FIVE-YEAR MARKETING PLAN
Prepared by Victor Collum
March 2012
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
3
Company Description
5
Strategic Focus and Plan
6
Situation Analysis
8
Market-Product Focus
14
Marketing Program
17
Financial Data and Projections
22
Organization
23
Implementation Plan
24
Evaluation
25
Appendix A. Biographical Sketches of Key Personnel
27
2
Executive Summary
Backcountry.com is the leader in online retailing for high-end outdoor
products. We operate our core website, backcountry.com which offers our
full array of products and then several other specialty websites focused on
niche outdoor sports, such as skiing, cycling, and extreme sports. In
addition to our regular-price websites, we also operate several “deal of the
day” websites that sell one item at a time, until they are gone at well below
market pricing to create buzz and clear out old merchandise taking up space
in our warehouses.
Backcountry.com has been successful in the past and enjoys a dominant
place in the outdoor retail segment. However, the barriers to entry are
being lowered every day as technology advances and new competitors are
coming online at a more frequent rate than in years past. As a result,
backcountry.com is seeking to grow its current market share. To do this we
will be launching three new genre-specific segment websites before the year
2017. Simultaneous to the new website launches, we will promote both the
Backcountry.com website as well as our three new specialty websites
through three mediums. First, for the next 5 years we will be a key sponsor
of the Winter X-Games aired on the ESPN television network every February.
Second, we will purchase full page magazine advertisements in popular
3
magazines such as Powder, Transworld, and Backcountry. Thirdly, we will
bolster our social media campaign by offering our customers frequent
coupons and promotional offers through the most popular social media sites,
such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pintrest.
The marketing budget of $4 million annually will help us grow our
sales by 10% year over year for the next five years resulting in an increased
profit of $1.089 billion for the five year period. Simultaneously, we will have
gained additional market share and will possess a market share of 30
percent in the outdoor gear retail segment.
4
Company Description
Backcountry.com is an online seller of high-end outdoor products and
is focused on serving the hardcore outdoor-gear enthusiast. Their websites
offer the ability for enthusiasts to purchase hard to find high-end products,
obtain technical information about these products, and connect with other
gear enthusiasts.
Backcountry.com was founded in 1996 by Jim Holland and John Bresee
as a business venture aimed at combining their love of backcountry skiing
together with e-commerce. The roots of the company started with a $2,000
investment by the two co-founders and a converted spare bedroom as their
office space. The first sale, an avalanche beacon, occurred in 1997 and
since then, the company has seen triple digit growth, as well as the move
into new headquarters and an advanced fulfillment center in Salt Lake City,
Utah. The company has come a long way from that first sale and now offers
nearly 1,000 separate brands and touts a lofty average of 13 million unique
visitors each month to its websites.
Backcountry.com remains focused on the outdoor gear enthusiast, and
is growing in three primary directions to serve these customers: First, they
are focused on building customer value and building relationships through
their online communities. Second, expansion is underway into genrespecific websites dedicated to enthusiasts of a particular sport, such as
cycling, skiing, or snowboarding. Finally, they are continuing to increase the
5
number of products available through all of their websites. This marketing
plan outlines how Backcountry.com will achieve a market share of 30
percent in the Outdoor Gear retail segment.
Strategic Focus and Plan
This section covers three aspects of corporate strategy that influence
the marketing plan: (1) the mission, (2) goals, and (3) core
competency/sustainable competitive advantage of Backcountry.com
Mission
The mission of Backcountry.com is to be “The Best Core Gear Ecommerce retailer.” Currently, Backcountry.com is in a growth phase and is
striving to increase the number of customers that visit and purchase items
from its websites and increase its market presence in the Outdoor Gear retail
segment.
Goals
For the coming five years Backcountry.com seeks to achieve the
following goals:

Nonfinancial goals
1. Increase the number of unique visitors each month to its
websites to an average of 16 million each month.
2. To increase the number of brands offered to 1500.
3. To achieve a customer satisfaction rating of 99 percent.
6
4. To increase online search engine conversion rates to 40 percent.
5. To launch 3 new genre segment websites.
6. To double the number of commission based athletes providing
content and consumer advice.

