To start off the year well, Carbon Art, New Zealand’s leading watersports brand, brought in Mike Coker to develop their brand management and sales lead advancements.
Mike’s experience as a designer is quite impressive. His talent for managing business development, product cycles, marketing, advertising, and corporate communications make him a valuable addition to our company as we build our business.
Profile
Carbon Art’s total focus and vision is on designing and building the best windsurf and surfboards. Headquartered in a small and somewhat hidden factory near New Plymouth, Carbon Art manufactures precision windsurf and surfing boards for the world to enjoy. The founder, James Dinnis, built his dream business from a surfing lifestyle to become one of New Zealand’s most industrious brands.
The Industry Pitfalls
Many of the world’s board brands require to outsource their production after having hand and computer designed the latest shapes. Mike has learned that this causes issues between specifications, and economics. The best choice for the business to ensure that its sales network makes enough margin, is not necessarily what the end users had in mind. Choices can be made without ‘seeing’ the result until the production run reaches the water and usually the market.
“During the years that I have worked in the sports industry, I’ve seen millions of dollars wasted, due to well designed products being poorly manufactured and having to have those products recalled. In a world where the next-best-thing is the best sales pitch a company has, the technique of rush-to-market, in many cases, kills the product.” – Mike Coker
In the case of Carbon Art, the percentage of change from specification to finished product is nil. James and the Carbon Art team have designed a superior range of products that they produce themselves. They know what went into each board, and how it compared to the last one they made. The Carbon Art range of boards remains durable longer and have proven to outperform other brands time and time again.
Why aren’t the Carbon Art products selling themselves?
The fact is, they do. The issues facing Carbon Art, like many New Zealand businesses, are low population and difficult communication (advertising). A strategy for increasing the demand in countries which have the required percentage of population interested in the product, will increase sales dramatically.
Windsurfing is a niche sport. It therefore can become market saturated.
Solution: Find a bigger market. Although not as easy as it sounds, Mike Coker, and Quiqcorp are the perfect choice to manage it.
