Poler Stuff: Next Big Thing

Poler Camp Stuff The 21st century has brought along so many technically magnificent things and has radically shifted the way in which we live, learn and communicate with one another. This modern day shift has many perks such as the ease of communication between humans. however it has gotten to a point where it all borders on an ironic sense of disconnection. Alongside this shift is a generation of young people who live through their Instagram feeds, Facebook messages and their daily snapchat stories. however among them, lives an expanding breed of people trying to break free from the constraints of technology and find their way back to nature. This is where Poler Outdoor Stuff come in, this is a brand who are set on advocating an adventurous life. In their own words ‘Poler Outdoor Stuff makes gear for people that are travellers, couch surfers, regular surfers, skateboarders, snowboarders, bicyclists, parents, kids, car campers and anyone else looking for something that looks good, is a good value and is all about having fun on road trips and in the outdoors. It’s stuff that is made for people that have adventures all over the world while wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and sneakers.

It’s for people that wonder why everyone is trying to pretend they are going to do first ascents on alpine peaks instead of celebrating the fact that they are having adventures that are awesome in their own way.’ [Benji Wagner, 2011]

Brand Message the founder, Benji Wagner, is a photographer who worked for huge corporate outdoor brands, he noticed that their advertising was quite intimidating and had a 'professional outdoorsmen' outlook which is good for those advanced 'explorers' but intimidating for those wanting to get into outdoor activities. Poler, founded in 2010, aims itself at the younger adventurer and the person who wants to get into being outdoors more often. It's fun, colourful and made to a high quality. They don't want to be an intimidating brand that only promotes people doing huge alpine hikes or climbs, instead they want to celebrate people going on adventures no matter how big or small and recognise that they are all awesome in their own way.

Target Consumer Poler Stuff targets it’s brand at everyone with a strong spirit for adventure, whether that is the ‘21st century youth or the forever-young-at-hearts’ [Primer groups, 2014]. Those who have taken a liking to the Poler Stuff brand are more specifically those with a keen desire to spend time with nature, it is fast becoming a favourite brand of many snowboarders, skaters, surfers and campers alike. The brand caters for many, from the core outdoorsmen to the novice camper, making it less intimidating compared to other outdoor brands. Generally speaking, the brand has quite a young following, of 18-30 year olds who have a ‘rustic’ vibe to their style and also have a curiosity or deep love for the outdoors. These are the consumers who are looking for style focussed, design driven products, which other brands can’t offer to as high of a standard as Poler Stuff. Many of the products are uni-sex which has made it very popular amongst the female consumer as many other outdoor brands such as Roxy, Ripcord and O’neil have a very feminine, pink and girly collection for females. Poler stuff understand that women just want well designed, neutrally coloured, cool looking products which will serve them well and keep them looking good in the process.

SWOT

analysis Opportunities

Strengths • • • • • •

strong relationships with influential outdoorsmen.

Success in film and social media.

Products are made to a high quality . wide range of products.

Most products are unisex so can be used by anyone.

Design is a modern retro aesthetic.

• • • • •

Expand to older markets.

Establish new competitors within the outdoors market.

Growth in customer outreach through e-retailing.

Creative stores in an outdoorsy style.

Collaborations with bigger names.

Threats Weaknesses • • •

Will need to continue to create more products to keep up with competitors.

Similar competitors in the market.

In some cases, need to be more frequent on Social Media, such as Vimeo.

• • •

New competitors doing a similar thing with established customers.

Old computers adapting to new emerging styles.

Brand becomes very popular and it loses it’s core values of aesthetically pleasing high quality goods.

Topo Designs • Handmade feel to the brand.

• promote sustainable fashion.

• wide range of bags. could improve by creating a clothing line.

• Large social media following • focus on making products from the bottom up.

• hipster, 70’s vibe to the products, similar to camp stuff.

• Videos which explain and accompany products on the website.

• interviews with the brand founders.

• simplistic but colourful aesthetic.

• youthful, adventurous target market.

Market Competitors

Camp Brand Goods • Great social media strategy: #keepitwild • enabling users to connect with like minded souls.

