Retail suicide?

[jaffaonajappa]

I miss nothing, the above probably buys cheap 10 year old tyres for track riding as well...... afterall cheap is as good as expensive isnt it ??

Oh yeah. Tested them leathers today - very slow speed off a bucket. But...they performed exactly as I wanted them too.

But. They arent new and shiny any more lol.

[Quasievil]

Oh yeah. Tested them leathers today - very slow speed off a bucket. But...they performed exactly as I wanted them too.

But. They arent new and shiny any more lol.

Bugger, mate just check all the stitching and make sure there are no breaks, Im picking they are double stitched so if no damage you will be good to go down next time, if not get a over stitch done, I can do that for you

[jaffaonajappa]

Bugger, mate just check all the stitching and make sure there are no breaks, Im picking they are double stitched so if no damage you will be good to go down next time, if not get a over stitch done, I can do that for you

Cheers man - I will be visiting one day.....finances kinda stuffed at the moment tho.
No damage to the stitching - yeah double stitched but the damage was in the middle -not near any stitching. A stitch-over would be great - one day. But again....these arent going to take long slides - just low speed lowsides on a kart track. All good.

[oldguy]

Would turning your back on TradeMe as a marketing/advertising tool be retail suicide?

I would say yes.

its how I found my bike, through your advertising on trademe, I was able to work out most stuff online, so I new it wasn't going to be a wasted trip down.

On a side note, I have been very happy with my bike

Sorry lula,
haven't brought a MCT since trademe, only time i see a motorcycle trader
these days, is if im in getting a WOF or reg. and there's a copy in the waiting room.
which is normaly 6 to 12 months old.

[lakedaemonian]

They used Motorcycle Trader.

Most dealers find it difficult to support the industry media now that all of their marketing/advertising budget is spent on TradeMe

The smart ones are not putting all their eggs in one basket and taking advantage of the package print and web making them stand out from the mass.

I will agree and disagree.....

I agree that dealers across NZ USED to use the like of Motorcycle Trader, Buy Sell and Exchange 10 years ago because the internet medium(even at the height of the first dot com boom) has not yet been leveraged by small retail companies en masse.

Fast forward 10 years and it's a totally different game.

Here's where I disagree and will expand a bit.....

Dealers that fail to embrace the internet as a marketing, sales, and communications medium(assuming the dealers already have their sh!t sorted INSIDE their showrooms in terms of high customer satisfaction and service levels) are ultimately doomed.

The internet has become as ubiquitous as the telephone.

Can you run a motorcycle dealership without a telephone? No.

Can you run a motorcycle dealership without the internet? No.

It's not just motorcycle industry specific print media that have to improvise, adapt, and overcome...the same can be said of radio and television.

The same can also be said of the likes of Kiwibiker Forums.

While KB is NOT a traditional internet sales/marketing medium it does have an add/on component to it with potential to turn into a viable community peer to peer based business......but even KB is at risk if it doesn't improvise, adapt, and overcome.

As a member of the motorcycle industry, as a marketing and communications medium KB fails due to it's anonymity. NO ONE is going to stick their neck out here in a big way to get it chopped by anonymous snipers......but peer to peer....maybe....with Facebook being a HUGE threat to forum communities long-term.

Where Motorcycle Trader and it's peers fail(and I've said this face to face with everyone I know in the industry) is that it gets BETWEEN the customer and the retailer.....and as a retailer....I want a DIRECT relationship with my customers....which is why we've developed an email database in the thousands, a Facebook base of thousands, and a couple of BIG projects in the works.

Communication is instant and direct......

Look at how Craigslist.org has almost singlehandedly devastated the US newspaper industry.....most newspaper revenue came from the little guy's classified ad(the big guys get HUGE discounts)...Craigslist stole it all with instant, real-time, and free searchable, local ads.

We use Trademe, probably more than most other dealers in NZ and it has been an effective sales/marketing tool for us. It does come at a cost, but it more than pays for itself with the scale we have had on it. It only represents a tiny portion of our M&A budget and we run a lean marketing budget(leaner than many of our peers).

