Case Study: Outdoor Products
Outdoor Products is a worldwide outdoor sporting goods manufacturer and distributor. For over three decades, Outdoor Products has been committed to creating quality packs and camping accessories. The Company’s success is due to their high quality products and customer feedback.
Outdoor Products is an active company with hundreds of products and multiple product lines - all sold by many retailers throughout the U.S. The product lines change and information needs to be updated frequently, as does the retailer information. One of Outdoor Product’s best methods for marketing their products and gathering and disseminating customer and retail information is their Web site.
"Outdoor Products is a dynamic company with up-to-date products and a well-established brand," said Douglas Buchalter, managing director of Marker Seven. "But, when customers went to their Web site, they didn’t get the same high quality feel. And from a technical standpoint, there was no way for Outdoor Products to easily update the product or retail information on the site."
In addition, Outdoor Products had a couple of new product lines, Fieldline and Winchester, that lacked Web site exposure altogether. The Company had to decide how to bind these three product lines from a branding perspective; yet, retain some autonomy and individuality. Outdoor Products chose Marker Seven to help re-design and re-architect their existing Web site, and develop Web sites for their new lines, Fieldline and Winchester.
Marker Seven designed three separate Web sites. Using a consistent navigation and ‘look and feel’ across each product line’s Web site, Outdoor Products corporate brand remained intact. By designing a template, Marker Seven allows each line to communicate their brand strengths with customized content.
Outdoor Products has a large, Legacy database that stores all their product information. However, the database did not communicate with their Web site. So, Marker Seven created a customized product catalog system that dynamically pulled all product information from their current internal database and displayed this information on their public Web site. Now, when Outdoor Products rolls out new products, they only need to enter the data once - into their Legacy database. It automatically populates the Web site with the new information.
In addition, Marker Seven developed a customized Content Management System that allows Outdoor Products to make easy Web updates to the following sections and keep them current:
Retailer List
Frequently Asked Questions
Media/PR Resources
Results With Outdoor Product’s three new Web sites, customers can quickly and easily find relevant and up-to-date product information. The Web sites now reflect the Company’s ‘high quality’ image and consistent brand strategy. The Content Management System empowers Outdoor Products and their respective product units by allowing them to easily manage and update customer and product information.
"Our new Web sites are overwhelming successes," said Andrew Altshule, general manager of Outdoor Products. "Marker Seven’s skills in managing the design, usability and development far surpassed our high expectations."
Outdoor Products® is a worldwide outdoor sporting goods manufacturer and distributor. Outdoor Products® no longer has their department stores but they still continue in their long time retail commitment to customer satisfaction.
See www.outdoorproducts.com for more information.
About Marker Seven
Marker Seven is a premier provider of Web-based solutions designed to maximize business sales and communication efforts. Headquartered in San Francisco and founded in 2000, its skilled, cross-disciplinary team tackles every facet of Web development with a common bond and vision - to deliver value, high-quality work, and exceptional service. Marker Seven's professional team of business strategists, designers, and technical experts deliver solutions tailored to each client. Proven ability to understand client's business issues and technical needs allow its team to hit the ground running, take ownership and fully manage every project. Marker Seven remains focused on and dedicated to each project, delivering a polished look with clarity and consistency. Whatever the initiative, Marker Seven implements and delivers success.