University of New Hampshire – MKTG 775 – Fall 2020 – Team Project
Team: Matthew Bennett, Linus Fallberg, Jada Ferrerira, Jacob Gould, Hannah Grich, Jonny Wolf
Overview
My group was tasked with helping our client, Craig Heisner with his startup company HIZE Hoods. My official title in the group was Liaison and was the main point of contact between the team, client, and professor, however, I also contributed many ideas and hours of work into the writing and presenting of our work.
The premise of the company was to make an attachment for the Peloton bike that takes stress off of the rider’s shoulders and lower back by putting them in a more relaxed position. The ultimate goal of the project was to increase brand awareness, improve social media engagement, and refine the consumer profile to have a more defined target market.
Survey & Focus Group
We created a survey as well hosted a focus group to try and narrow down more specific details within locating our target demographic. This survey was posted on the official Peloton, Schwinn, and Bowflex Facebook groups as well as being sent to family and friends that owned a stationary bike or Peloton. I helped come up with effective questions that would provide meaningful answers to find a demographic as well as distributing the survey among friends and family.
From our survey, we determined that most respondents ride their bikes the majority of days in a week. Using this information, we could promote long-term benefits by using the attachment. We also discovered that most respondents were between the ages of 21 and 35. According to this statistic from Statista published in November of 2021, “Those aged 18 to 34 years of age made up the majority of Instagram’s user base as of October 2021.” Furthering our push for social media marketing.
We also uncovered that 32% of respondents spend between $2,000-$3,000 on a stationary bike and 40% already have accessories such as weights, fans, phone holders, etc. If people are willing to spend a significant amount of money on their bikes, they are more likely to invest $35 on an accessory to improve their riding experience.
I assisted in creating and organizing the virtual focus group over zoom as well as joining the call to see that everything runs according to plan. Prior to the meeting, each participant was sent a HIZE Hood to test on their bike. We received valuable insight from Peloton riders trying the attachments for the first time.
Social Media
The @hizehoods Instagram and Facebook accounts hadn’t been utilized as much as they should have been and were in need of a redesign. Being active on social media is made even more crucial than it was because consumers are not being able to leave the house due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of our social media plan was to increase engagement and brand trust. We created a 5-week social media promotional calendar as well as sample posts that can be posted.
*Mock social media posts created by Jada Ferrerira
Conclusion & Next Steps
From our secondary research and research from our own findings, we came up with 3 major points of focus to increase brand awareness and engagement: social media, website, and product appeal. Our research reinforced our knowledge of the importance of social media presence. On top of the promotional calendar we had created, we also gave sample posts (see above) to continue to engage with consumers and expand “post-reach.” We also included mass email marketing under social media. Our second part of our next steps recommendations was to work on the website requiring consumers to make as few clicks as possible to make a purchase. We also suggested making an installation page with detailed videos on how to correctly install and use the product. Our final recommendation was to add the option for consumers to have the option for additional color choices and survey support. We felt that consumer choice in customizability was important so that people can have the exact riding experience that they envisioned. We presented our ideas to the class and to Craig who was very pleased with our report. This was my first major project done 100% remote and I would say it was a success. Today, HIZE Hoods continues to grow and utilize our recommendations. Check out his Instagram here.
Matthew Tyler Bennett 