Financial goals
1. To obtain a market share of 30 percent in the Outdoor Gear
retail segment.
2. To increase sales by 15 percent.
3. To increase revenues by 10 percent each year.
Core Competency and Sustainable Competitive Advantage
In terms of core competency, Backcountry.com seeks to achieve a
unique ability to create new product sales by (1) attracting new customers
through promotion of the Backcountry.com websites through social media
platforms and through the use of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
directing new web traffic to the websites that we operate and (2) serving as
the experts for the products we sell.
To translate these core competencies into a sustainable competitive
advantage, the company will work closely with its social media and website
teams to bolster the social media conversations about the company and
continue to increase the use of SEO keywords. We will also continue to
increase sponsorship of Backcountry.com athletes that provide technical
7
information and product reviews. The ability for customers to be directed to
one of the Backcountry.com websites easily and then have an expert’s
opinion confirming their product selection will provide us with a distinct and
sustainable advantage.
Situation Analysis
This situation analysis starts with a snapshot of the current
environment in which Backcountry.com finds itself by providing a brief SWOT
(strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis. After this
overview, the analysis probes ever-finer levels of detail: industry,
competitors, company and consumers.
SWOT Analysis
Figure 1 shows the internal and external factors affecting the market
opportunities for Backcountry.com. Stated briefly, this SWOT analysis
highlights the great strides taken by the company since its’ first product was
sold online.
Figure 1. SWOT Analysis for Backcountry.com
Internal Factors
Strengths
Management
Highly skilled and tenured
management team.
Offerings
Large offering of regular use
items as well as hard to find
products.
Marketing
High visibility on search
engines through 200,000
keywords in operation for SEO
practices.
Weaknesses
Very large online competitors
can operate under the
economies of scale principle
to offer customers wider
selection and lower prices.
Compared to some online
retailers, the company is less
well know and prevalent in
customers minds.
8
Personnel
Finance
Partnerships
Fulfillment
External
Factors
Consumer/Social
Competitive
Technological
Economic
Legal/Regulatory
Highly engaged, internet
savvy, product experts.
Continued revenue growth
and financial backing from
parent company.
Relationships with technology
consultants provide internet
visibility driving conversion
rates.
New fulfillment center coming
online in 2012.
Opportunities
More households are
purchasing items online than
ever before. Also, positive
referrals can improve brand
recognition and perception of
company.
Operation costs are low since
there are no storefronts to
maintain and staff.
Advances in customer service
management and supply
chain and delivery methods
will improve customer value.
Customers’ ability to purchase
products is consistent with
disposable incomes.
The current legal and
regulatory environment is
favorable towards online
retailers.
Gaps can occur when key
employees leave.
The cost of inventory limits
the liquidity of the company.
Dependence on the assistance
of partners could prove
problematic if the relationship
sours or poor performance is
provided.
The size of current
warehouses determines the
capacity for product delivery
and slow down delivery times.
Threats
Negative social media reviews
could damage brand
reputation and perceptions.
Larger online retailers can
offer wider product selection
at lower prices. Also, some
customers want to touch and
feel products before they
purchase an item.
Customers can easily search
for competitors and compare
product prices.
Customers’ ability to purchase
products is consistent with
disposable incomes.
Changes to tax laws and
eTailer regulations could
discourage consumer
purchases. Additionally,
tariffs and taxes in foreign
countries could be prohibitive
to international orders.
9
Weather/Climate
Favorable weather can help
promote certain sport
segments. For example large
snowfalls encourage the
purchase of skiing and
snowboarding equipment.
Suppliers/delivery Advances in supply chain
services
technology allow for quick and
relatively inexpensive delivery
to customers.
Poor weather conditions may
limit seasons for certain sport
segments and seasonal trends
may limit purchasing
behaviors of customers.
Bad weather can delay
shipments from suppliers and
to purchasing customers.
In the company’s favor internally are its strengths of an experienced
and tenured management team and highly technical and well-trained staff.
Additionally, the company was able to make early gains in the Internet
space through the use of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and now has
over 200,000 keywords that help direct Internet traffic to the
backcountry.com websites. Favorable external factors (opportunities)
include the increasing trend of households purchasing more items purchased
via the Internet. Additionally, there are very few key competitors in the
online retails segment dedicated to outdoor products.
Among unfavorable factors, the main weakness for Backcountry.com is
its relative size compared to other online retailers. The size of these
