Mountain Hardwear Sees Upside in Hosting Retailer Conferences

 

The events, in Richmond, CA; Boulder, CO; and Manchester, NH, were primarily first developed to be able to communicate directly to retailers, according to Mike Wallenfels, Mountain Hardwear president.  “The company’s goal for the conferences was to “present the message of what Mountain Hardwear is doing in the market,” he continued, “near-term and long-term, [discuss] overall marketing efforts and specific retailer efforts.”

This intimate connection with retailers is a strategy various companies have tried in the past, and one that allows those retailers specifically invited by the host brand to get together and talk openly about how the market is affecting their stores.

At the conferences this year, Mountain Hardwear invited a total of 35 retailers to the three events, with about 24 to 40 people at each event, said Wallenfels. “We did not want them any larger or we would lose the intimate connection with the product.” The locations of the three shows were picked based on the ease with which retailers could access them.

The conferences consisted of a discussion of the company’s marketing efforts, a display of the new product line on models and a question and answer session with the line’s designers.

But seeing the product line was not the aspect of the conferences retailers enjoyed the most. Rather, it was the opportunity to meet in person the key management of the company and get some clarification on the company’s plans for the future and coming year, a welcome and rare breath of certainty during a very uncertain economic year.

The opportunity to peek behind the scenes of the company was the most beneficial aspect of the conference, said Next Adventure’s General Manager Mike Turner. “We got to learn all about the state of the company, got to meet the president and it was a really useful event.”
“It was nice,” he continued. “A lot of worries for these big companies are being bought and sold and it was nice to get the run down about their financial situation and what the retailer can rely on going forward. Mountain Hardwear is a premier line and it is expensive, and they addressed [the] concern [of whether] their costumers would want to still pay top-dollar.”

Seeing the product line outside of the busy tradeshow was also a welcome change. “The reason we attended was first and foremost that we were invited to attend,” remarked Turner. “This seminar was just all about their apparel product for next fall and winter and normally when we do product previews usually its done at some of the trade shows that we attend (OR or SIA). Usually when you go and attend those previews, you have about an hour or two to see everything, talk to all the designers, talk to the reps about what’s showing strong… so you have a really short amount of time usually to gather as much info as possible. What was really nice about the seminar was we got a solid full-day to do this.”

Retailers were torn on the benefits of the “networking” aspect Wallenfels had touted, however. “We were able to have access to all the other retailers [but] I didn’t have too much conversation with the other retailers about their business and what they were finding,” said Turner.

Outside of specific Mountain Hardwear-related discussions, the conference provided a forum for those retailers in attendance to discuss how their business was faring and exchange tips to weather the upcoming storm. “Getting a group of like-minded retailers together, getting conversations like ‘what are you doing to help improve your sales, what’s your story and your market’’” was an added benefit, observed Wallenfels. “[The conferences] wound up being a great networking activity.”

The attendees for Mountain Hardwear’s conference consisted of a mix between single-store specialty and multi-door retailers who wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to meet with the principals of Mountain Hardwear, he said.

Lisa Hollenbeck, co-owner and merchandise manager with the Alpine Shop in St. Louis, MO, felt a bit uneasy being in the same room as her competitors while being shown the product line. Competitors’ presence limited her ability to fully walk the line of products as she would have liked, she said. “One of the downsides is you don’t have time to work the line and if you’re in the same room as your competitors… That’s the only thing I would do differently – I was in a room with people who will be competing in my market and I wasn’t comfortable with that.”
Other retailers were more comfortable with the situation and actually enjoyed being around competitors so they could commiserate in today’s trying times. “I’m a big fan of reaching my hand across the aisle,” said Mike Fowler, VP of operations for Uncle Dan’s in Chicago. “If I can share a secret, if I can get a secret. I don’t really see that as an issue. And I was there with a competitor. There's enough business to be had for all of us.”

This was the first year Mountain Hardwear had done retailer conferences of this type and while it won’t see the effects in sales until next year, it has tentative plans to do similar conferences this spring.
When asked if they would attend a conference like this one again, most retailers said they were interested, if only for the security of getting to speak to company executives personally and hearing exactly what the company is going to be doing in the upcoming months.