Ski Press World Inc. - Index

Ski Press World Inc. - SIA Day 2 - Index

cover story
One Family; Skiers
USING RESEARCH FROM SIA’S INTELLIGENCE REPORT, SIA’S BEST PRACTICES
AND SIA’S RETAIL AUDIT, PART TWO OF OUR SERIES ON SNOWSPORTS FAMILIES
FOCUSES ON SOME OF THE BEST WAYS TO SELL TO SKIERS.
Dale of Norway for Mom and Dad
34 SNOWPRESS DAY 2 skipressworld.com/snowpress
Orage for
daugther
and son
The McAlpines, our fi ctional, composite family of skiers,
were in a quandary. For the fi rst time in 30 years, for the
fi rst time ever, Bill McAlpine had serious misgivings about
heading into the ski season. It wasn’t the doom-and-gloom
talk about how global climate change was making his
defi ning winter pastime an iffy proposition for the future.
It didn’t have anything to do with turning 55 before the
season started — he expected to be skiing well into his
dotage despite having close friends abandon the sport for
more genteel pursuits.
Bill’s foreboding had to do with a loss he felt personally and
deeply. The ski shop he’d patronized for as long as he could
remember had closed its doors at the end of last season, its
owner riding off into the sunset of retirement.
He didn’t have a clue where to start looking for a replacement.
Part of the problem was that he simply hadn’t shopped
anywhere except Otto’s for decades. The bigger problem
though was that Otto, knowingly or not, embodied SIA’s
Best Practices and had lulled Bill into imagining all ski shops
operated that way.
Walking into Otto’s store was like visiting a not-so-exclusive
club. It wasn’t a big store and it didn’t have an overly broad
choice of products, but that, for Bill, was its beauty. Otto sorted
through the labyrinth of gear so Bill didn’t have to. �
VOLVO — OFFICIAL CAR OF