competitors allows them to offer a larger product array and also to sell at
lower prices due to the volume of product that is sold. Additionally, the
these larger on-line retailers are often household names which are more
prevalent in consumers’ minds before they think of Backcountry.com
10
Industry Analysis: Trends in the online retail space
The future for online shopping looks bright as more and more
consumers are finding that the simplicity of online shopping, the wide array
of products available, and lower prices are great reasons to purchase online
as opposed to from a physical store. Global E-Commerce revenues are
estimated to be 680 billion and are expected to continue to grow. In 2011,
148 million US consumers ages 14 and older made at least one purchase
online. It is estimated that nearly 30 million more consumers will join the
ranks of online buyers by the year 2015.
While more consumers are purchasing items online, the internet is also
lowering the barriers to entry, which allows new competitors to start
competing in a global marketplace more quickly and at lower costs than ever
before.
Competitor Analysis
The largest and most substantial competitor in the online retail
space is Amazon.com. Amazon.com revenues were $48 billion in 2011 and
has over 56,000 employees. Amazon.com is the Wal-Mart of the Internet
and focuses on low costs, and a large product offering. However, when
customers are looking for specialized or specific products for outdoor
activities, Amazon.com sometimes will fall short, as it does not carry these
unique and specialized products.
11
The next closest competitor is Recreational Equipment Incorporated
(REI), whose product offerings are much more closely aligned with those of
Backcountry.com. Although REI does have a website to facilitate customer
orders and extend their sales, their primary focus is on their physical
storefronts. REI currently operates 110 retail stores in 30 states and
roughly opens four to six new stores each year. REI's sales revenue was
1.66 billion in 2010.
Sports Authority is also a primary competitor and operates 460 stores
in 45 states. Like REI, Sports Authority does sell products online, but
focuses on its physical storefronts as their primary revenue driver. Sports
Authority has revenues of 3.05 billion and has 14,240 employees.
Company Analysis
The company that was originally founded by Jim Holland and John
Bresee has since been sold to new owners and also is under new leadership.
CEO Jill Layfield started with Backcountry.com in 2004 and has substantial
experience in the ecommerce arena. Then in 2007 Liberty Media
Corporation purchased the controlling interests in Backcountry.com. The
purchase has allowed Backcountry.com to have access to large cash
reserves to assist with the purchase of technology needs and to help
facilitate the purchase of new warehouses and order fulfillment centers.
While the company has new owners, the focus has remained on
Internet technology and online marketing especially in the social commerce
12
area. The highly trained staff prides themselves on their unwavering
passion for the outdoors and their love of gear and sharing it online with
customers.
Customer Analysis
In terms of customer analysis, this section describes the
characteristics of customers that purchase from Backcountry.com.
Consumer Characteristics. Demographically, consumers representing
a broad range of socioeconomic backgrounds purchase outdoor products.
However, there are three main categories of consumers that purchase from
Backcountry.com:
Weekend warriors – This is the casual product user and are outfitting
themselves for weekend get-a-ways or fairly short trips. This group of
customers are predominantly married with children and are interested in
product safety, cost effectiveness, and desire a fairly high performance level
out of their products. This group of customers is approximately 60% male
and 40% female.
Expeditionary customers – This group is the hardcore sport enthusiast.
These customers are less concerned with the price of a product and are
more interested in advanced performance and safety in the products that
they need for well-planned vacations and expeditions. Typically these users
are well financed either by professional sponsors or are relatively affluent.
This group is predominantly male ages 20-50.
13
One purchasing individual on behalf of the specific group typically
represents group purchases – this category of customers. The most
common groups requiring outdoor products are adventure camps purchasing
supplies for their activities, Boy/Girl Scouts troops outfitting for upcoming
expeditions, and lastly, some governmental purchasers supplying community
programs items and a few rescue/emergency departments such as fire and
rescue teams. The demographics for these groups vary based on the
purchasing organization however; we do see a large increase in this segment
for products for children and teenagers.
Market-Product Focus
This section descries the five-year marketing and product objectives
for Backcountry.com ant the target markets, points of difference and
positioning of its websites and products offered.
Marketing and Product Objectives
Backcountry.com is intent on building on its established brand
reputation and position in the outdoor product e-tailing marketplace as well
as expanding into new niche website categories.

