Backcountry Leans Into Brand Building Strategy to Diversify Performance Marketing

Performance marketing achieves immediate but often short-term results, which is the secret to its increasing prominence over the past decade. The data-driven practices and strategies associated with it often cut down on marketing budgets while maximizing ROI. But that doesn't solve the growing problem of accessing customer data in order to develop long-term relationships. The challenges for brands right now include iOS15 updates among the wider changes to data privacy policies. In particular, these issues are significantly affecting the viability of social ads. Outdoor retailer Backcountry is tackling these battles head on by shifting its marketing strategy from a performance-heavy model toward more promotional-focused opportunities. “This new approach enables us to have a muse or an aspirational target that helps us inform our merchandising and product strategies, as well as our branding and marketing efforts," said Backcountry CMO Sarah Crockett. Gleaning these insights lets the brand nurture relationships with their existing customers. Crockett went on to say that while performance marketing can deliver customers, it often doesn’t do anything to keep customers loyal to the brand in the long term. The reason? There’s no relational aspect to these marketing efforts, Crockett contended. Another reason for Backcountry’s move to a promotion-focused marketing strategy is the desire to foster greater brand awareness. Its current strategy aims to boost Backcountry’s name recognition as it invests in upper-funnel activities, such as launching more retail stores, direct mail and out-of-home advertising on streaming TV platforms. Ultimately, the big-picture goal is to discover how to inspire customers at the earliest part of their shopping journey. Backcountry finds its balance Backcountry’s focus on brand building pivots on creative initiatives and collaborations across channels where the brand feels a high level of confidence for winning new customers and building loyalty with existing customers. For them, this means focusing on YouTube, streaming TV and direct mail at the moment. Backcountry works with its advertising partners on YouTube and streaming TV to target specific audiences and to better understand the right timing, placement and adjacency for their ads. Clearly, it’s not an “either/or” to emphasize either performance or brand building. The point is to find a balance that complements all marketing efforts. For example, the brand is also seeing a promising return on investment in its direct mail efforts, part of which includes sending print catalogs to customers’ homes. By leveraging its existing customer data to identify customers’ shopping habits and purchasing frequencies, mail pieces are sent at critical moments in the customer journey. "Direct mail has been a great vehicle for us to understand how to reengage customers that may have lapsed over time. It gives existing customers a reason to come back to Backcountry and buy again, too," Crockett said. Relying on Gearheads As a digitally native brand, Backcountry is also expanding its brick-and-mortar presence. This decision came after a successful pop-up stint in New York’s SoHo shopping district. "We're just getting started with adding retail stores to our business, and there's momentum building for us to open more across the U.S. this year and next," Crockett said. The brand’s physical retail stores serve as another brand awareness and customer experience touchpoint tied to its promotional-focused approach. A key aspect of this is the in-store Gearhead expertise Backcountry offers to shoppers. Backcountry CMO Sarah Crockett says that while performance marketing can deliver customers, it often doesn’t do anything to keep customers loyal to the brand in the long term. Gearheads are in-store experts who are certified in multiple outdoor activities and provide one-to-one service to share tips, advice and recommendations to shoppers in need of assistance. Aside from providing expert guidance and perspective on choosing the right gear and apparel, they can also point shop visitors to recreational activities and locations in the area. This high-touch, personalized service angle is just one more way they’re building relationships with customers rather than solely focusing on quick online conversions. The power of alliances Looking ahead, Backcountry has even more brand building efforts on the horizon: a partnership with a major pet retailer, the second year working with The Natural Selection Tour, scaling a partnership with L39ION of Los Angeles and Competitive Cyclist and collaboration with Red Bull Rampage, a freeride mountain bike competition. Backcountry carefully evaluates partnerships on many levels, including potential reach and audience types, focusing on core outdoor and outdoor lifestyle matrices. "We know that 84% of our target audience has a dog that they take on their adventures with them. This is a key input into partnering with an organization like Mutual Rescue or hosting local pet adoption events with shelters in and around our retail footprint," Crockett said. The strategy also includes identifying upper-funnel partners to expose the brand to new consumers. The result of all this is a growth in brand awareness, a connection with a passionate community of outdoor enthusiasts, a greater range of offerings and increased geographic reach. In one example of this, Backcountry has an upcoming collaboration with snowboarder Shaun White and his equipment line, Whitespace. "This collection will be available exclusively at Backcountry and will have Shaun partnering with us, sharing his curated point of view in addition to creating this innovative line of outerwear and hard goods in partnership with us," Crockett said. Brand equity performs well Backcountry has seen healthy growth over the last 19 months. "We've been able to identify incremental ROAS associated with new brand channels to the tune of five times, driving confidence in continuing on our path to test, learn and scale," Crockett said. Adding lifecycle marketing and launching their loyalty program have also resulted in new customer growth and improved customer retention. Breaking Trail, a sponsored advocates program, is another community-focused initiative: It spotlights outdoor leaders who excel not only as athletes but also as champions of change and diversity. While this type of marketing approach is more difficult to quantify than performance-based marketing efforts, Backcountry has created a brand equity tracker to measure brand awareness. The brand conducts customer research every six or seven months to ask more specific questions to their needs-aware customers on top of regularly assessing if they are meeting, engaging and bringing in new customers. Blending both marketing approaches Is Backcountry still using elements of performance-based marketing? Yes. Rather than completely swapping one approach for another, they're just becoming more open to activities that don't fall under the umbrella of performance marketing. "SEM, SEO, paid social … They're still critically important. For a full customer journey, these touchpoints still play an important role," Crockett said. She went on to explain that the shift to a more promotional marketing approach is about meeting customers with an inspired mindset and becoming better at existing on the entire customer journey in an intentional and prominent way. Backcountry realized the potential in enhancing the brand’s identity and meaning. This requires a deliberate effort in expressing who it is, what it stands for and how it adds value to its target audience. According to Crockett, achieving its goals can't be done through an exclusive performance marketing strategy. In the end, inspiring consumers with a multidimensional view of Backcountry’s brand identity leads to greater performance across all its marketing programs. “At the end of the day, we are only successful if we connect with consumers in a genuine and authentic way, expose the best of what we have to offer and constantly work to exceed their expectations,” Crockett said. “To do this successfully, you have to think beyond any potential silver bullet tactic. And for us, that means growing our consumer meeting points, taking smart risks—and being willing to constantly test, learn and scale.”