Image: Climb Asia Team participating at the Climbing Walls Association summit 2018
Climb Asia, a Singapore-based indoor climbing gym, was incepted in year 2002. The founding members, adventure sports enthusiasts themselves, dedicated their love and passion for climbing and bouldering into the boutique gym and today, has culminated into one of Singapore’s leading gyms in the climbing scene. In addition to offering climbing services targeted at local sports enthusiasts, Climb Asia has also developed and patented Belay Safe, a safety mechanism that is placed at the top of the rock climbing wall to ensure the safety of climbers by minimising the risk of human error.
Growing the business lifecycle
When transitioning from the growth stage of the business life cycle to maturity, Climb Asia was quick to identify local market saturation and saw the need for international market penetration for the company’s effective growth. Despite the confidence in the US market, based on secondary market research, Climb Asia wanted to seek guidance on overseas market entry strategies and lead generation.
In December 2017, Climb Asia was referred to one of our Business Advisors, Sneha Menon, from SME Centre @SMCCI, a strategic partner of Enterprise Singapore. Sneha worked closely with the team to outline a marketing roadmap for the company. She proposed for Climb Asia to develop marketing testing strategies and participate in trade events to establish an international brand presence and build networks with similar local businesses.
Identifying foreign niche markets
Subsequently, Climb Asia participated as a booth partner in Climbing Walls Association (CWA) Summit 2018, the industry’s annual premier conference and trade show in Colorado, United States of America.
“It is vital for Climb Asia to attract an audience close to their niche market demographics and psychographics, and CWA Summit served as an appropriate medium for the company to test the waters of the American Climbing Enthusiasts’ market. During my advisories with them, we brainstormed on booth presentation and structure in line with their branding and networking strategies aimed at lead generation during the event,” shared Sneha.
Sneha also assisted Climb Asia to tap on the Market Readiness Assistance (MRA) grant to defray participating and booth costs incurred at the event. The MRA grant offers funding for internationalisation projects cost of up to 70%, capped at $20,000 per company, per fiscal year, limited to one activity.
“Sneha has been quick to identify key market penetration strategies for Climb Asia. She assisted us in crafting a robust on-ground marketing strategy that was key to overseas market entry. The extensive network that we have built from CWA Summit has enabled us to further penetrate into the international climbing scene in a very strategic and structured manner,” shared the founders.
Climb Asia has successfully established an impactful presence in the US and are gearing towards a collaborative market presence with climbing gyms in the United States and beyond.
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