Category Archives: marketplace news

the truth is out there – maybe

sXs previews polaris ’09

Side X Side Action has one of the better online powersports online offerings available. They use enhanced content to extend their print product while making the best use of web functionality without caving in to the temptations of superfluous Flash gadgetry.

Well thought out design takes readers where they want to go quickly and efficiently, without risking getting ambushed by cheesy guitar loops or overblown commentary.

Video, polls and plenty of gallery views round out the editorial content. If you’re into UTV/SXSs, this is a bookmark worth keeping in the menu bar.

don’t mention it – just kidding

We provided stick and ball manufacturer Shock Doctor with sorely needed ink and a few public relations hookups at Dealer Expo this year.

Despite brand recognition in the motorsports venue, as recent entrants in the powersports industry they’ve been acutely invisible, lacking minimal awareness among dealer and trade attendees about their line of gear bags.

We connected them with

  • off-road vendors,
  • b2b and consumer publications,
  • a distributor,
  • and a major OE.

They left Indy with a pocket full of key contacts to go with their freshly minted status as fully fledged two-wheel participants.

Building recognition with connections and communications – all in a day’s job that starts with the industry and extends to the marketplace.

what’s new, pussycat

Ben Montgomery is a damn fine writer for the St. Pete Times. When he’s not covering the impact gulf drilling would have on Florida beaches, he’s giving readers a first timers view of the road from behind the handlebars of his massive new mistress red manly machine as it roars up and down the highways of greater Tampa Bay.

This is a wicked bad riff on machismo, life in the mellow lane, teenage taunting, and the memorable vagaries of owner’s “manuals” authored by the Chinese. As the flood of scooter related mentions goes these days, it’s well worth a read.

scooters ride the wave

Cha-ching goes the gas pump and another pissed off motorist does the long hard look at the increasingly not that crazy scooter buzzing by at 70-mpg. All over America these two-wheeled sippers are hitting mainstream stride, cashing in on a flurry of coverage from editors eager to exploit Top Ten lists on how to beat the prices at the pump.

For instance. Last week the local paper’s Saturday automotive section front page was devoted to scooters. Can’t imagine the stalwart page advertisers were too thrilled, but there it was, a four-color shoutout to the virtues of minimalism. And style, and just plain hipness. We call it pr on a platter, there for the plucking.

a stalking horse for a stalled market

Recent news concerning Big Dog, KC Creations, Global Motorsports and Harley Davidson has a common thread: continuing confusion in the v-twin production chopper/custom marketplace that won’t soon clear.

Custom Chrome’s revelation that original founder and announced saviour of the troubled distributor Nace Panzica was, in fact, only a stalking horse during the company’s reorganization raised eyebrows as former Euro boss then CCNA boss then Euro boss Holger Mohr is now in reality the head of the freshly capitalized company.

At about the same time, Big Dog cut loose company president and long time employee Nick Messer, along with v-p/engineering Jim Moorman, both out the door following earlier company wide layoffs. Owner Sheldon Coleman tied his comments regarding the firings to the economy, although it’s worth noting that marketing decisions like naming one of their newest models “Mutt” probably didn’t help the overall sales picture. (We’re left wondering if “Butt Crack” was already taken.)

A little further east we learn that chop builder – and Big Dog dealership – KC Creations has closed its doors via an industry announcement by owner Kim Suter.

Add to the above observable erosion in H-D’s credit bridge to the consumer, and the picture of an industry in transition becomes cloudier with each new hit.

Given the fact that even the worst offenders in the bike gas mileage category are equal to a Honda Civic on a really good day and it’s clear that the volatile components governing consumer acceptance of the custom v-twin market are undergoing significant change.

virtual marketing awaits – inside sims 2

If you’re not familiar with the online virtual reality game the Sims, it’s a monumental time consumer featuring humanesque avatars whose daily lives are guided by the player. That’s right, it’s just like real life, only fake from inside a computer.

Today’s New York Times reports that wood pulp furniture giant Ikea announced a tie-in with the popular vid game making their product line available to players. For a price. That’s correct – game players can purchase with real money access to a pretend Ikea catalog in order to decorate their pretend two-dimensional homes with pretend collapsable furniture.

The real news here is that other marketers, including Ford and McDonalds, are already on board, either with free, downloadable content or product placement already imbedded in the games.

Here’s the question: shouldn’t the Sims community have the option to ride – sport, cruiser, chop, tour or dirt – instead of drive? Seems to us like an opportunity waiting to happen.

the (product) info highway

new life for print

How do consumers gather product information as part of the purchase decision? The folks at SEMA produced an interesting set of numbers from their 2007 Automotive Lifestyles Survey and frankly we were surprised at how strong the consumer print category turned out to be.

Ad reps take heart. With a response rating of over 80%, that info channel clearly led the other four categories as an influencer in the purchasing process. The survey rated responses based on product reviews, and it’s clear from these results that editorial sway isn’t dead yet. (Not clear is to what extent the respondents were influenced, if at all, by subjective bias if detected.)

what’s it gonna’ take

it\'ll get worse before it gets worse

Last week’s CW email lead with a feature on Petrol Pinchers by Allan Girdler, in which he runs down eight candidates in a variety of flavors and styles that are guaranteed to ease your pump pain. Along the way he wonders why anyone would drive to work instead of ride, a fine sentiment but the asphalt tropics of Florida sooner or later disabuses most of us living here of that summertime notion.

Here at opinion central, we’re wondering why, with independent and franchise dealers alike bemoaning the category sales slide while at the same time dailies around the country are running internally intiated lifestyle and business features on the sudden attractiveness of two-wheeled transport as both protest and practical necessity, there’s surprisingly little pro-active industry pr showing up on an hourly basis.

We can think of a half-dozen pitches for manufacturers or dealers that right off the top would generate the kind of public interest media’s clamoring for these days. Four-buck gas? See you in the papers.