This is part two of our ongoing, four part, series about the development of an imaginary environmentally friendly snowboard company. In part one, we discussed the development of the logo, and it’s influence on the brand identity. 

Part 2:

The Mission:

Sauce Snowboards is an imaginary company hoping to break into the highly competitive snowboard market. It is Neon Sumo’s task to develop a business identity that will distinguish Sauce from the competition while maintaining a firm commitment to sustainable environmental practices. 

Step Two: Promotional Design

In our first post we presented the logo for Sauce Snowboards and discussed possible marketing campaigns that would utilize the “color-free” aspects of the logo.  In this section we are going to further explore possible marketing campaigns to promote Sauce Snowboards. 

Some of the most common promotional materials within the snowboarding industry are stickers. Stickers are easy to produce relatively cheap and are ingrained into snowboarding culture. People have been customizing the appearance of their boards with stickers since the earliest days of snowboarding. This makes stickers a good option from a marketing stand point as free sticker give-a-ways at snowboarding competitions or on mountain events could really help boost mindshare. Unfortunately the majority of stickers produced are made using vinyl. In a previous post, I discussed the downfalls of vinyl as they relate to health and the environment. Ultimately, vinyl is an undesirable design material and ought to be avoided if possible. 

So we needed to find some alternatives to vinyl for sticker production. Fiberstone is a paper alternative that is water proof, and biodegradable. It is produced using zero tree fiber, less energy than paper, and very little water making it an appealing option to vinyl. Unfortunately, Fiberstone will photo-degrade in a little over a year. Most stickers that are placed onto snowboards will spend most of their time locked in a closet, or covered in snow, but it is important to design with a material that won’t fade over time. 

A second option to vinyl is would be synthetic labels from another plastic resin. These labels are made using Polypropylene (#5) plastic and would be recyclable in some municipalities. Additionally, should the stickers be incinerated anytime in the future, the material doesn’t release any detectable amounts of dioxin, chlorine, or sulfur. Furthermore the plastic properties of the material would better withstand the elements a snowboard sticker might face. 

With either material there are potential drawbacks, however both are significantly better than vinyl in terms of environmental impact. But rather than just push free junk onto the masses, we wanted to create a more engaging and hopefully more effective marketing tool. First, we did a couple of quick mock-ups for potential print advertising campaigns. 

The first follows a more traditional “snowboarding magazine” ad depicting an action shot of a sponsored rider. This ad really fits into the conventional mold of snowboarding ads, but has it’s own unique flavor and would stand out from the traditional daytime “backcountry” or nighttime “urban” shots. This ad is a conservative example for a possible  “green” Sauce snowboard promotion.

The second is a totally different direction that would be targeted at the attention of young men. It is a significant departure from traditional snowboarding ads and would surely draw the attention of readers. Unfortunately we don’t think that this type of advertising really fits with the brand image of a triple bottom line company. The ad could be construed as overly sexual and demeaning to women. Plus, in the book “Buyology,” author Martin Lindstrom makes a compelling argument as to why sex doesn’t sell.

The old Saturday Night Live skit  where patrons of a restaurant were repeatedly asked if they “lika the juice?” provided the inspiration for the second ad. The implementation of the concept while eye catching and effective doesn’t fit well with the brand image. However, the concept gave rise to a more interesting campaign that could help build a community around Sauce Snowboards. This new concept will be further explored in part three of our series. Stay tuned!