Core websites. Sales through the core Backcountry.com website
and the other core genre websites will be grown by increasing the
number of products available on these websites, additional product
reviews by the “gear gurus” as well as expansion of Search Engine
14
Optimization and keywords to drive web traffic to the core websites.
Additionally, non-core websites will also help direct traffic to the
core sites and help build brand awareness through repeat visits.

Deal of the day websites. The deal of the day websites will help to
limit the number of items that have proven to be slow sellers and
are taking up valuable inventory space. These websites will focus
on selling one product a day well below our standard price of the
item to recover our costs and to clear warehouse space. As an
additional benefit, the increased daily traffic generated from the
deeply discounted products will help build repeat visitors to the deal
of the day websites and will also help to brand the core websites in
the customers’ minds for future purchasing needs of regular priced
items. Links on these pages will also redirect visitors to the core
websites further helping to generate revenue.

New websites. The Backcountry.com brand will continue to expand
through the addition of three new genre segment websites. The
launch of these websites will be made in successive years 2, 3, and
4.
Target Markets
The primary target market for Backcountry.com are households with
one to three people, where both adults are between the ages of 20 and 40
and have a combined income of above $80,000 per year. These younger
15
households are more likely to be active and with a higher disposable income
are more likely to be able to afford the cost of high performance products.
Points of Difference
The “points of difference” – characteristics that make Backcountry.com
unique relative to competitors fall into two key areas:

“We use the gear we sell.” All of the employees at
Backcountry.com are encouraged to be active outdoor enthusiasts
and are regular contributors to the product review and community
forums surrounding the products. Recent website enhancements
also allow for customer service representatives to chat live with
customers on the websites about the products that they are
considering 24 hours a day. With this high level of communication,
customers can be comfortable in their purchase decisions, as the
experts also use and recommend the same products.

Convenience – The gear that we sell is often times difficult to find
and highly specialized and are all offered through the core websites.
Additionally, the current capability of our fulfillment center and
overnight carriers, such as FedEx, and UPS allow for quick next day
or two day delivery of products to customers front doors.
Positioning
In the past, consumers looking for high-end outdoor products have
been unable to find their products, as many of those products were not
16
carried by traditional sporting good stores. Additionally, information about
these products was hard to find and customers didn’t have the details
necessary upon which to base their purchasing decisions. Backcountry.com
makes it easy for customers to find products and takes the guesswork out of
product selection by offering expert information on all of the products
offered.
Marketing Program
The four marketing mix elements of the Backcountry.com marketing
program are detailed below:
Product Strategy
After first summarizing the current product lines, the approach to
product development and website design is discussed.
Product Line. Backcountry.com is our core site, which offers every
single brand and product that we sell. From that point forward, our websites
begin to divide the products that we sell into categories for specific customer
segments and product groups:

RealCyclist.com – Cycling gear for the average and performance
rider.

Bonktown.com - High-end road biking gear to the expert cyclist.

Dogfunk.com – Snowboarding gear for the powder obsessed.

HucknRoll.com - Mountain biking products and gear.
Additionally, our deal-of-the-day websites sell discontinued and
17
clearance items at deep discounts. These discounts will create excitement
and customers will in turn talk about the great bargain that they found and
will help to foster repeat customer visits:

WhiskeyMilitia.com– One deal at a time for extreme sports and
the youth market.

SteepandCheap.com - One amazing ski gear deal, one item at a
time until it's gone.

Chainlove.com - One deal at a time for the avid cyclist.

