Come ride with us: Cannondale on the value of demo days

As the first signs of spring finally arrive the UK team at Cannondale Bicycles have already been hard at work planning and delivering a season of Cannondale demo days.

Where people are the soul and the personality of the Cannondale brand, the team also know that building and maintaining close relationships is what drives the business. Character matters.

Bringing the Cannondale brand to life for retail partners means hosting staff training days, including demo rides. These events help build and bond the brand with its customer facing retailers, who’re a critical part of the Cannondale family. Feeling valued goes a long way. If in doubt, just ask a retailer working with a brand that doesn’t offer this kind of brand experience.

For the public, the brand sees demo events as a critical direct interaction opportunity, enabling the delivery of a brand experience rich in personality, good times, and great vibes – the kind which only a shared ride experience can create. Meeting and riding with existing customers helps form a sense of tribe, showing that the brand values its riders long after a sale takes place. Being part of the community is what happens after you buy the bike: The extra value so many businesses simply fail to unlock. Failing to engage with fans becomes all the more strange when you know that they are, in an interconnected, social media driven, world, your biggest, and arguably, most influential, marketing asset (and they don’t even work you!). Here, your tribes’ influence is most keenly felt – when wowing people in the market for a new bike.

Graham points out that, “Cannondale demo days regularly see previously long-term fans of other brands attending, loving the experience, and becoming Cannondale riders.” Of the format, Graham highlights that, “we host smaller events, where there is a real sense of connection. You’re out riding with Cannondale athletes and influencers, who share laughs, give riding tips, show bike skills, and exploring bike set up – that’s an experience you only get with people who truly live the brand.”

Keeping your existing customers, and wowing new members of your tribe

It’s widely accepted in corporate, B2B and B2C, business, that it costs less to retain an existing customer than win a new one. Taking care of those in your tribe makes the tribe collectively stronger. Building relationships with existing customers, at the same time as wining new fans; that’s extremely smart business.

In the world of marketing, it’s often said that the best time to double down on advertising is when your competitors have cut their marketing budget. The void this creates presents a massive opportunity for those brands proactively engaging with the marketplace as others have pulled back. Never a better time to acquire new customers than in a disruptive market. And the Cannondale team know this all to well.

In the current market adding value, has never been more important. Hosting experience days, bringing a community together, results in a brand fan experience that simply can’t be delivered when stood looking at bikes in a show room. We’re riders; the suffering, the laughter, the camaraderie – these are just some of the reasons we ride. When your brand is the organiser and facilitator of these experiences, you have a community with a truly shared connection.

Building your tribe. Winning new customers.

For many it will be their first in person experiencing of the Cannondale vibe – a combination of brand experience, skills clinic, and technical workshop – meeting, riding with, and learning from Cannondale athletes and ambassadors. It’s easy to see why the demo days are such a powerful sales tool, with many converting to the Wilton, Connecticut, headquartered brand.

Speaking with Graham Upton, Sports Marketing Manager Cannondale Bicycles, he’s clear about the value these events deliver for the brand, and its retailers (which makes it all the more confusing that so few other brands are running such a programme).

What people value. Why they love your brand.

For Cannondale, ‘Come Ride With Us’ is a reality, not just a slogan, and one which cyclists and retailers alike are clearly drawn to.

In a market where overstock is widespread and discounting a reality, brand character, personality and reputation matter more than ever.

Don’t agree?

Brands that don’t engage with their customer, outside of driving a conversation to a sales conversion, often come across as distinctly corporate, said not as a compliment. This kind of approach is extremely unlikely to endear brands to a passion-based, recreational riding, customer base, or with those new to cycling as transport, and certainly creates a distance with brand fans in the wider industry. You don’t have to spend much time on forums, or social media, to see what customers think. Clearly not a good move.

It’s into this space which online giant Canyon has launched its own national demo event series. Whilst many will point to Canyon and say price point is what that’s all about, you can’t level that accusation at the feet of Pinarello, who are equally active in the UK customer focused, event hosting and demo days, market. Add Cannondale to that list, and you can see that those who know they are in the relationships and experiences business truly do as they say, and as they do.

When bikes are fundamentally about passion and making a personal branding statement – publicly pinning your colours to the mast – enabling your fans to directly interact with the brand is as authentic an experience as anyone could wish to have. That personal connection is priceless.