Officially announced: North becomes Duotone

[Toby]

what I mislike is that NTG uses also "true" for their marketing.
this is false consumer advertising.
They should make a clear cut and not confuse customers, and come up with their own stuff and gear.

[purdyd]

what I mislike is that NTG uses also "true" for their marketing.
this is false consumer advertising.
They should make a clear cut and not confuse customers, and come up with their own stuff and gear.

I ageee. There is only one true north is just copying Duotone.

https://www.northkb.com

And NTG looks to be keeping the N logo which they didn’t develop either.

If this is an example of NTG’s innovation, I am not impressed.

[Toby]

I think the logo was developed for North Sails.
So it’s theirs.

But agreed, should also be different.

Play it clean.

[Mo]

so far NTG reaction is childish

Objective: how to hurt B&M and confusing the kite community
Attitude against customer: typical American marketing driven

They have a long way to go. Typical, will take them 5 years to have a range.

[dice]

Do you really think that's the objective? Burn money and take risks, so that B&M gets hurt?
Very unlikely...

The North brand is a very strong brand in the kite scene. And they also get to keep the logo.
So from a business perspective, it might be a good bet to keep the brand alive.
I wonder if they will be able to overcome the marketing offensive of B&M and if they don't lose too much of their name in a whole year.
It certainly will be interesting to see how it will go. It might be a good study case for business/marketing education .

[Mo]

Check that out:

1. NTG copied what B&M did reacting on the Kite Magazine adverts... trying to spoil the Duotone press release... action pure against B&M
2. NTG contacted DT dealers to become NTG... action pure against B&M
3. NTG used the same NKB logo that B&M used although (even colors) it is controversial who owns the logo... action against B&M

What NTG are fighting for is only ONE thing... to keep value in the North Brand. Above does not help for sure. The North brand value is in the product, the team, performance and appearance... That is impossible in a short period of time.

[wrogu]

What NTG are fighting for is only ONE thing... to keep value in the North Brand. Above does not help for sure. The North brand value is in the product, the team, performance and appearance... That is impossible in a short period of time.

This will be very very hard, given they have no product and will have no product for over a year. This situation would be harder for duotone if north actually had something to present/produce/test/sell. With no product to compete with duotone has a good chance of securing market and informing consumers what is going on during the entire year.

[foilholio]

This is quite a weird situation. Old North is forced to rename to Duotone. Duotone has all the old north products and their names. Old North continues as new company under original name. New North has not announced any products. Their is nothing stopping them copying Duotones line up. In fact this is apparently normal in the industry. Rebrandings are usually quite successful. But the old brand rarely continues. I think Duotone and Norths market share are toast, this is going to be a train wreck.

[Foxi]

For one decade I worked in media industries for a kids channel. It was rebranded 2 times due to changes in ownership. The viewers/kids were not amused when it came up - but no one got lost as soon as they understood, that a well beloved brand had gone - but not the content. I´ve been @ an italian kite spot past weekend and it was massively rebranded by Duotone flags, banners and sun chairs. And the "content" fully stays. Just one old faded out NKB flagg kept vigil.

[dlangpap]

I think the logo was developed for North Sails.
So it’s theirs.

But agreed, should also be different.

Play it clean.

I disagree. Logos and brand names are assets, intangible, but assets after all. North understands the value of the brand and logo and if they were theirs to start with, the only sensible thing from a marketing POV is to keep them. IMO Duotone did the opposite, they underestimated the value of a good brand and are hoping that their products, quality and reputation carry them through. This is, of course, reasonable, as all are excellent, but precisely because the brand and logo are going to be kept by the new company, they should have paid more attention when coming up with the new brand.