DepartmentOfGoods.com –Offering old and discontinued
products. (Formerly Backcountryoutlet.com)
Website Design – We sell fun products that make up part of an active
outdoor experience.
Our web design brings the thrill and excitement of
outdoor sports to our websites and the products that we offer. Our
continuing website design will focus on displaying the products we sell in
action photography in the outdoors, as well as, combining a technological
feeling to the website, our new web design theme will be “outdoor tech.”
Price Strategy
The pricing strategy for Backcountry.com can be divided into two
primary strategies. The first strategy covers our core websites and the
second pricing strategy covers our clearance and deal of the day websites.
Core website pricing. Since we don’t have many of the overhead costs
that typical physical location retailers have, such as the large cost of
18
storefronts, we are able to sell items lower than the Manufacturers Standard
Recommended Price (MSRP.) We will typically price our items at 20% below
the MSRP. Our key competitor in the online space is Amazon.com; we
recognize that they are much larger and due to the scale of their operations,
may be able to offer lower prices than we can. The selected price structure
of 20% less than MSRP will allow us to be remain competitive with
Amazon.com’s prices, however not necessarily always lower.
Clearance and deal-of-the-day pricing. For our clearance and deal-ofthe-day websites, we will sell our products with a standard 5% mark-up
above the cost that we paid for the item when purchasing from our
suppliers. This pricing strategy will typically result in a net-loss on the
majority of these items; however the strategy for these items is designed
not to generate revenue on the particular items but rather create excitement
and to draw traffic to our core sites where we receive a higher profit margin.
Promotion Strategy
Winter X-Games. We will become one of the primary sponsors of the
ESPN X-Games that are held annually in February. This event has gained a
large following and has benefited in popularity in recent years. The “2012
Winter X-Games telecast on ESPN earned a 1.2 U.S. rating and 2.015
million viewers, up 33% in ratings and 25% in viewership from 2011 year
(0.9, 1.619M).” (http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2012/02/ratings-
19
winter-x-games) The competition includes many sports that align perfectly
with the primary demographic to which we cater our products. Sponsorship
will include television advertisements in between events and will also include
branding banners at the events.
Social Media. We already have a team of employees manning the
social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook, but we will be increasing the
frequency of online coupons to our Facebook fans and Twitter followers. As
an online retailer, our customers are online and when they visit their favorite
social media sites, we know they are online at that very moment, but the
key at that point is to drive traffic to our websites from the social media site
that they are using. To that point, we will offer coupons to our Facebook
fans and Twitter followers, which will not only create more traffic to our
websites but also increase the number of purchased products.
As an additional component of our social media content, we will begin
publishing regular product reviews and stories about recent expeditions
written by our sponsored athletes. We will post these reviews and stories on
the Blog.Backcountry.com site and each post will include links to purchase
the products being discussed. To bring web traffic to these blog posts, we
will use our social media sites to promote these new articles.
Advertisements in magazines. Lastly, our in-house marketing team
will create several full-page advertisements to be placed in popular industry
magazines such as Powder Magazine, Transworld, Rock & Ice, Backcountry
20
Magazine (not affiliated with Backcountry.com), and Cycling World. The
advertisements in each magazine will be published a month before the key
season for each sport segment and then through the duration of the season.
For example, in Powder Magazine and Transworld, which are popular
publications covering the skiing and snowboarding sports, we will begin
advertising in November and end with the March issues coinciding with the
end of winter in the northern hemisphere.
Tradeshows and group presentations – We will continue to capitalize
on the popularity and image that our professional athletes offer. We will
begin attending outdoor industry tradeshows and conventions and will be
conducting “meet and greet” sessions with our athletes at the
Backcountry.com booths.
Place (Distribution) Strategy
Since we are an Internet retailer, we will sell all of our products on line
through our websites. Once a customer order is received through any of our
websites, that purchase will be sent directly to one of our new warehouses
and state of the art fulfillment centers to prepare the order. The advances in
inventory management at our new warehouses will allow us to ready our
