Bombas: Not just another pair of socks
Bombas is a relatively new apparel brand with a focus on re-engineered athletic socks. Bombas was founded in 2013 and took a part in the show Shark Tank in 2014 where they secured a deal with shark Daymond John. When the episode of Shark Tank premiered the company did 1.2 million in sales and sold out of all of their inventory. Bombas now has over 152K Instagram followers.
A main focus of Bombas as a company is their overall mission and philanthropic efforts. Bombas’ name comes from the Latin word for bumblebee, and their motto “bee better” is stitched into every sock as a reminder of the business’ philanthropic mission. For every item that is purchased, Bombas will donate an item to someone affected by homelessness. At this point, Bombas has donated more than 40 million items to more than 2,500 community organizations. The company also has a 100% happiness guaranteed policy and spent years perfecting quality clothing.
Demographics
When looking at demographics, you are looking at your basic age, gender, marital status, race, and religion. When looking at Bombas, you can tell that they try to be extremely inclusive to all ages and genders. Personally, everyone in my family has a pair. However, it is important to note that they are athletic socks. They will be more attractive to people who are out exercising and moving. Overall, the demographics target market is not overly specific.
Psychographics
When deciding how to create a target market for Bombas, the thing that sticks out the most would be their mission and philanthropic sense of nature. If we took a look at the psychographics part, we could pull out people’s values and beliefs. Bombas has already decided that their best marketing tactics are to focus on people who resonate with their mission. CMO Kate Huyett stated “I’d say our very best marketing, from both a creative and performance standpoint, is where we are truly able to marry both mission and product”. You can see in their Instagram feed that Bombas has a great deal of posts regarding cultural and social responsibility. They often post about donating their products, but they also post about standing up against racism, homelessness, and much more.
Behavioral:
The behavioral segmentation typically refers to a person’s purchasing habits, spending habits, user status, and their brand interactions. When looking at spending habits, it is a huge priority for the brand to get people to come back and buy something again. CMO Kate Huyett stated that the mission statement and their philanthropic efforts typically help people be more motivated to come back. When the company is going to be donating a pair of socks every time you purchase from them, why would you not come back and buy another pair later when you need more.
Geographics
Geographic segmentation can mean anything from your neighborhood to the country you live in. Bombas currently ships within the US, UK, Australia and Canada. While they are not worldwide, we can target four major countries/areas.
Buyer Persona:
After taking a look at all the different marketing segmentation groups, we can create a buyer persona for Bombas. A Bombas socks customer is typically an American young person who cares about philanthropic efforts from a company. The ideal customer has a deeper level and motivation as to why they want to purchase the product, not just because they are comfortable or made of good material.
In order to continue to be successful, especially in a time where standing up for your beliefs as a company is vital, I would tell Bombas they need to continue to be active in both the social justice world and the philanthropic world. It is their most targeted segment, and it is something that people will remember and think fondly of regarding the brand. This can also be considered their unique selling point. It gives the customer a unique incentive to buy their socks from them instead of another company that does not donate a pair of socks. Something else that is unique about the brand is that they partner with many podcasts who discuss why the company’s mission is important to them. This is unique and not always done by many company’s when creating a social media marketing plan.
