How did Body Glove® become one of the most recognizable outdoor sports brands in the world? Well, the story begins in Missouri, where twin brothers, Bob and Bill Meistrell, taught themselves to swim in a pond on their family farm. Their interest in water led them to California where they opened the Dive N’ Surf sports shop in Redondo Beach with $1,800 they borrowed from their mother.
They grew the business with a simple philosophy of quality products, great customer service, and a fair price. The real secret to their success, though, may have been their personal approach to business and life. Billy Meistrell, son and nephew of the founders, explains, “I constantly heard my dad and uncle say, ‘Do what you love and love what you do!’”

THE BODY GLOVE BRAND The combination of their approach to business and being pioneers in diving and surfing was a powerful business model for the Meistrell brothers. According to Billy, “their work was their playground, and with that came so much passion and creativity that they developed many new products which gave everybody a much richer lifestyle in the water.” One of their first innovations, for example, was the result of using the insulation from the back of a refrigerator, neoprene, to create the first practical wetsuit, which they called the Dive N’ Surf Thermocline. The name, however, was difficult to explain so they began discussing potential new brand names. An observation that the wetsuit “fit like a glove” led to the now famous name Body Glove!

The brothers realized there was a lot of potential in their idea and decided they needed help. They turned to their CPA, Russ Lesser, who eventually became president of Body Glove. One of the first things that Lesser did was recommend that they get into the wholesale business. He helped arrange the purchase of a factory and the business started to grow. “We started manufacturing wetsuits,” explains Lesser, “and that helped create the whole surf lifestyle.” The popularity of the brand soon allowed Body Glove to pursue licensing agreements for many other products, including bathing suits.
“That’s when Body Glove really took off,” says Lesser, “the new bathing suits hit every fashion magazine in the world. . . . Now we have a whole variety of watersports products. We have wet suits, we have boogie boards, we have surfboards, we have fins, masks, and snorkels, and we have all sorts of apparel.” Annual sales in the United States soon approached $200 million.
Taking Body Glove to global markets was the next step and they needed a partner that could facilitate the growth. “We were approached by Marquee Brands who wanted to expand into the licensing business,” says Lesser, and eventually Marquee acquired a majority position in the company. “I think it’s a good match because they have the capital to expand and to market and they also have contacts around the world,” Lesser says.
Today, Body Glove represents a classic success story.
“Two young men with no money and no family connections created a company with millions of dollars of sales revenue and also created thousands of jobs,” observes Lesser. The brand has a global following and the iconic Body Glove Hand Logo is one of the most recognized in sporting goods and watersports. In addition, the company continues its heritage as the third generation of the Meistrell families continues their involvement in the management of the brand, particularly the marketing activities.

MARKETING AT BODY GLOVE The marketing function at Body Glove includes a senior executive at Marquee Brands, a marketing director, a brand director, and a team of marketing staff. Together they create annual marketing plans designed to grow the brand. According to Jenna Meistrell, brand director at Body Glove, “Every year we sit with our internal team and develop a marketing plan for the following year. . . .
We set direction for the business by looking at all of our various product categories in different markets and figure out which categories need support.” Each plan uses a combination of traditional and contemporary marketing tools.
“Traditional marketing will always be important to us,” says Jenna. “We maintain print advertisements in Surfer magazine, Wake magazine, and Outside, Elle, and Vogue.” Body Glove also uses out-of-home advertising such as advertising in Times Square and billboards near popular outdoor sports locations. The advertising always communicates a message that builds on the Body Glove heritage. Jenna explains, “Every year we try to do a new campaign and this year our campaign is ‘Do What You Love.’ The campaign is important to us because we almost use it as our mission statement. It’s the foundation of the company, ensuring that our consumers are outside doing what they love, and it is a great marketing campaign because it applies easily to all of our product categories.”

Other marketing tools also play an important role in Body Glove’s marketing plans. Distribution channels, for example, are being expanded. There are now more than 200 Body Glove stores in Southeast Asia, and a new partnership in Europe will provide distribution in more than 1,000 specialty and department stores. In addition, Body Glove has always had a team of sponsored athletes from the surfing, diving, and wakeboarding communities who serve as brand ambassadors. The company even produced three feature-length films—the Drop Zone series—which follow the company’s sponsored athletes on watersports adventures. And of course there are a variety of sales promotion tools such as foam hands with the Body Glove logo, license plate frames, and bumper stickers. When Billy Meistrell drives a Body Glove vehicle, people stop him and ask for stickers!

SOCIAL MEDIA AT BODY GLOVE To reach the growing market of Body Glove consumers around the globe, social media is playing an increasing role in the company’s marketing. Nick Meistrell, director of marketing at Body Glove, explains: “We all know that content is king in this age, through digital and through social, you have to be generating some valuable content to be relevant among consumers and people that are attracted to your brand.” There are a lot of social media options available today and Nick tries to use many of them. “I look at a 360-degree approach, I want to hit consumers through every possible outlet,” he says.
What are some of the popular options today? Nick offers his perspective:

• Facebook. We look at Facebook as a platform to launch new products and really drive some clickthrough to our website and our e-commerce page. It can give consumers an experience and communicate the lifestyle, not just push product. 

• Twitter. Twitter used to be a platform for us to tell consumers about new things we are doing. Today, however, it has become a customer service tool.
Twitter is the foundation for our customer service function and is used more than the customer service link on our website. We get customer service inquiries on Twitter every day!

• LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a great platform for us to look for new talent when we are hiring. It is also a good way to talk about all the great stuff we are doing at Body Glove and to interact with other businesses and like-minded businesspeople. 

• YouTube. YouTube is a huge platform for our brand.
Content is king and we feel it is a great outlet to show our content. We have a great subscription base that is constantly hungry for new content. We also look at it as the new platform for commercials. So, instead of buying traditional commercials for television, we are buying our commercial space on YouTube to strategically target the right consumer. 

• Instagram. Instagram is also a huge part of our marketing program. In this digital age you must generate organic, relevant content. Instagram is a great platform to show new content from photos and videos. 

• Pinterest. We have so many unique products under our umbrella that can appeal to many types of consumers and Pinterest is a great place to post and see them. People love sharing moods and feelings about those products on Pinterest........

Questions
1. How does Body Glove’s heritage and philosophy contribute to its success?
2. Which of the criteria mentioned in Chapter 11 help explain why changing the brand name to Body Glove was a good decision?
3. Describe Body Glove’s use of traditional marketing tools.
4. What social media platforms does Body Glove use to communicate with its customers today?
5. Why are social media and mobile marketing an increasingly important part of Body Glove’s marketing plan?

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