Acquisition project | Boots & Crampons

Boots & Crampons is a premium mountaineering & trekking company, focused on delivering high-quality and safety-first experiences to customers.

Our customers often keen themselves fit through gym/ running, and look forward to trekking & climbing with us to recharge themselves.

For our technical climbs, our customers need high-performance equipment. Critical equipment for mountain climbs include backpacks, trekking boots and jackets.

We seek to deliver access to reliable & high-quality mountaineering products to our customers.

Note

Boots & Crampons’ trekking & mountaineering products are in Early Scaling period. Whereas their Retail Store is in its Pre-PMF journey, as we seek to onboard premium brands such as Hyperlite Mountain Gear, La Sportiva and Rab. As we grow and hone our marketing skills, we’ll be looking at building our own products. Live document is at https://milangupta.notion.site/Acquisition-Project-Submission-Boots-Crampons-80f46a74c2054fc3b9e356278fcb77ff?pvs=4

Figma designs for various concepts is at: https://www.figma.com/proto/XkEF0kSINMpqu56B7vwd6L/GrowthX-Showcase?page-id=0%3A1&node-id=1-5&node-type=frame&viewport=731%2C523%2C0.32&t=LeYy2PSHYHV2DUpI-1&scaling=min-zoom&content-scaling=fixed&starting-point-node-id=1%3A5

Understanding the Product

The core Boots & Crampons product is the online marketplace, which is being used to retail premium mountaineering & hiking brands.

Products include:

1. Backpacks - light backpacks that are highly suited for backpacking, retailed by Hyperlite Mountain Gear in India
2. Trekking & Climbing boots - light and with strong grip, and good comfort for long days on the trail - retailed by La Sportiva

Key attributes of backpacks valued by customers include:

• Light backpacks - light backpacks that are highly suited for backpacking
• Fit & Ergonomics - When wearing the pack, the comfort in wearing the pack can make a big difference
• Usability - While fundamentally backpack is needed to keep things that you need for your days on the trail, items that are needed throughout the day should be accessible.

Sceenshots for user reviews at https://www.notion.so/milangupta/Acquisition-Project-Submission-Boots-Crampons-80f46a74c2054fc3b9e356278fcb77ff?pvs=4#12b74767a5e680a2a608eaccd4e36b5a

Understanding the Users

Ideal Customer Profile:

1. Lady in 50s, going for a challenging mountaineering expedition with family
2. 1. Age: 50s
   2. Demographics: Married, with children in college/ working, Income Level : over Rs. 50 Lakh
   3. Need: Product is more of a want-based product, where the user wants to showcase that they use top quality products
   4. Channels: WhatsApp groups, Instagram
   5. Behavior -
   6. 1. can be influenced by peers, and can likewise influence peers
      2. Are often part of a running / fitness community with whom they can share about running and climbing activities that they do
   7. Value accessibility to the product - Can only be experienced when outdoors and when they have access; therefore a strong brand is needed
3. Businessman based out of Mumbai/Ahmedabad, pursuing fitness & mountain climbing
4. 1. Age: 45
   2. DemographicsIncome level: over Rs. 50 Lakh
   3. Need: Product is more of a want-based product
   4. Channels: WhatsApp groups, Instagram
   5. Behavior - would like to be interested in technical details of product they use
   6. Value accessibility to the product - High

Understanding the Market

In India, Decathlon, Wildcraft and Woodland have strong brand presence, and have captured the mass premium market with their high-quality products. However affluent customers are always on the lookout for premium products by themselves.

Competition:

1. Physical first-brands - Decathlon, Aero Club

Market is primarily dominated by Mass Premium Brands

1. Online platforms, the following marketplaces are present:
2. 1. Trekkit -
   2. 1. retail premium brands such as Rab, Lowe Alpine & Salewa
      2. Sell products across all categories
      3. Channels of success - Organic inbound (via brands)
   3. Adventureworx - self-owned brands
   4. 1. GTM Channels - Paid ads (Google Search)

Product categories are:

Clothing & Gear

Climbing Boots

Clothes & Warm layering

Personal Equipment

Backpacks

Trekking Poles

Crampons

Ice Axes

Shades (UV light)

Climbing Equipemt

Ropes & Safety

Harnesses

Cams & Nuts

Ascenders & Descenders

Carabiners

Belay devices

Target Addressable Market

Number of trekker & climbers annually: 100,000

Total Serviceable Market

Let’s say 5% of this number are looking for premium equipment in an year.