• #keepitwild annual photo contest held and the inner collaborates with the brand.

• Unisex clothing which is advertised by both sexes on the ‘shop’.

• focus more on landscape photography on their Instagram rather than merchandise.

• adventure stories on their website.

• personal blog.

• Outdoor hipster vibe.

Coverage ‘The Napsack is my favourite. It’s a sleeping bag that looks like a hoodie and you can walk around in it. Its affordable and perfect for couch surfing.

Kids love it’[Benji Wagner, 2011]. The product was featured on ‘GIRLS’, an incredibly popular HBO television series, in which Lena Dunham wore the product. the brand is also featured in ‘The Outsiders: New outdoor creativity’, a book about brands which are transforming the outdoor industries.

Poler Camp Stuff have created a range of apparel designs.

All feature either the Poler Stuff logo or the name, this makes the brand easily recognisable and also acts as a marketing technique as others will be able to look up the name after seeing it on a T-shirt, giving the merchandise a knock on effect.

Social Media

For those who are already immersed in the social media side of the outdoor industry, Poler Stuff is a leading brand in the sector. With their wanderlust worthy images and loyal following, it’s hard to avoid their presence. Poler stuff have a different Instagram account for different countries With a combined follower count of 351,612. They created the #campvibes tag which meant users could tag their photos which were poler stuff inspired of featured a poler stuff product, the hashtag now has just under 286,000 posts under it. Poler Stuff is a very visual brand so most coverage on other social media platforms features very visual content, which draws consumers in as we live in a particularly visual age.

Poler stuff created a new shoe range as a collaboration with NIKE. This really boosted their brand as NIKE is a global phenomenon. The shoes feature earthy tones and attract a different, more ‘hipster’/ ‘wanderer’ demographic.

Poler Stuff X Nike

Poler Stuff Adventures

On Poler Stuff’s website, they feature a series of ‘adventures’ which showcase different photographers shoots in various outdoor locations. This is a really great promotional tool as it not only promotes photographic talent, but also the Poler stuff brand. All models in the photographs wear Poler Stuff attire. In a survey which I conducted, 73% of people agreed that after looking at Poler Outdoors Stuff, they felt more encouraged to go outside and explore than they did before viewing the brand.

Next Big Thing I believe Poler Camping Stuff are a very strong contender in being the ‘next big thing’ because they are a brand which have found a really special niche in the outdoors market. As a brand, they bridge the gap between the Outdoors power brands and the H&M sportswear range. They aim to be versatile, stylish, high quality and appealing to a younger demographic. It could be argued by ‘expert outdoorsmen’ that Poler Camping stuff is simply a fashion led apparel brand with a focus on the outdoors. However in a way, that’s the key to their success. Poler have marketed themselves as a unpretentious outdoors brand that are supplying the people who want to do activities outdoors for the first time or for their 100th time, with high quality products which won’t cost them too much and will also look stylish. The products aren’t supposed to be ones which you wear to climb Mount Everest, they are ones for the people going on adventures, no matter how big or small and wanting something cool and functional to wear in the process.As poler stated, “We want to inspire people to embrace everyday outdoor activities,” Wagner says. “You don’t have to be climbing Mount Everest to have a good time.” [Benji Wagner, Portland and Monthly mag, 2013.]

In a survey i conducted, i asked the question ‘if you’ve just discovered Poler outdoors stuff, what do you think of the brand?’, one of the answers stated ‘having just researched them, I hope they are both aimed at fashion and quality together. However hard to tell if they're another jack wills style brand’ in order to grow Poler as an outdoors brand, they need to increase their online coverage, as well as sell their products in more outdoors stores.

To increase social popularity, they could collaborate with more artists and other brands. Their adventure series are popular but what could boost this is if they paired the series with short films which documented and went with the adventure. overall, Poler are a brand that are targeting a new breed of outdoor creative and in my opinion, have a very bright future.

References Benji Wagner. (2011). About Us. Available: http://www.polerstuff.com/pages/about-us. Last accessed 18th Jan 2015.

