Category Archives: powersports

buell blast bit the dust already – what’s new?

humor's in the eye of the beholder - literally, if you're a fan of crushing inventory blastsSeeing the anti-campaign for Buell’s late Blast continuing to pop up has me wondering what the fuss is all about. The latest in snicker snicker tsk tsk from CP+B sure doesn’t break any new ground. From my perspective the best that can be said is that it’s – I suppose – a sort of reverse psychology swipe at pumping sales of two cylinders because the one cylinder was so not about performance. Well hooda hey, color me caught totally off guard.

More interesting is that the spunky little bike that looked like it could have shown up on the front door step from Sharper Image – when Sharper Image had an image – was getting traction as a chop-bob base for kits and remans here and abroad.

It was never going to be a big seller, but by the same token, why devote so much ink and effort to a discontinued line? It’s not like it was a disaster, as in Edsel. At the very least, however many Blasts Buell actually crushed would have made a great contribution to some worthy bike cause.

But more and more, CP+B’s focus is on, for lack of a better phrase, smart-ass promotion at the expense of digging deeper for the hard to get ore. And Buell’s not setting sales records as is.

brammo badging blows up with bogusky…ooopsy

unique styling and top notch engineering set Enertia apartStartup electric motorcycle manufacturer Brammo’s hit a bit of a rough patch as they roll out their instore marketing effort. The Ashland, OR bike builder set out to travel the road less traveled, yet the uproar over the latest wrinkle from the South Florida ad shop charged with making their market is not what’s needed in a struggling channel.

Background: Swoopy machine with state-of-the-art content; aluminum frame, lithium ion fuel, quirky – quirky? – naming strategy. Nicely interactive work-in-progress web site. Looks like a well constructed, well thought out machine that, if not ready for the masses, is certainly intriguing, albeit pricey, for some of us who already ride. So far, so good. Continue reading →

dealer show trade wars

more shows, fewer dealers - something doesn't add upMotorsports has another performance oriented venue for dealers to put on the go – no go list: upstart International Motorsports Industry Show (IMIS) now goes head to head with the well established Performance Racing Industry (PRI) event, both held the first week in December: IMIS in Indianapolis, the former home of PRI, which was successfully transplanted to usually sunny Orlando and a much larger exhibit facility a few years back.

And both of those shows compete for many of the same dealers normally attending the granddaddy of all automotive events, the Specialty Equipment Market Association’s (SEMA) Las Vegas spectacle traditionally held less than a month earlier in November.

SEMA, meanwhile, padded their portfolio with a newly created Powersports and Utility Vehicles channel which, according to their March press release, “…will feature manufacturers of power-driven equipment, such as personal transporters; motorcycles; motor scooters; two-, three- and four-wheel ATVs; pocket bikes; specialty golf carts; mini-bikes; dirt bikes; and accessories and services that support these vehicles.”

Good news – not – for long established powersports event leader Advanstar who this week conceded more collateral damage to their brand when they announced the Lucas Oil Stadium venue would not be part of their mid-February 2010’s Dealer Expo, also held in Indy after vacating Cincinnati for larger digs in 1998.

And it was that relocation decision that opened the door for Easyriders V-Twin Dealer Expo to move back in with a v-twin centric show of their own in 2000, held a week before Dealer Expo and next year celebrating their 10th anniversary as a trade show producer.

Five major shows covering powersports and motorsports between November and February. If you’re a powersports or motorsports or, worse, a cross channel dealer, be prepared to spend a lot more time on the road wearing out shoe leather and traversing TSA inspections.

when i first met billy lane

billy lane in the beginningThe first time I met Billy Lane (left) he wasn’t exactly in any danger of being mobbed by autograph hounds. He was riding a wooden stool in a 10×10 booth at the ’99 Dealer Expo, directly facing Pro One’s transporter and island display. What caught my eye then was the meticulous 16″ spoke rear he was showing off. That, and the whack straight pipes exiting directly over the 3-inch belt drive that surely wouldn’t get five blocks before hitting the self-destructo button.

He returned in 2000, this time with a build that drew the eye of pal Keith Ball (far left), former Easyriders editor on his first trip east to check out the Expo crowd and on the verge of launching bikernet.com. What I most remember is that Keith didn’t know Billy. Neither did good buddy and IronWorks magazine founder Dennis Stemp. And the two to this day most knowledgeable v-twin editors to ever commit ink to paper didn’t know each other. So there we all were, and I was able to make the introductions. Just weeks later Dennis would succumb to the miserably ugly esophageal cancer he’d battled. Talk about irony.

