmentally friendly forms of alternative transportation that solve the issue of fighting traffic congestion. Currently, electric skateboard companies are selling their boards as trendy and cool toys for a new extreme sport, rather than my brand image of an efficient, convenient, cost-effective, and eco-friendly means of urban transportation. 

Risks and Competition-

      Perhaps the largest risk involved with my marketing strategy, is the possibility that those who are interested in environmentally friendly urban transportation may not take to electric skateboards as the answer to their problem. The most likely reason this may happen is that electric skateboards have been marketed largely as toys in the past and altering this pre-established prejudice will be a large and difficult endeavour. This, in addition to fierce competition in the market with pre-established brands producing high quality products, such as that of Boosted Board, Evolve, and Enertion will be a large undertaking, as their marketing budget and customer loyalty will be another difficult obstacle to overcome. Another large set of competition will be with ridesharing bike and scooter companies, such as Lime, Razer, and Bird. These companies leave app connected bikes and electric scooters that are fairly inexpensive to use around urban areas, possibly lowering the perceived need for a personally owned form of transportation.

Predictions and Projections- 

      While altering pre-established views of skateboards as toys to a view as a better means of eco-friendly urban transportation, may be a large and difficult undertaking. It would not be the first time a marketing campaign had changed a strongly rooted prejudice against a type of vehicle. Past transportation marketing campaigns have been very successful at changing stigmas, such as the emergence of the "Sports Utility Vehicle". While the term had been used previously, in the late 1980s Chevrolet built what most at the time would consider a truck or 4 wheeler, which the majority of the population viewed as a car for hardened mountain men and backcountry laborers, but marketed it as a "Sports Utility Vehicle". This new marketing campaign depicted women driving their families to and from school and sporting events in these large vehicles with the new classification of SUV. This change in name and difference in marketing imagery allowed for the rise of the SUV and the fall of the station wagon in the late 1980's, and remains a valid and effective strategy to this day. With inexpensive access to mass advertising and marketing in the form of social media, I predict to have the ability to change this smaller stigma on a far smaller budget than that of Chevrolet, with their Suburban SUV, back in 1986.