Background
Segway is the pioneer in self-balancing vehicles. You may not know the name, but you’d know the product. However, as any pioneer, the beginning is never easy. Before Segway was eventually acquired by Ninebot, and its technology perfected and matured for cost-effective production, it, well, wasn’t. The brand suffered negative PR when President. Bush, Katy Perry, and a former owner of Segway accidentally fell when riding Segway.
Situation
Everybody falls a couple of times when they ride bicycle – why should Segway be any different? The fact that some people fell doesn’t mean Segway is an inferior brand, or its products bad products. But bad PR is bad PR. Don’t expect PR to do anyone any justice. You just acknowledge it, and do something about it. As Segway makes its re-entry into US B2C market, Brand Acceptance and Affinity is going to be an important part of work.
Task
OODDA’s task is to make sales for Segway consumer product line. A simple sentence, with an implication – sell under the brand, not as a manufacturer as Segway has been for Bird and Lime, promote Segway consumer products as an alternative for daily commute and recreational purposes.
Action
Phase 1
Prioritize and Execute
We prioritized strategic graphic placement, and prioritized Segway’s new line of scooters on the product end while designing their consumer products line oriented e-commerce website.
Graphic Design heavily used perspective illustrations – allowing visitors to see technology through transparentize frames, conveying a sense of transparency and trust, also facilitates direct visual understanding of upgraded technology.
Also focused on presenting other safety measures – front, tail, turning, and braking lights. Conveying a feeling that Segway deeply cares about technology that improves users’ safety.
Coordinate and direct Segway’s Google Ads operations. Successfully sold more than 360 units on Segway’s official website only, during February – the coldest and shortest month of US market.
Phase 2
PR Outreach – YouTube Vloggers and technology review sites.
User Acquisition: Actively increasing new website users and subscribers through multiple channels and gained 1.5k website newsletter subscribers within a month.
Currently undergoing several review operations to communicate Segway’s overall competence as a techy-lifestyle, and as a micro-mobility tool.
Phase 3
(Planning) Integrated market Communications to further demonstrate: including website promotion planning, social media user acquisition and advertising, email marketing, affiliate marketing, search engine optimization and etc.
Result
- High sales volume is an achievement in and of itself. It is also an indicator, that the market welcomes Segway’s scooters, if not already the brand.
- Some vloggers and reviewers are willing to the influencer marketing operations free of charge, another indicator that interest in the brand is high.
- Successfully sold more than 360 units on Segway’s official website only during January and February – the coldest and shortest two months of the US market. The monthly ROI reached 1:10.
- Increasing new website users and subscribers through multiple channels and gained 1.5k website newsletter subscribers within a month.
