For my two cents, Bruce Gordon makes some great points. Even if Bruce is the worst marketer on the planet (maybe he is?) it does not matter. Bruce's products are out there - he has put them in the public eye at a variety of bike shows. Yet the competition he mentions continues to sell lots of product, and he is struggling. It is an indictment of the publics lack of understanding that is starving Bruce for orders - folks should be knocking his doors down.
You can certanly say that Bruce is either right or wrong or in the middle on how he runs his business. But I certainly can't deny that he has a good point to make in his frustration at the number of folks out there who "don't get it" - and one of the reasons is because of the "marketers" manipulation of peoples perceptions.
Mike Kone in Boulder CO
> Don Wilson began a post with:
\r?\n>
\r?\n> "Let me start by saying my bonafides regarding bike
\r?\n> making and market are zero..."
\r?\n>
\r?\n> And then the rest of what Wilson wrote about selling
\r?\n> bicycles -- to rich people -- is an embarrassment to
\r?\n> humanity.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Bruce Gordon wrote:
\r?\n>
\r?\n>
\r?\n>
\r?\n> "...Most of my business for the last 16 years has been
\r?\n> making more utilitarian TIG welded touring frames and
\r?\n> racks. But even those TIGed bike sales have dropped
\r?\n> from 60 to 70 bikes a year to 25 last year. Is it
\r?\n> because my stuff is lousy?? I don't think so. I
\r?\n> think I make pretty good, reasonably priced touring
\r?\n> stuff. What has happened is that the business has
\r?\n> been taken over by what I call "Marketers". People
\r?\n> who have discovered that "Why make it yourself if you
\r?\n> can have it made overseas for a lot less?"....What has
\r?\n> hurt my business the most are the Rivendells, Surlys,
\r?\n> Somas,Kogswells, etc. I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT THE
\r?\n> QUALITY OF THEIR PRODUCTS!!!!! When Rivendell started
\r?\n> - they were only going to be made in USA, then, maybe
\r?\n> some made in Japan, then, OK maybe some from Taiwan.
\r?\n> It is a slippery slope, and there is NO chairlift back
\r?\n> to the top of the mountain. For me in California, I
\r?\n> cannot compete with a $249 wholesale Surly Touring
\r?\n> frame...If we want to have the passionate, small,
\r?\n> innovative builders - we have to start buying from
\r?\n> them. We need to buy from the people who are
\r?\n> passionate about building them, NOT just from the
\r?\n> passionate people who Market them. I doubt
\r?\n> that the factory workers in Taiwan, or China, etc. are
\r?\n> passionate about bikes like you are."
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Gordon mentions Rivendell and Surly twice as market
\r?\n> rivals. Bruce Gordon Cycles should fold, or find
\r?\n> internal genius to compete, or find genius-help to
\r?\n> compete. If Bruce Gordon Cycles has the right stuff,
\r?\n> and if Gordon and/or a potential consultant sized up
\r?\n> Bruce Gordon Cycles as worthy of the market, then
\r?\n> Bruce Gordon Cycles takes its best shot: THAT is
\r?\n> capitalism, no matter the number of honorable -- or
\r?\n> bloodsucking -- rivals.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Joe Starck
\r?\n> Madison, Wisconsin
\r?\n>
\r?\n>
\r?\n>
\r?\n>
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