AIRBOBO, Backpacks to protect your spine
Airbobo makes innovative backpacks - primarily for children - that protect the spine and improve posture. They use patented air pockets rather than foam and are available in various sizes.
Airbobo turned to Geber Consulting to analyze the potential of the brand to expand into global markets, including the US, Europe, South America and all Asian countries. We delivered an in-depth 200-page report with market trends, local regulations, branding and marketing suggestions and a list of potential local partners in each market.
GBC assisted Airbobo in exploring possible future developments in the global market, identifying the market's shortcomings, and analysing the opportunities and conditions for entering the market. We provided a variety of brand strategies to protect the brand's new life.
Airbobo is based on the principles of the child's health and environmental protection, and makes children's nursery schoolbags. In the recent years, the company wanted to expand its brand from Taiwan to the world. However, before the expansion, it must have data support, as well as an estimation of the strategy benefits.
GBC thoroughly analysed the opportunities and conditions of the European, North American, and Southeast Asian markets, including competitors’ situations, market insights, product trends, and pricing scopes in each region, and used the three elements of competitiveness, development space, and resource allocation.
By assessing Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America as three levels of difficulties (easy, medium, and difficult), Airbobo has been able to use this analysis to assess whether to choose or not to enter the market.
Moreover, in order to allow the brand to continue its development, Geber took into consideration future trends and proposed different product and target group strategies.
Using online data, data platform Statista, Edelman survey information and google academic search and other resources, GBC analyzed the different regions in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Latin America.
Through the above analysis, Geber has assessed South East Asia (Singapore, Malaysia) as being “easier” to enter, because its development space is moderate and regarding the language barrier, the target customer can generally speak English. Local distributors can directly deal with the sales.
Airbobo's brand name is based on “air”, and it is designed with a “bobo” child. Colorful hot air balloons represent the diversity of Airbobo products. Airbobo takes children's health and environmental protection as a basic principle, makes children's school bags with care, and embraces children's dreams. However, spread this concept and brand to the world requires multiple considerations and in-depth investigations. Therefore, GBC conducted a series of analysis for Airbobo, from market insight, competitors review, pricing, to target audience and brand trends.
The difficulty of "medium" for market entry is in the European region (France, Germany). The development space is large, and the target customer level in English is from medium to high. But in addition to sales by local distributors, special marketing planning is also required.
In the end, the North American market is the hardest to enter. North America requires not only local dealers, marketing plans, but also huge amounts of money for advertising.
Customer perspective, tailored to the right brand strategy
Starting from Airbobo's product positioning, GBC determined very important elements in order to estimate each market’s success level: the children's walking habits and the frequency of mass transit vehicles.
After further inquiries, GBC affirmed first that children in North America are not accustomed to long-distance walks and do not often use public transportation vehicles. Therefore, the market has a low chance of success. Second, children in Europe are accustomed to long-distance walks, mass transit vehicles are different according to regions so it is necessary to adapt. There are opportunities for success when entering the country. Finally, children in South East Asia are also accustomed to long-distance walks and are used to public transportation tools, so Airbobo’s chances of success are higher in this region.
Have a look at the whole situation and look forward to the future
By analysing future trends, BGC found that users of backpacks are not going to be limited by age. For that reason, designs tend to be simple and plain, and the use of features will no longer require major light weighting. From the above findings, Geber decided to look for different industries and roles for Airbobo, and proposed three future strategies: Air-Protection as the protection package for digital products, Air-Elevate as the mainstay of Evergreen, and Air-Extreme as the main limit environment. Through these strategies, Gebo created a longer-term and more comprehensive future blueprint for Airbobo.
Case Study
FUJISU
ASRock
UOC