I grew up in Cocoa, just a few miles up the road from Billy’s Melbourne shop, and would visit Chopper Inc. headquarters at his request a couple of times to discuss marketing, coming away with only a half-dozen t-shirts and a handful of clipped bomber nose art inspired stickers. We’d talk on the phone once more, about public relations, just as the cable show celeb arc was in full swing and that was that. Talk about irony.

billy lane draws six year sentence for vehicular homicide convictionJesse James was about five minutes ahead of Billy career wise and is now a bona fide Hollywood “A” list minus celeb. Today a Brevard County judge wrote finis to the reality chopper build as entertainment fad, when he sentenced Billy to six years in prison followed by three years probation for his vehicular homicide conviction. Talk about irony.

As a University of Florida grad, what always struck me was Billy’s education: Florida State engineering grad, just up the road from Gainesville. Not often found in the pedigrees of hot rod bike builders, for sure.

Talk about irony. Talk about fate. Talk about paths taken. Talk about life’s turns.

vespa event markets

AdAge gives a sorta shoutout to Piaggio's pr strategyIn this Ad Age 3 Minute Video Piaggio US is highlited for their recent NYC pr effort to shore up brand and message by pitching fuel economy and immediately took a whack to the head by owners/viewers who can’t find the connection.

The entire industry having enjoyed immensely last year’s four-buck-a-gallon price spike for gas that serendipitously coincided with the worst recession since the depression perhaps missed the point hidden within record sales. Looks to some like mistaking lifestyle love for economy class lust is a monster golden opportunity missed to connect at the emotional level instead of grabbing for the wallet.

An interesting piece by Lee Klancher in MPN’s August issue casts fresh light on the relevance- and role – of mpg claims as a marketing ploy. Taken together, these two articles (and the surrounding comments) lead to only one conclusion: playing the price of gas card for creative inspiration is picking the lowest of the low hanging fruit.

cycle world revs up brand

cw plans to freshen print, web effortsCycle World announced sweeping changes yesterday that will go a long way in determining the fate of enthusiast print in the years ahead. As they near the half century mark (January, 1962) CW plans to freshen their brand with new layout, content and production changes to their print effort and a much needed overhaul of their web site, beginning with the November print issue (onsale date October).

The strategy now in play calls for breaking news to be ported online, while open dated, long term print editorial will benefit from a production switch to perfect binding and paper upgrades in both finish and weight. Both changes allow for expanded advertiser content, as well as overall improved looks.

Also reflecting the new reality is a more aggressive focus on repurposing existing content for online distribution, with the current focus on their annual Buyer’s Guides, and continued promotion of their TWIST community media launch.

With a hard won and well deserved rep for photojournalism and solid art direction, CW is well positioned to exploit their readers’ need for online immediacy coupled with the tactile and visual feedback only print can deliver. Stay tuned.

learn to set silos aside

silos are great for storing grain - and that's about allLast month I was in Baton Rouge for, among other things, the Public Relations Association of Louisiana’s (PRAL) June meeting. The featured speaker was SSA Consultants partner Christel Slaughter, whose emotional plea was for everyone in the audience to “Stop The Silos!” as the first step in improving internal and external employee engagement.

Silos are a popular marketing metaphor for the formal compartmentalization of personnel, departments and functions. Silos not in the agricultural sense, but in the org chart ability to keep contents separate; corn from wheat, rice from peanuts, sales from marketing, pr from advertising, progression from regression – a.k.a., bureaucracy run amok. Continue reading →

deja vu redux

blast from the pastFast Company blogs the return of the Cub. Supercub that is, aka Honda C100, as seen at Indy in the Carter-Sym booth. Rebranded as Symba – oh, we get it – and as a knockoff over in the stadium at flyscooters display as a proto version to gauge reaction.

Available next month with out the door pricing of $2,600, the ’60s icon that last sold in the US back in the early ’80s joins a very crowded field in a price sensative market, all jockeying for position in a shell shocked economy shaped by gas prices and recession woes.

big city creative strikes out

if it ain't broke - no really, don't fix it!Last January 8, PepsiCo owned Tropicana rolled out their stunningly bland new corporate look, a makeover fashioned by Omnicom owned NYC shop Arnell, at a campaign launch cost pegged by some at no less than $35 million. A little less than two months later, PepsiCo couldn’t shovel dirt on it fast enough. The funeral was February 23.

That little detour down “Don’t Even Think About It” Lane has now, according to the April 2 issue of AdAge, reportedly cost the powerhouse beverage brand 20% in unit sales, 19% in dollars ($33 million) and unknown market share damage. Ka-pow! For those who still think packaging’s no big deal and brand management is way overrated, this Oh-Jay’s for you. Continue reading →