We've also used, and will continue to use, the likes of Motorcycle Trader when we feel it's appropriate.

But I think EVERYONE needs to continue to adapt to this fast changing landscape....and VERY few are doing so, or even trying.

I used to work for Amazon.com in their very early days and had a god's eye view of their distribution, logistics, marketing, and metrics.... I'm still up to speed on their dynamically changing business. And with the advent of the Kindle, iPad, Galaxy etc I think that newspapers and print media need to quickly and effectively adapt to the new medium or they will become irrelevant.

I LOVE books and magazines....my house is like a library.....but the fact is that uptake/conversion on book/newspaper/magazine reader(Kindle, iPad, etc) is staggering....I've seen some numbers that are nearly unbelievable....and for sales/marketing focused publication.....monthly(hell even weekly or daily) is TOO SLOW......consumers demand real time.

Look at your favorite magazine rack in a bookshop......the herd is thinning for LOTS of reasons.

The day Motorcycle Trader(and everyone else) can offer a rich magazine experience on a tablet with great editorial and value added content and allow a reader to one-click to a specific dealer product and ethically share that customer with the dealer is the day it(and others) will be safe for a little while with a defensible position.

Right now, no one is safe(bar maybe Trademe for a little bit).

And the only reason why Trademe has a pretty solid defensible position is because with the internet if you're not first, you're last.

Social Media is becoming a bit overused lately.....but those who can build and leverage the biggest/fastest meshed network of folks willing to put their real names on the line wins.

So this isn't just a M/C Trader vs Trademe thing.....this goes far, far beyond that.

Just my 0.02c

[Quasievil]

NO ONE is going to stick their neck out here in a big way to get it chopped by anonymous snipers......

I do all the time

[thepom]

Now where,s that gun........

[Big Dave]

>>offer a rich magazine experience on a tablet with great editorial and value added content and allow a reader to one-click to a specific dealer product <<

Find me the NZ retailers who'll support it (buy the advertising) and I'd do it. Love too.

So far it appears there's you and....and.....

[Quasievil]

>>offer a rich magazine experience on a tablet with great editorial and value added content and allow a reader to one-click to a specific dealer product <<

Find me the NZ retailers who'll support it (buy the advertising) and I'd do it. Love too.

So far it appears there's you and....and.....

I would be interested to see what you think of our new site Dave.

[lakedaemonian]

I do all the time

Then you would be a rare exception.

And I would guess that may be due to the fact you are running a mostly internet only operation which compels you to focus on and experiment with the internet as a medium for exchange/communication/marketing/sales.

Have a few dealers popped their heads up in here on occasion? Of course.....

Is it common? Of course not.....

That's not a criticism of KB, just an observation and my perception which I believe is accurate......I didn't start the forum, nor do I know the ownership or their purpose/doctrine in running it...encouraging open industry/dealer involvement here may be at the bottom of the wish list.

I'm just expanding on the fact that M/C Trader Vs. Trademe is really just one part of a much bigger machine with a whole lot of very fast moving parts....and KB is a part of it as well.

Some believe(with reasonably good arguments) that publications like M/C Trader and others may not be long for this world.....the same arguments could possibly be made in regards to KB if you stretch your time horizon out a bit.

One only needs to look at the pre-internet Bulletin Board Services that people modem'd into directly...mutating into things like Compuserve and AOL....before the WWW forced them to join it or die.

There are thousands of VBulletin forums around the world with huge user bases and Facebook/Social Media represents a threat to each and every one of them that fails to adapt to it and with it.

The last 10 years has seen a seismic shift in how we market/communicate/buy...the next 10 is likely to be another order of magnitude greater.

This is the part where I like to read up on stories of companies that were very early adopters to radio and tv advertising.

[Big Dave]

Tres grunge.
Looks very professional.

