Heroin Skateboards: Personality Wins

 Heroin Skateboards was created by Mark ‘Fos’ Foster in 1998. Originating in the UK, Mark flourished by pursuing his dream of succeeding as an artist. Developing skateboard graphics for more than half of the skateboard industry, he is well known and has the credibility to back up his work. With a distinguished style, Mark added more than just his graphics to his brand. Heroin skateboards are released as one-of-a-kind styles. Over the years, they have released various niche sizes, shapes, and specialty traits. The skateboarding community has approved and supported this brand through word of mouth and earned media for its niche style and swag. 

    Heroin offers greater value to its customers through one-of-a-kind shapes and sizes,  specialty razor edge construction, and consistent customer engagement. While most skateboard brands mainly offer mass-produced symmetrical decks ranging up to sizes 8.75 to 9.0, Heroin offers quality crafted symmetrical decks up to size 13.5 as seen from their Eggzilla. Big skate corporations do offer various fun shapes, but they lack inspiration. Most “shaped” or “old school” decks are labeled as a reissue, meaning they produce shapes from past releases with new or old graphics. Heroin offers its customers limited releases of new never-before-seen shapes and sizes; rarely reusing the same size and shape for a new release. Selling both through E-commerce, small local skate shops, and bigger corporations like Tactics and Zumiez.

  

 Researching consumer value, the Eggzilla was a success. With a retail price of $220, the Eggzilla’s value grew instantly after selling out after the first couple of minutes available online. Now reselling at prices up to ~$300, we can see that their decks are valued as both producers of fun and collector's items. 

    The skateboard company also offers a rare trait in skateboards which they are well known for; razor-edge construction. With an unfinished sharper edge on the top ply of the deck, riders are offered a deeper concave and more defined board feel. This trait helps riders improve control and board responsiveness such as pop, flip, and grip. From personal experience to online feedback in the skateboarding community, everyone is pleased and desires more. 

    Heroin Skateboards has a tremendous amount of online presence and engagement for customers. While mainly engaging in social media through Instagram, they are also present on Facebook, YouTube, and their blog. By responding in real time via comments, direct messages, and email, they successfully gain every opportunity for a new customer. Not only responding in real-time, but Heroin also communicates with its consumer base thoughtfully by genuinely answering and offering informational content. Past that, they engage with consumers by regularly reposting consumers' skateboard setups adding compliments and support. 

    Diving deep into Heroin Skateboard's Instagram feed, the majority of posts and comments were positive. Consumers respond to the brand by explaining what they love about the products and how they desire to buy more when they release new products. Being a more niche brand, Heroin seems to lose some consumers through price and availability. However, in comparison to similar niche products with limited releases, prices maintain a higher threshold than big skate corporations that offer high availability, slightly lower prices, lower quality, and limited deck size and shape options. Therefore, when looking into the supply and demand values for Heroin Skateboards, they would be able to sell more, but then some of the value would be lost. 

After viewing several positive comments, one individual found himself disagreeing with value of Heroin skateboard decks. He was comparing the supply, quality, price, and availability of Heroin to big skate corporations. I disagreed and left a small comment on my opinion.

    After receiving real-time communication after only 20 minutes, I was able to quickly chat with Heroin Skateboards on Instagram. Asking about the retail price for the Eggzilla from earlier in this blog, I was given more information on its price, supply, and demand than I was expecting. They proved themselves accessible and present. No wonder they are able to respond and engage with so many consumers. With this engagement, they are on track to never miss an opportunity. 

    The niche but popular skateboard brand promotes its products in several ways. Just like other skateboard brands, they have their own team of Pro-skaters that both represent and promote their own decks by Heroin. These Pro-skaters having their own separate social media also play into marketing the brand. They are marketing by using an old-school style of advertisements that are used in magazines such as Thrasher. These advertisements are also available on their website. When accessing their website, the first page it opens is their blog. Through this blog, they share their magazine ads, skate videos of their team, information, and most importantly the stories behind their content and products. Researching other big skate corporations and small brands, they do not contain stories, blogs, or further meaning behind their product releases. Products labeled with the name of a Pro-skater can essentially mean nothing unless you are a fan. How can you truly have liked someone and be a fan simply based off of their released clips? Connecting with a brand and its team can make you stay engaged and involved. Heroin is the only brand and official website that promotes its story and growth with consumers. This can make their products meaningful and thought-through in the production process. The stories and sharing of personal thoughts and opinions of the team add and maintain its brand, lore, and fanbase. I think it is remarkable to feel connected and engaged with these Pro-skaters that we see on TV, YouTube, magazines, products, and social media. 

    Heroin Skateboards has outstanding consumer engagement on Instagram, also regularly posts on Facebook, YouTube, and their blog. However, nowadays, more social media platforms are frequently used as well. If I was the brand manager for Heroin Skateboards, I would get involved with a good TikTok and Twitter presence. Skateboarding marketing consists heavily of videos and photos, with this in mind, TikTok could be a great platform to also share brand content. TikTok has a good-sized skate community and a majority of younger viewers who would enjoy content from Heroin Skateboards. Currently maintaining their blog, they should also consider Twitter posts that have a similar layout. I think the content has a steady flow and product information is readily available, but more individuals could gain from engaging with their content. 

    For an idea to implement into their marketing and consumer engagement, I think they should produce an annual consumer-based compilation. Every year, they should take consumer-submitted posts, choose favorites, and compile them into an hour-long video. This increases consumerism for Heroin products and Consumer engagement.