Can I ask a genuine question to the bat makers/manufacturers/sponsors on the forum.
If Keeley/M&H (or whoever) are charging £650 for there very highest bat and you are charging say £300 quid less, is the difference the quality of willow they have had the pick of or the price they are putting their brand name on? Or both? Etc...
My guess is this is a simple business/distribution structure point.
You are a manufacturer/brand. The odds are the vast majority of your sales (if you are of any size) come through independent retailers rather than direct to consumer (D2C). If you sell products D2C at the same price that retailers are charging it has two impacts:
1) Your 'RRP' (a nonsense concept anyway) is suddenly completely unsupportable, as if you don't sell at that price, why would it have any basis in reality. This means that the whole selling tactic of 'discount to RRP' is suddenly extinguished for both yourself and your customers (retailers). You've also immediately chopped 20% or so off the maximum price that anyone could charge for your products, including you. Hardly great business sense.
2) You're now trying to attract the same customers (end consumers) that your far larger customers (retailers) are trying to attract. You are competing directly with them. There is therefore a substantial risk that retailers reduce their order volumes and/or stop trading with you entirely. So you might gain a few direct customers, but lose several massive orders from your customers that actually pay your bills. Again not great business sense.
The final point is opportunity - if you list your products on a pretty low cost website (which you need anyway for general brand purposes) at a price point that makes you crazy money but doesn't hack off your big customers, and people pay it - then happy days, why wouldn't you!
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Topic: Keeley cricket and the industry generally (Read 22752 times)