[Big Dave]

I have an iPad2 and think ESPN and NBA apps are brilliant. So are all my sports team's info for that matter. The NZ herald's is quite good and so is Stuff. Reading anything on the backlit screen is way cool.

The Fairfax (Aus) and Murdoch model is to charge for a subscription to read the papers on a tablet - but their web sites are still free and so are several other paper's apps - like the NZ Harold or the Sun.

I won't pay the fee while there are free options of similar quality. There's the rhubarb at the moment.

It would need Murdoch's capital to prop it up till there aren't any free options left - if ever. Or a significant sponsor.

[lakedaemonian]

>>offer a rich magazine experience on a tablet with great editorial and value added content and allow a reader to one-click to a specific dealer product <<

Find me the NZ retailers who'll support it (buy the advertising) and I'd do it. Love too.

So far it appears there's you and....and.....

That the tough part with any shift to something new.....who is the one(or the minimum number required) to make the leap?

Making that leap comes with a bunch of risks, but also a couple potentially big rewards...often referred to as "founder's profits" if you hit the mark.

Personally, I think the recipe is all about building the network...the network being membership and the connections amongst and between members.

As mentioned, NOT the old school hub/spoke model....and that includes publisher/reader, dealer/customer, motorcycle club/member...but a network model....and the same goes for management of the network....less about ownership and more about stewardship.

A model that let's everyone within the community reach everyone else DIRECTLY.

I think a critical part of it is members/businesses/clubs all sticking their own and/or their entity's real name on the line to encourage the same behavior we would likely have as if we met in person(good or bad).

Facebook is a gamechanger.......the ability to drill down and specifically target individuals is amazing.....but the cost of doing so has risen 7 fold in the last 12 months in our experience...and it's still worth it.

What we are hoping to achieve with a few projects in the works is to build our own network rather than renting the networks of others.

Motorcycling is big business globally, but generally fractured, sliced, and diced into little niches with little scale to justify huge investment with a poor(or negative) return on investment....we just don't have the numbers.....but someone will have the idea, the flexibility, the speed, and the agility to execute and succeed....and I doubt it will be an existing brand, an existing distributor, or even most existing publishers that will achieve it....I reckon it will be a motorcycle enthusiast coming into the industry from a different angle.

With the internet, often an average execution TODAY can beat a perfect execution next week due to first mover advantage.

When it comes to future thinking motorcycle community building and marketing does the early bird get the worm, or does the second rat get the cheese?

[lakedaemonian]

I have an iPad2 and think ESPN and NBA apps are brilliant. So are all my sports team's info for that matter. The NZ herald's is quite good and so is Stuff. Reading anything on the backlit screen is way cool.

The Fairfax and Murdoch model is to charge for a subscription to read the papers on a tablet - but their web sites are still free and so are several other paper's apps - like the NZ Harold or the Sun.

I won't pay the fee while there are free options of similar quality. There's the rhubarb at the moment.

It would need Murdoch's capital to prop it up till there aren't any free options left - if ever. Or a significant sponsor.

Yup....people doing it out of love and passion......and the possibility that if they build a big enough network, then they might be able to leverage and monetize it.

I'm on a Samsung Tab.....I definitely think tablets are here to stay and will eventually become the primary means for reading...if not responding.

I think the continued GFC, of which we are probably only about 3-4 chapters deep in a 12 chapter novel, will play an important role in the shift.

With rising commodity prices, paper isn't getting any cheaper to print or distribute.

Any paper isn't getting any faster, interactive, or able to pass the instant gratification test.

I read recently on Stuff(Yup...like you I'm reading Stuff and Herald every morning with my coffee but haven't bought a paper in a LONG time) that Kiwis will own on average approx. 5 internet enabled devices by 2015(if memory serves).

It's obvious where we are heading.

But how and when we get there is the zillion dollar question.

[Big Dave]

Edit - we're cross posting hyar - This is in reply to the previous message.

Yeah - I still recommend a range of advertising options - there are so many variables, but ultimately the message is the same - you just have to determine the optimum messenger.