That places the market at a value of Rs. 50 Annual Crore Revenue.

Different types of trekkers - the kind of trekkers who would want premium equipment are:

1. Able to afford
2. Have completed multiple treks previously, and are looking for better performing products now

In this segment, the following would hold true:

• Value of products purchased by average customer: Rs. 1 Lakh
• Most items are long-lasting, customers may not want to upgrade for a minimum of 10 years

Core Value Proposition

Go-to-platform for high quality mountaineering & climbing equipment.

Channels for acquisition - Mountaineering & Trekking are highly bragworthy. People do Everest Base Camp trek, and then their door-ke-rishtedaar know about this achievement that they've done.

With the parameters being fast, cheap and feedback-driven, we would want to leverage the following platforms.

1. Partnership programs - Mountaineering communities tend to be very tightly knit.
2. Referral programs - People loving sharing
3. Organic Inbound - Search - For customers looking for premium products

Primary channels:

1. LinkedIn - to build brand presence, and shareability amongst network
2. 1. Overall Content themes for LinkedIn:
   2. 1. Founder branding
3. Google Search - to cater to customers looking for information,

Keyword research

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XHdDdF8Zgv2YoA3a-6y6x9vkvrBQtxvsvGqW1RVCxBs/edit?usp=sharing

1. Keyword themes:
2. 1. Backpacks - Top of the funnel - Informational keywords
   2. 1. Climbing backpack - Average monthly search: 1,000
   3. Lightweight backpacks - Transactional - people are looking for backpacks
   4. Brand keywords - Hyperlite, Mountain Hardwear - people are looking to learn about different brands
3. Website - Overall URL structure:
4. 1. Store URL: bootsandcrampons.com/store
   2. Filter for Backpacks at bootsandcrampons.com/backpacks
   3. Filter for Hyperlite products at bootsandcrampons.com/hyperlite-backpacks
   4. Blogs for Products to be featured at bootsandcrampons.com/blog/
   5. 1. Topics:
      2. 1. Light packing for the mountains : Slug : light-packing
         2. Packing discipline for the mountains: Slug: packing-discipline
         3. Dyneema 50 and details
         4. Top Climbing shoes
         5. Shoes to wear to Climbing Mt Everest
5. Other SEO initiatives
6. 1. Technical SEO
   2. 1. Enable product pages to be listed on Google Search
   3. Local SEO, to enable customers to find bootsandcrampons products in India

• Curated Accomplishments by a trekker - Auto-created
• • A catalog of achievements that individual trekkers have achieved over the years
  • User Story - As a trekker, I have run a Summit Run (which was 30km) in distance in October 2022. I then went on a 5-day trek with my partner. A catalog of achievements that I’ve done can be auto-created
  • Platform - sharing on WhatsApp/ Instagram
• Photo-badge for the user - on completing a trek with Boots & Crampons, we can create a personalized badge for them such as “I climbed to Everest base camp”
• • User story - As a recent finisher at Summit Run Indrahar, I would want to add Summit Run badge to my WhatsApp DP, to signal to my network that I have just completed this
  • When does the user do this - This should be created for the user within 3 days of them completing the trek/ run, which is when they would want
  • Platform - WhatsApp
• Leverage reviews and trip blogs to co-promote equipment used, and also the overall experience of working with Boots & Crampons
• • Hook - Users completing a trek, and want to publish their blogs/ interviews about the treks
  • Platform - Search Engines
  • Content can be formatted like so (to act as an impetus to users to convert down the funnel): https://www.figma.com/proto/XkEF0kSINMpqu56B7vwd6L/GrowthX-Showcase?page-id=0%3A1&node-id=1-5&node-type=frame&viewport=731%2C523%2C0.32&t=LeYy2PSHYHV2DUpI-1&scaling=min-zoom&content-scaling=fixed&starting-point-node-id=1%3A5

Challenges with Paid Advertising - High CAC

1. Promotion on Organic Search -
2. 1. Brand keywords (for premium brands only)
3. Influencer driven -
4. • Platform
   • Subscribers,
   • Content theme
5. Display network advertising
6. 1. Audience segment
   2. Creative Strategy -
   3. 1. “We make the little margins work for you” - Show the user scrambling on boulders, doing pushups on the mountains, running at a speed on a trail run.
      2. Showcase how La Sportiva shoes, Hyperlite backpacks and Rab clothes can make a huge difference.