Posted by Williams Helde Staff

Prepare for Active Explorer Season.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, we’re gearing up for rainy season. Shorts are going away, rainproofing is a priority, and we’re looking for the perfect gear to keep our stuff dry from the storms the North Pacific sends our way.

It’s the perfect time to study the Active Explorer.

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If you don’t know who the Active Explorer is, you can catch up here. In a nutshell, it’s your most educated and affluent customer, looking to improve their bodies and minds. Active Explorers are seasonal creatures. We love the summer sun, but a little wind and rain isn’t going to keep us off the trail. Our passions are yearlong and nationwide.

Seasons are what keep us grounded. We look forward to the change. We search for fresh apples and fall harvests in the Farmers’ Markets, make a list of hikes that feature fall colors, make sure the tread on our tires can handle a little mud. Our minds are open.

That’s where you come in. When people’s minds are open, you can make a new first impression. Take these three steps to prepare for a whole new customer mindset:

Explore your ecosystem. No matter what you’re selling, you’re not selling in a vacuum. Look at your adjacent products and services to see if they’re offering something you could complement or supplement. For example, if you’re a hardware store, help your Active Explorers find ideas to build a place to store their gear for a long wet winter.

Hiking-Shoes-588x391Get ideas from outside. Take note about how other products and services take advantage of autumn. Automobiles, coffee shops and department stores all have deep-seated reasons to offer new styles, flavors and fashions. If you’re a bank, an insurance agency, or a fast casual restaurant, what could your pumpkin spice be?

Retell your story. If you’re an established business, it may be easy for your customers to forget why they loved you. Every once in a while, you need to remind them. One of our favorite examples is Brooks, a century-old shoe company that decided to focus completely on making the best running shoes in the world. Not only did their customers take another look, but so did everybody else, making them one of the leading specialty running shoe manufacturers in the world.

Williams Helde Staff
About the Author

Williams Helde Staff

Seattle-based Williams Helde helps build active, healthy brands through marketing communications, PR, advertising and design.