Benji Wagner. (2011). Upstarts: Poler Camping Stuff. Available: http://business.transworld.net/73790/features/poler-camping-stuff/. Last accessed 18th Jan 2015.

Unknown Author. (2014). Poler Outdoor Stuff: Not Your Ordinary Outdoor Brand. Available: http://www.primergrp.com/news/?p=1659. Last accessed 16th, Jan, 2015.

Benji Wagner. (2013). How Poler stuff scaled the heights of outdoor gear.. Available: http://www.portlandmonthlymag.com/news-and-profiles/business/articles/how-polerstuff-scaled-the-heights-of-outdoor-gear-may-2013. Last accessed 17th, Jan, 2015.

Bibliography The Usual. (2014). Scramble magazine. Available: http://issuu.com/theusualmontauk/docs/scramble_issuu2. Last accessed 13th Jan 2015.

Mike Lewis. (2011). upstarts: Poler camping stuff. Available: http://business.transworld.net/73790/features/poler-camping-stuff/. Last accessed 15th, Jan 2015.

Tamara Feingold. (2013). How poler stuff scaled the heights of outdoor gear.. Available: http://www.portlandmonthlymag.com/news-and-profiles/business/articles/how-polerstuff-scaled-the-heights-of-outdoor-gear-may-2013. Last accessed 14th Jan 2015.

Poler Stuff Website. (2011). Poler Stuff: about us. Available: http://www.polerstuff.com/pages/about-us. Last accessed 18th Jan 2015.

John. (2013). Poler outdoor stuff X Nike SB. Available: http://www.freshnessmag.com/2013/11/12/poler-outdoor-stuff-x-nike-sb-nyc-to-iceland-with-alex-olson-video/. Last accessed 14th Jan 2015.

Unknown Author. (2013). Poler Outdoor stuff: Not your ordinary outdoor brand. Available: http://www.primergrp.com/news/?p=1659. Last accessed 15th Jan 2015.

Imogen Eveson. (2014). Camping out with Poler. Available: http://www.broadsheet.com.au/melbourne/fashion/article/pack-your-bags#gallery-1. Last accessed 13th Jan, 2015.

Poler . (2012). Vimeo: Poler outdoor stuff. Available: http://vimeo.com/polerstuff. Last accessed 14th Jan 2015.

Poler stuff Instagram. (2012). Instagram Feed. Available: http://instagram.com/polerstuff. Last accessed 15th Jan 2015.

Poler Stuff Facebook. (2011). Facebook. Available: https://www.facebook.com/polerstuff. Last accessed 15th Jan, 2015.

Poler tumblr. (2011). Tumblr: Poler Stuff. Available: http://polerstuff.tumblr.com. Last accessed 15th, Jan 2015.

Poler stuff twitter. (2012). Twitter. Available: https://twitter.com/polerstuff. Last accessed 13th Jan, 2015.

Admin at Urbn. (2013). Poler stuff lands at Urban Industries. Available: http://www.urbanindustry.co.uk/journal/poler-stuff-lands-aturban-industry/. Last accessed 10th, Jan 2015.

Camp brand goods website. (2013). website. Available: http://campbrandgoods.com. Last accessed 14th Jan 2015.

Toppo Designs. (2010). Toppo Designs web page. Available: http://topodesigns.com. Last accessed 14th Jan 2015.

Poler Stuff Pinterest. (2013). Pinterest. Available: http://www.pinterest.com/polerstuff/. Last accessed 14th Jan 2015.

Gestalten: Jeffrey Bowman & Erling Kagge (2014). The Outsiders: New outdoor creativity. 2nd ed. Berlin: Gestalten. 66-71.

Struktur Event. (2014). Panel: trend integration in design, marketing and social media. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5rvDKGP6bg. Last accessed 16th Jan 2015

Survey: Brand Awareness & Research: Poler Stuff

Alexandra Boldy N0576032 Fashion Communication & Promotion Module 1: Visual awareness Brief title: Next Big Thing Word Count: 1,513