shipments for delivery to the package courier like UPS, FedEx, DHL and the
United States Postal Service quickly and thus deliver the product to our
customers’ front doors quickly.
21
Financial Data and Projections
Past Sales Revenue
Historically, Backcountry.com has benefited from a steady increase in
sales revenue since its' founding in 1996. In 2007 and 2008 sales were
lowered due to the slowing US economy. In 2009, sales revenue rebounded
and has shown a general increase as the US economy has improved. Sales
Revenues appear in figure 2.
Figure 2. Sales Revenues
1405
1600
Ssaes revenues (000's)
1400
1125
1200
953
1000
800
600
400
405
153
503
207
200
0
2005
2006
2007
2008
Year
2009
2010
2011
Five-Year Projections
Five-year financial projections for Backcountry.com appear below.
These projections reflect the continuing the continuing growth trend in
22
orders purchased, as well as offered on our websites. Additionally, the on
boarding of additional websites coming online in years 2013, 2014 and 2015
have been considered. Lastly, these figures reflect the cash expenditure to
purchase the advertising mentioned in the Marketing Program section.
Financial Element
Orders Placed
Net Sales
Gross Profit
Operating Profit
(loss)
Actual
2012
4268
1545
757
Year 1
2013
4699
1701
833
205
226
Projections
Year 2 Year 3
2014
2015
5171
5691
1872
2060
917
1009
248
273
Year 4
2016
6262
2267
1111
Year 5
2017
6890
2494
1222
300
330
Included in the above figures are the assumptions of the $4 million
dollar expenditure annualy for the marketing and advertising budget. Given
the current average of $362 per customer order, if we can gain 11,050
purchases each year, we will break even on the marketing budget.
However, our expectation is that the results will actually be much higher and
that the advertisements will help contribute to annual increases year over
year of 10% to our sales revenue.
Organization
The present organizational structure appears below in Figure 3.
It shows the four key people reporting to the Chief Executive Officer, and the
departments that report to each. Below the department levels are the full
time and part-time employees of the company. Due to the seasonal demand
23
for many of our winter and summer based products, we maintain a core staff
and supplement our workforce with temporary and part-time labor to
mediate the seasonal spikes in volume.
Figure 3. Organizational Structure
Board of Directors
Chief Executive Officer
Chief Financial
Officer
Chief
Technology
Officer
Chief Marketing
Officer
Finance
Information
Technology
Marketing
Chief Operating
Officer
Fulfilment
Product
Management
Customer
Support
Merchandising
Implementation Plan
The creation of the three new niche websites should not be a very
difficult task as we have experience building and launching these types of
sites. We are fortunate in that our technical staff has launched niche
websites already and the necessary programming can be replicated from our
currently operational websites. The majority of the work will not fall in the
realm of the Information Technology departments, but actually under the
Merchandising and Marketing departments. Since we are launching new
24
genre websites, new relationships with product manufactures will need to be
established. Additionally, the best method for marketing each product on its
purchase page will need to be designed by our Marketing Team.
In addition to the launch of the new websites, the purchase of
television advertisements during the Winter X-Games will commence in 2013
and will continue each year through 2017. Recent rates for sponsorship of
the X-Games varied from $1 to $3 million per year (http://emergingadvertising-media.wikispaces.com/X+Games+Ads). In anticipation of seeing
this marketing plan out fully for the next five years, we will request a
discount in the sponsorship rate for a guaranteed five year deal with the
ESPN Network.
We will also continue to build the Backcounry.com brand by purchasing
full-page advertisements in popular periodical magazines focused towards
our ideal customer such as Powder, Transworld, and Backcountry. Similar to
the X-Games Sponsorship, we will work with these magazine publishers to
secure bulk pricing for extended periods of time. Our annual budget for
these periodicals annually is $1 million.
Evaluation
Monthly sales targets in terms of total numbers of orders placed have
been established for Backcountry.com for each of the new websites as well
as the existing websites.
Actual order numbers will be compared with the
25
targets and tactical marketing campaigns modified to reflect the unique
purchasing behaviors of customers in each genre specific market.
As an additional evaluation tool, at the release of specific advertising
such as the X-Games and magazine articles, we will look at website visits
and sales before, during and after each advertisement to monitor the
effectiveness of each advertisement.
The end result of the actions described in this marketing plan will lead
to increased sales, improved brand recognition and a 30% larger market
share by the end of 2017
26
Appendix A. Biographical Sketches of Key Personnel
