In this episode, Stephanie Beringhele interviews Ben Saltzman, the Marketing Director of Kitty Hawk Kites.
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Kitty Hawk Kites has 28 retail stores and several e-commerce sites.
- 01:25: How Ben got into the retail business
- 03:09: Understanding Kitty Hawk’s retail business model – Kitty Hawk Kites, Kitty Hawk Surf Company, and Life is Good stores.
- 05:49: How they went from being a hang gliding school into becoming a large destination business in coastal states.
- 06:55: How the mission of the business drives the entire experience. “We want to teach our customers to fly”.
- 7:54: Social media is a powerful tool to communicate with customers.
- 8:43: Encourage your customers to share their stories that relate to your retail business, they will!
- 11:06: The challenges of employee recruiting. Training, housing, and retention are top of mind.
- 11:54: Encouraging employee growth. How Kitty Hawk encourages their employees to grow and move throughout the organization.
- 14:32: Trade shows are critical to business and relationships, but also finding trends.
- 15:41: Economic conditions change how you do business. You need to learn how to pivot in order to get your customer’s business.
- 16:38: Mastering story and sharing customer experiences is critical in showing why you’re important to your customers’ lives.
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