Marketing Lessons You Can Learn from Skateboarders

From a marketing perspective, skateboarders are often a tricky target audience. Skateboarders are not easy to manipulate and they see through marketing language. They also go out of their way to promote great products and aren’t shy about sharing their opinions. Here are a few great lessons that marketing professionals and business owners can learn from skateboarders.

1. People value innovation

While skateboarders come from a variety of economic backgrounds, they are all willing to spend money on high-quality grip tapes and decks. They want to use the latest boards and are willing to pay more money for innovative products. Longboard store inventories have expanded considerably in the past several years solely for this reason. Skateboarders frequent physical and online shops and willingly pay for the latest technology.

2. Word about shoddy craftsmanship spreads quickly

By the same token, boards that are susceptible to damage and delamination don’t tend to sell very well. Skateboarding is a very community-driven sport, and when a manufacturer comes out with a low-quality product, that product stops selling quickly. As a result, skateboard and longboard manufacturers have drastically improved their product lines over the last decade.

3. Satisfied customers are a business’s best advertisers

The aforementioned sense of community can work in a store’s favor. While Fortune 100 companies have invested millions of dollars in social media over the past several years, skateboard manufacturers have relied on socially driven advertising for decades. Skateboarders discuss their favorite board options and manufacturers and actively advertise their favorite products. Professional skaters often have sponsors, but amateur skateboarders will often promote quality products without receiving any sort of financial backing.

Marketers still have to get their products into skateboarders’ hands in the first place. This is ultimately one of the best lessons that marketers can learn from skateboarders: word travels quickly, and good products will sell well with a small push.