Good topic - one that was on my mind recently as I kitted myself out...
To compare small-time workman brands to the multinational giants is unfair. Their business models are completely different, as will their standard of product. To pick a bat at random from both types of brands top production line, I'd choose a smaller (though with the premise of having a good reputation) guy every time.
Of the core features a Giant uses to sell their product, everyman* looks (they need their product to appeal to the broadest number of people - leading to the IMO horrific bat designs of the current era!), hype (short term buzz around the product), and a significant factor is professional player useage (and will only get bigger IMO - the Nikefying of the industry). The quality of the performance of the wood is secondary to all of these IMO to the success of Gray&Mooreburra PLC. That's not to say there are not decent sticks amongst the range on sale though they will, by nature, have a higher 'defect' rate. Their core profit center is lower down the food (grade) chain and I'd assume their bats around the Grade 3/4 range are perhaps their most consistent.
A smaller operator has but a few marketing tools - reputation, perhaps a review in the Wisden end-of-year show, but most of all, the one thing that they hang their hat on and genuinely makes them or breaks them, is the quality of the end product. They can't afford the sponsorship Gray Nicholls/Addidas will offer, and run a lean-enough production line that the spurious and intangible extras that the big brands can afford are lost on them. The beauty of their business dictates that it doesn't need teams of analysts to go over reams of data to churn out maximum output. Only x-amount of bats are needed per season, and a higher proportion of these need to be perfect or the outcome could be disastrous. To the consumer, it's pretty much the perfect business model. If you know your stuff
. I'd even go as far as to say we should be inherently grateful these guys exist (no, I don't work for one of them!), the impact they have on creating innovation and raising standards within the industry should never be underestimated.
(The range of bats used by pro's is ignored at this point - we can assume they have teams of people hand picking/crafting them and of a scarcity that very few in the amateur arena would even consider. They have nothing to do with the quality of the bats available for public selection, even, I'd suggest, the Grade 1 LE stuff)
It's not too dissimilar to the fashion industry. The obscene amounts spent on marketing (fashion shows, free Haute Couture frocks, 250k ad's on the back cover of Vogue) all to sell perfumes, watches, sunglasses, plain logo'd t-shirts and other items that have little 'technical performance' and are all about the marketed value of the label. Basically, would you rather wear an Armani watch (a re-badged Sekonda at best) or a Rolex (ok, not exactly a small firm, but at least made by watch-makers)? If I want a £40 set of trainers to walk down the street in, I'll look at Nike or Addidas, and the same guys are big in the park-running crowd...Though how many Marathon runners do you see wearing them?
I'm not a great cricketer, though I do perform better when I have 'good' gear. It inspires security and confidence that go far and above the tangible impact of having a bat that 'flies'. I know I'm paying a huge premium for a very minor improvement in my performance in my game, though I play to enjoy myself, and if I enjoy myself more when I have nice gear. Perhaps it's not the most un-shallow admittance, but hey, it makes me feel good when I walk up to the crease, silly mid on becomes just 'mid' on, Square leg trots back a few yards and I know anything I get on the next delivery will make runs just as long as Boris (for that is his name
) makes contact.
(I have a 2oz11 M&H Distinction - it's a grain lovers wet dream (23 top to bottom) and every time I hit it, it just has this obscene trampoline effect that I know won't last forever, but actually makes me feel like I'm using an illegal bat. There is no other description for it!)
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Topic: Bats My Theory (Read 8895 times)