The Promotion and Marketing of Cycling

March 2004

In trying to promote Norwich Cycling Campaign and cycling in general, this conference was an excellent source of ideas and information.

The morning session was devoted to the question ‘What is Marketing?’ Philip Darnton, acting Chair of the NCSB while Steve Norris campaigns to become Mayor of London, and Shirley Acreman, Marketing Director of Sustrans, attempted to provide answers.

Basically, marketing is understanding the consumer, understanding their motivations and offering benefits to match. We need to remember that cyclists are real people. They are not a discrete group, their world is permeable – people move in and out of it and cycling is part of a repertoire of behaviour. We need to talk benefits, not features. A benefit must relate to the needs of the consumer – ‘What’s in it for me?’ It must be seen to be relevant, credible and demonstrably superior in some way to the alternatives, with emotional benefits as well as functional ones influencing people’s choices.

We need to decide precise objectives, something achievable. We must set SMART goals – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely. Using available data we can – identify where growth can best be found, remembering there is no such thing as perfect data, and understand the weaknesses of what exists and use it. We were shown some recommended examples of promotional leaflets for the National Trust, English Heritage, the Wildfowl Trust at Slimbridge, Sustrans and cycle route leaflets. Stunning photos along with key words can be inspirational (I must admit that the single page promotion of the Trans Pennine Trail inspired us – it was such a lovely tempting photo, even though when we reached that precise spot on our ride it was raining and didn’t look nearly so good). We need to stress the positives, leading with benefits relating to the needs of the target consumer, eg children cycling / walking enjoying a safe and healthy journey to school. Names are important too, eg NCN Route 3 – what’s that? while West Country Way conjures up images of moors, estuaries, fishing villages, cows, cream teas…. Finally we need to evaluate – pre- and post-measurement is the most convincing way to demonstrate results, but we need to be realistic in relation to the cost of the initiative.

Marketing in practice – NCSB plans – have the overall objective:

More cycle journeys = more people cycling = radical cultural change. Such an outcome is not achievable by direct broad scale advertising: one size does not fit all. The National Marketing Plan suggests we make the most of what we’ve got, through Unification – speak with one voice, aimed at stakeholders, the Government, media – Information – aimed at potential / current cyclists – Education – a life skill, aimed at young people – Build scale – good ideas travel, aimed at occasional / current cyclists.

Unification includes endorsement – adverts appearing in many different places, such as ‘Bike for a change’ painted on the ground at exits from car parks, ‘Bike for fitness’ and ‘Bike for your body’ in popular magazines, ‘Bike for freedom’ and ‘Bike for fun’ on bus shelters or bus stop posts.

Information will be available through a website www.bikeforall.net hoped to be reading for launching by the beginning of National Bike Week 2004. This is promoted as ‘the essential resource for everyone who cycles, or is thinking about it.’

Education / training is seen as the ‘key’ to getting children and adults back on bikes. This involves 4 full-time co-ordinators (financed by the bicycle industry), surveys (baseline data and progress), training (to National Standard by accredited instructors) and community involvement.

Building scale starts with Bike Week, involves cycle journey planning (a service members of Norwich Cycling Campaign could offer) and professionalism in all aspects.

The next challenges for marketing include: Cycling and health, Women and cycling, Perceptions of cycling and Positive media planning. Final words of advice: Think big, start small; Keep it simple; What’s important now; Good ideas travel; Don’t beat on closed doors; Hold tight – you’re not alone.

Maps and Mapping was the subject presented by Anna Trafford, Marketing and Membership Manager of London Cycling Campaign. Anna worked on the London Cycle Guides project which has produced a series of 19 free cycle maps covering the whole of the greater London area (and very good they are too; I have used several of these to find the easiest and most convenient cycle routes in London). She outlined how marketing principles were applied before general release, how ‘mock ups’ were trialled among 12 focus groups of different types of cyclist and the results acted upon. Finally, evaluation in the form of surveys and interviews showed: the guides made Londoners cycle more often and further (40% - 44%); 78% had changed routes to make use of quieter roads, avoiding busy streets and junctions; 82% - 94% (depending on the source of the survey) found the guides useful or very useful. Finally the question was asked – will the demand for cycle maps die out with the advent of on-line journey planning and digital down-loadable maps?