Chief Executive Officer: Jill Layfield. In 2004, Jill
Layfield stumbled upon a posting for a marketing
position with a small eCommerce company called
Backcountry.com and decided to send over her
resume. Little did she know she’d not only uproot
from the San Francisco bay area to Park City, UT, but
that she’d also move up through the ranks from
Backcountry’s Director of Customer Marketing role to
become the VP of Product Development in 2009,
COO in 2010 and CEO in 2011. Prior to joining the
Backcountry team, Jill was with Shutterfly.com,
where she managed customer acquisition, retention
and loyalty, partner marketing, and retail business
development programs. She’s also held positions with Cisco Systems,
Infogear (a startup focused on the marketing for Internet appliances), and
8x8 (a manufacturer of videoconferencing products and a VOIP service
provider). Jill graduated from Santa Clara University with a BA in
Communications.
Chief Financial Officer: Scott Klossner. Scott
Klossner is the Chief Financial Officer at
Backcountry.com. Scott has more than 25 years of
financial and executive experience. Prior to joining
Backcountry in 2005, he served as CFO and in other
finance positions with HomeClub, SportsClub, Major
Market, and Big O Tires. His expansive experience
includes public offerings, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance,
mergers and acquisitions, institutional negotiations,
strategic planning and analysis, and productivity
enhancement.
Scott holds a BA in finance from the University of
Utah and an MBA in finance and economics from the
University of Southern California.
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Chief Marketing Officer: Dustin Robertson.
Dustin Robertson is a graduate of the University of
Utah with a BS in marketing. Although he grew up in
California and Georgia, Utah was the family ski
destination each year which infused in him a desire
to move west as soon as possible. He received a
subsequent education in ski bumming from
Snowbird, after which he was the sales manager of
the Wasatch Canyon Reporter and Marketing
Manager for Valassis Communications Inc. with direct
responsibility for the Kraft, Kellogg's, and Nabisco
accounts. Joining Backcountry.com was a perfect fit
for Robertson to combine his marketing vision with his desire to be
surrounded by outdoor oriented individuals.
Dustin has sculpted his career and education around his passion for the
outdoors and backcountry skiing specifically. However, he has recently
turned his skiing focus back to his roots of alpine skiing as the new
technology and equipment have finally reached his high standards.
Chief Technology Officer: CJ Singh. CJ brings
with him more than a decade’s-worth of technology
prowess teamed with leadership and organizational
integration experience earned at some of the
country’s leading tech companies. Singh joins
Backcountry.com after a two-plus-year stint at
Synacor, most recently as Senior Vice President of
Technology, where he focused on delivering highgrowth products and creating the technology vision to
increase the scalability of the business. Prior to that,
he spent three years as Director of Engineering and
Product Development at Yahoo!, where he was
responsible for leading the company’s development centers in Latin America.
He’s also an Oracle alum, during which time he was integral in the creation
of the now-ubiquitous Electronic Records and Electronic Signature (ERES)
product, and was awarded two patents for innovative solutions created for
XML record searching and XML-based security models. He holds a Bachelor
of Engineering, Computer Science degree from Gulbarga University in India,
and earned a Masters in Information Systems Management from Carnegie
Mellon University.
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General Manager, Bike: Brendan Quirk. Brendan
Quirk co-founded CompetitiveCyclist.com in 2000. He
served as its CEO until the company was acquired by
Backcountry.com in 2011. CompetitiveCyclist.com was
widely considered the leading online retailer of mid-tohigh end bikes and bike-related gear.
Brendan holds a B.A. in English Literature from
Swarthmore College and a M.A. in Creative Writing
from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. A combination
of his love of writing and his love of cycling is what
originally inspired him to grow CompetitiveCyclist.com
through an emphasis on technical and information-rich
content.
General Manager, Closeout: Sam Bruni. Sam
Bruni has built and managed service and sales teams
for fortune 500 companies such as AT&T, Bank of New
York, and Direct T.V. In early 2000, Sam tenured with
the Generations Network and Ancestry.com, where he
grew their service and sales teams from 35 employees
to more than 500.
In 2003, Sam joined Backcountry.com as Director of
Customer Experience. In 2008, he assumed the role of
General Manager of ODAT (One-Deal-at-a-Time). In
2010, his role expanded and he was named General
Manager of Closeout, overseeing all of the company's
closeout stores. Sam regularly speaks as an expert on Customer
