Knolly Bikes
Founded in 2003 as a passion project by Noel Buckley to create bikes for his friends. Knolly bikes were designed to tolerate the rough conditions of the North Shore trails. Knolly separates themselves by offering high-end aluminum frames in a market ruled by carbon fiber. A continued moto of engineering > marketing outlines what the company stands for. All products are backed by a lifetime warranty to ensure trust in the products from customers.
Marketing Mix
Product – Knolly has 5 high end mountain bike frames that make up the company’s products. With a focus on high end aluminum frames instead of carbon fiber frames which many competitors rely on. Knolly suggests that the design of the bike is more important then the material used for it. Properties of aluminum include better compliance and flexibility as well as being a recyclable product. Each bike has a different intention for use and different pricing for each product. This makes the width 5 products wide and the depth with 4 choices. There are also clothing and accessory products to increase brand awareness.
Price – The pricing strategy has two aspects for each product. The first aspect is the general pricing of the frames. With a large focus on design and quality, Knolly is able to sell the frames at a higher price then the market average with frames starting at $1,099 Canadian. The other side of this is each frame can be purchased with different components that make of the rest of the bike. Different selections of parts will very the price of the bike.
Place – Head office and warehouse in Burnaby, BC allows Knolly to distribute quickly and efficiently across the rest of BC. All frames are made in Taiwan and subcontract manufacturing to a company called Geneo. This allows for reduced manufacturing costs while maintaining product quality. Across seas shipping has caused delays as well as increased costs because of Covid-19 yet these expenses are less cheaper then local manufacturing.
Promotion – The engineering > marketing motto is the current approach to all marketing aspects for Knolly Bikes. They do maintain a constant social media page on Instagram and Facebook but fail to have consistent ads or reasonable discounts. There are also weekly newsletters for email that can come across as spam for many. Knolly is dependent on their loyal customer base to be satisfied with the quality of the bike and customer service quality to make purchased for more or replacement bikes.
People – Mountain biking has grown with Covid-19 as many people could only interact outdoors. Covid also changed people perception on fitness and encouraged everyone to be more active. With lots of new riders on the trails, it’s still not very common for a new mountain biker to purchase a Knolly frame. Instead, Knolly is targeting riders that want a durable, high performance bike. This is because the price is higher then many other bikes.
SWOT analysis
| Strengths – Patented products and designs – Loyal customers | Weaknesses – Delivery time to customers – Limited products from suppliers increases delays |
| Opportunities – New dealer relations to build network – New frame designs to remain competitive | Threats – 10 employee company reaching max capacity – Small business reduces purchase power with suppliers |