UNDERSTANDING CUSTOM

When custom bike builder Rob Tsunihiro approached us, he wanted to know if he should invest in a fancy new interactive website.

So, we conducted a little research on custom bikes and the people who love them, interviewed a variety of people and doing ethnographic research, and then compared custom owners to non-custom owners until we started seeing patterns.

Building our presentation from present day, Rob could see the directions he could take his company over the next 5 years and how to start moving that direction tomorrow.

We built actions from his brand’s core, and moved outward toward white spaces we found from comparing his brand to other brands that shared his story archetype, direct market competitors, and his current v potential ability to solve customer needs .

Some of the actions we suggested were the ones he had specifically asked for (like website opportunities), while others came from his audience’s needs–our favorite suggestion came from a personal story Rob shared: Rob’s own bike could be easily converted from summer/racing to winter/road- as if it could change costumes. He’d never considered building one for anyone else.

Portland, however, had never seen a bike like that.

Taking a step back at all of his options, Rob was able to take Tsunihiro cycles into a deliberate future.

He decided against the new website and focused on his puzzle-solving craftsmanship. Now, he spends most of his time making convertible pieces for other custom bike makers.