Experience, Fraud Prevention, Employee Satisfaction, and Internet Business
and Strategy. He has served as Vice President on the board of the ICSA
(International Customer Service Association) UT local chapter.
Vice President of Fulfillment: Jeff Carter. Jeff
Carter is a native of Utah and the Wasatch Front. He
left Utah to pursue a degree in Finance and Real Estate
Management from Cal State University, Hayward. His
career started and continued for 15 years with
Mervyn's California in the Logistic Division where he
managed almost every department in two of their
state-of-the-art distribution centers. He also served on
several internal improvement and community relations
committees. Carter then took his expertise and drive to
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the Sundance Catalog Company, spending two and a half successful years as
manager over warehousing, distribution, and transportation. In joining
Backcountry.com, Carter saw the future potential for the company as well as
himself.
Jeff is an avid hiker. In fact, when not at work 2-3 times a week he can be
found hiking his favorite peak in the world, Lone Peak. In an effort to keep
up with his three daughters, he gave up skiing two years ago and is now
passionate about snowboarding. Needless to say he's committed to his
family.
Vice President of Merchandising: Mark Koppes.
With more than 25 years of head-of-operations
experience at some of the most renowned names in
sports apparel, Mark Koppes joined Backcountry.com
as Vice President of Merchandising in August 2010.
When he came to Backcountry, Mark was fresh off a
five-year stint at Columbia Sportswear, where he held
three consecutive VP positions: Men’s Apparel, USA
Apparel, and, ultimately, Global Apparel. To earn his
big boss chops, he spent the 15 previous years at
Nike. During the company’s heyday 90s, Koppes
worked his way up from Product Line Manager,
through high posts in merchandising and marketing at
Nike Europe, to GM of Sport Apparel back at company HQ in Portland. Oh,
and he started off his career at a little old retailer called Nordstrom.
Vice President of Product Management: Jonathan
Nielson. Technology has been the constant thread
through Jonathan Nielson’s career. As VP of Product
Management, he is responsible for championing user
experience and the overall success of all of
Backcountry.com's websites. He came to Backcountry
in 2010 to focus on mergers and acquisitions and
business strategy, and led the company’s successful
acquisition and integration of Competitive Cyclist in
2011. Prior to joining Backcountry, Jonathan was part
of eBay’s corporate development team, working on
mergers and acquisitions and strategy across all eBay
businesses (eBay, PayPal, and Skype), and globally as
well. Before eBay, he was part of Piper Jaffray’s technology investment
banking group. He began his career at Ancestry.com, working in various
operations, marketing, and business development positions. Jonathan
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earned a BS in Finance from Brigham Young University. Jonathan lives in
Park City with his wife Brooke, and their two young sons, Jack and Blake.
Co-founder and Executive Chairman of the Board:
Jim Holland. Jim Holland is a two-time Olympian and
six-time national champion Nordic ski jumper. Holland
was a member of the US Ski Team for nine years. After
graduating from the University of Vermont, Holland
migrated to Utah and founded Wasatch Web Works, a
Web development company. Holland then teamed with
John Bresee to found Backcountry.com. Holland's focus
on cost-effective retailing has led to exceptional yearover-year growth.
Jim continues to be an avid athlete in all aspects. From
rallying company Ultimate Frisbee games at lunch to
long adventurous backcountry ski tours, Jim approaches everything outdoors
with the same passion and focus that has made Backcountry.com the
success it is today.
Co-founder: John Bresee. John Bresee is a lifelong
ski bum who has flipped burgers at Alta, washed dishes
at Snowbird and taught skiing at Stowe. After the rockstar appeal of dish-washing wore off, he became a
writer/entrepreneur. He launched the Wasatch Canyon
Reporter newspaper, co-founded Backcountry.com and
became editor of Powder Magazine. His work has been
published in Bike, Skiing, Powder and other outdoor
rags. John graduated from Johnson State College with
a BA in psychology.
John is a plainspoken commentator on the world of ecommerce and has presented at industry conferences
like Internet Retailer Shop.org, Etail, and the RBC Tech
Conference. John's passion for skiing has not waned with time as he can
often be found near the front of the line as the lifts open on the deepest of
powder days. Intensely fascinated by the power of the internet and the
multitude of options it creates for business, he spends what little spare time
he has researching the ends of the internet for the next wave. His hobby is
helping entrepreneurs understand the power of the internet.
Bibliography information located at:
(http://www.backcountrycorp.com/corporate/section/0/aboutus_team.html)
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