More on Mistral

A Senior Manager at Boards&More managed to clarify a few issues regarding Mistral for us.

"At the moment there is a team at B&M taking care of Mistral´s management, sales and marketing.  They are still looking to hire a 'real' Brand Manager who will be the successor of Boris [Zwetkoff].

In the meantime Jürgen May is taking care of the Product Management and an internal Boards & More team will oversee the other departments. Nik [Baker] is still in the business and I have no information that Mark Nelson is not the Mistral shaper anymore.

I know that there are many rumors around, but Mistral has very good boards in 2009 and has received excellent feedback from the market.

The facts are that Mistral will, from now on, focus on a small but very high-end, high-tech and premium boardrange only.

They will also use an alternative marketing strategy which is more fitting to market their premium board range.

This strategy goes more into direct marketing and less into traditional forms of sponsorship. That's why the team will be much smaller for 2009. I Hope this explains the situation."

Overall this sounds like good news and that Mistral are going to aim high and 'weather the storm'.

What are your views on this strategy to produce an elite-level, low-volume top-end product? Please leave any comments below.

Comments

[Steve]

Less teamriders, less marketing... ok.
But maybe it will be better to have a smaller windsurf board range, more beginner/freeride oriented with cool prices and with a big communication around that. Like in the best years of M° (end 90's...)
Not easy, I know, but this would be a super opportunity for M° to come back on the market with a new product line especially (totally?) dedicated to beginners.
I think there is a big opportunity to catch now in this corner, as most of all other brands are too much involved in high end products...
Let's see what happens then...

[Rudie]

YES, leave the freeride/beginner boardshapes the same(for instance @ fanatic, the shark/eagle etc.) for 2/3 years to reduce development costs. This way they might reduce prices for these well sold(?) boardranges.

Just leave the development in the disciplines that matter... people in those disciplines have the money for it (not necesarily, but still)and the will to buy new stuff each year.

[jonthesailorman]

I don't know, that sounds a lot like BIC boards to me.

[XAVIER]

i don't agree.
i think that teamriders are a great part of the marketing strategy.
For me, mistral Was going better since marcilio browne signed with...
he represents the new school of windsurfing
goodstyle good performance...
he really made me feel that mistral was a young company with fresh ideas on the design like on the shape of the boards
(like mattia edvan and others otherwise)
i think this new strategy is not reaaly good for mistral.
maybe i m the lone that thinks that teamriders make people buy some boards but if i see a good video with hard moves and good riders with a hardcore style.i would interess myself more on the board that i saw in the video.
sorry for my bad english
i hope you 'll Understand me..
xavier
FRANCE

[Beej]

Hi Xavier. Thanks for the comments. Great English too. I kind of agree wth you. It wuold be nice to know your money is being spenty on top riders and R&D but you don;t want it wasted either iguess? Personally I don;t know how Mistral will suceed with a high-end strategy. Surely all the leading brands are high-end already? how much will someone pay extra for a special board? How much more special can they make it to justify the price? Otherwise I'm not sure elite level service is the way forward either. Even if Nik Baker flew to your beach to sail with you and tune your footstraps and mast foot position is it worth it?

[Mike]

I'm thinking Mistral is only going to carry the RD board range instead of keeping the two different constructions. From my experience as someone who has a mistral demo range that average guys take out when I'm at the beach is when they try a board with the cheaper construction, they end up saying it feels slow and non-responsive and end up getting a higher end board from another brand. On the other hand, the people that have tried my RD boards love them and will buy one. So keeping the RD range only is a VERY GOOD marketing strategy. Once people try the cheaper construction boards, they are turned off by Mistral in general and it's hard to explain to them how much better the RD boards are without them actually trying them.

As for a dedicated beginner company...That's great for your first year, but what are you going to buy the next 30 years you spend sailing? Not something named Bic I'm sure. Like someone said earlier, one beginner board that stays unchanged for a few years to keep the cost down would be the way to go.

[Beej]

That's good to hear Mike. in my opinion the best marketing strategy for any business is to make an oustanding, remarkable product that exceeds expectations and makes people rave about it and others crave it. Let's hope Red Dot does just that.