Peter Andrews is the founder-director of the cycle promotion charity, Life Cycle UK. This organisation works with communities, businesses, schools and the health sector in the field of cycle training to enable more people to take up cycling. The subject of his presentation was Journey Planning for Cyclists.

Journey planning is one of the services offered by the company. It is a very popular service and very effective. Life Cycle UK has teamed up with map makers Cycle City Guides and with support from the DfT and NCSB carried out an investigation to see if a journey planning service would be truly useful. Following this initial study the DfT is considering funding creation of a national journey planning service for urban areas. This facility would be available to all local authorities that have mapping data of suitable quality. Journey planning could look something like this – plans one’s journey from A to B, by (a) the most direct route, (b) the safest route, or (c) the most pleasant route. Health, environment and safety info can be added, as well as on events such as Bike Week and other services such as cycle training. The initiative is considered to be a very exciting and practical tool, especially for those new to cycling.

Andy Shrimpton, managing director of Cycle Heaven Ltd, representing the UK cycle retail trade, spoke of the relationship between retailers and the customer under the heading You are not Alone. Since both cyclists and retailers want to see an increase in cycling, retailers are a key distributor of the cycling message. Retailers are close to the customer; they know who are cyclists and who are nearly-cyclists (the wannabees). They know that cyclists are not an homogenous group but understand some of their attitudes and behaviours. They are also a useful source of market info, to persuade more people to choose to cycle and existing cyclists to cycle more. Indeed, every bike sale is a marketing opportunity for cycling as a whole.

The retailer tells us the market is quite large – 2 million bikes are sold each year. Most bikes are purchased for recreational purposes, while all purchases are an investment in cycling. Deepening involvement for the retailer = customer retention and market development. Transactions become relation-ships: customers give the retailer access to significant other customers. Recreational cycling is often social – friends, partners, children, grandchildren, all with different needs, tastes and preferences. As a captive audience the customer buys the benefit, not just the product. Good retailers add value, by stocking local maps, info on safe routes, local cycling groups and clubs.

Getting Going by Andrew Croasdale and Tamara Giltsoff of Circus concluded the day’s presentations. Their brief was to develop ideas that can fit in with day-to-day work and that make modest demands on resources, in other words a range of ideas on how to promote cycling.

They suggest starting close to home, by ensuring decision-makers in the workplace are aware of the benefits of cycling in general and your plans in particular. This could be done by hosting a series of breakfast briefings, distributing fact sheets, leaving pro-cycling messages in materials from other departments and getting cycling provision included in planned developments. Other ideas: suggest employees leave the car behind for a day (once a week / month), have a bike-to-work day for the Mayor and all council employees, with a free breakfast laid on for participants (why wait for Bike Week?).

Make the most of resources, by identifying what existing council materials could carry a cycling message, eg the back of library cards, web pages where people pay parking fines. Public spaces can also give messages promoting cycling, eg ‘bike for a change’ at the exits of car parks, ‘bike for zip’ at bus stops, ‘bike for fitness’ and ‘bike for your body’ at adult education centres, swimming pools and fitness centres. Such messages could also be displayed on other poster sites, even on the uprights of City Hall steps!

Many of the ideas given were those we’ve used already in Norwich Cycling Campaign: develop competition ideas; encourage school participation through competitions such as ‘clock up your cycle miles’, ‘ most innovative idea to encourage cycling’ and ‘motivate a mate’; bike trials; bike exchange, Dr Bike maintenance courses; involve local celebrities; sponsored bike racks, and so on. Another idea was to persuade a major local employer to support promotion to encourage their employees to cycle, evaluated by the numbers cycling to work. Local supermarkets could also be approached to encourage shoppers to cycle to their stores – speak to the manager to see what can be done to promote, etc.

As always with these conferences some excellent ideas were disseminated and one comes away full of hope….. How long before we actually see them in general practice?

Phyll Hardie