I've been pretty mild mannered on this forum to date. Tried to help where I can. But a couple of posts on this thread have annoyed me. Not annoyed me as much as our handling of COVID or the inequality of income distribution around the world. But annoyed me in comparison to the vast majority of stuff I've read on the forum. So here is my Jerry Maguire piece.
@Neon Cricket, I would love to give you the benefit of the doubt on these. As you wrote later, maybe something has got lost in translation. But I can't I'm afraid. There just seems to be too much vitriol for it to be a question of wording.
Tom has already debunked that CBF is just for "British" companies. He helped set it up to open up discussion on crickets brands, not restrict it. I really value the breadth of brands on the forum. The fact that it includes also posts about training, management of club affairs, thoughts on international matches as well. It's interesting and useful.
Secondly, I think you have vastly misread your audience if you believe you'll get much empathy that forumites are to blame for sponsors, retail stockists and individual brands failing to interact because, for instance, there is an active discussion about an Indian supplier. A somewhat tricky position to defend when you, by your own admission, resell Indian supplied goods.
I'll now quote the last post on the thread that annoyed me and then wrap things together hopefully with a little useful advice.
I was involved in a discussion about cricket bags a couple of weeks ago. I pleaded for any suppliers on the forum to get involved in the discussion. The silence was deafening.
For a small, medium or even large business a forum like this can provide not only sales leads, but really valuable insight about what we are thinking about with our kit and our cricketing lives in general.
Take soups. Fresh soups, canned soups, vegetable soups, broths etc. Is there a soup drinkers forum? Not that I can find. So soup manufacturers get their information from sales analysis, analysis of their competitors' sales (if they can get it), market research, and product research. That all costs money. Actually quite a lot of money and probably too much for most small and medium sized businesses.
So Neon Cricket and Soulman, this forum can give you first hand research at the cost of some of your time, and even better quality research if you get involved and ask the right questions. So what, if we're discussing what an Indian supplier provides? Look at what we're purchasing and understand why. Read, listen, and think. Innovate and offer things that are not homogenous and come down to price. And that includes products, after sales service, pre sales service to name a couple. It might even get to a level of understanding where you accept that you can't compete on a particular product and no longer stock it. At least you won't be losing money on it.
Coming back to my plea on cricket bags, more members than I imagined said they were willing to spend a decent amount of money on a bag, but wanted it to last for longer than a season or two, and didn't care so much about platinum lined beer holders, or ocean fried shoe compartments. My particular gripe was zips on cricket bags. Something that for an extra £4 or so to get YKK versions, means the bag won't be useless after a season and, I'm pretty certain would be a winner with us, and a winner for you if you're quick to market.
Yes, it is tough to run your own business. The effort you have to put in just to keep afloat can be exhausting. Then a pandemic comes along and sales drop off. And to top it all off some of us customers can be a royal pain in the bottom. We can be demanding, uncertain, flighty and tight. But it is a buyers market unfortunately and you have to keep at it despite the setbacks. There is no easy money to be made right now. There will be, that's the way of the economic cycle. But not right now.
If it helps, think about the alternative - sitting in an office all day, with a tosspot of a boss, demanding to know why some dull spreadsheet hasn't been updated five minutes after they've asked and so stand behind you whilst you do it and offer the wisdom of their experience from 20 years ago.
@stamper I have to say I agree with fattus in that this comes across as sanctimonious and condescending - whether that was the intention or not.
However, with that said, I will preface my response by saying I do agree with a decent amount of what you said and it was an articulate response.
Now, onto what I dont agree with:
For a small, medium or even large business a forum like this can provide not only sales leads, but really valuable insight about what we are thinking about with our kit and our cricketing lives in general.
Take soups. Fresh soups, canned soups, vegetable soups, broths etc. Is there a soup drinkers forum? Not that I can find. So soup manufacturers get their information from sales analysis, analysis of their competitors' sales (if they can get it), market research, and product research. That all costs money. Actually quite a lot of money and probably too much for most small and medium sized businesses.
This forum is very blatantly not a representative microcosm of the wider industry, your argument outlining how Neon/Soulman's responses are incorrect, and then likening the industry to soups is a stretch at best. I actually work for a B2B data company that provide the exact sort of data you were mentioning to retailers, and believe me, it is our job to ensure that the data is as representative of the market as possible. This forum, is as aforementioned, categorically not representative of a wider audience; while it can provide valuable insights and sales leads, it can also, as others have said, generate a number of 'tyre kickers' that never have any intention of buying anything.
The reason threads like this detract from the sponsors is because these companies have no interest in this forum for the highlighted reason above. However members on here will champion these companies to save a few quid on grey imports, whilst expecting forum sponsors to justify their prices to the nth degree, as well as send them pictures of pad weights/glove weights/bats/clefts/etc.
Secondly, I think you have vastly misread your audience if you believe you'll get much empathy that forumites are to blame for sponsors, retail stockists and individual brands failing to interact because, for instance, there is an active discussion about an Indian supplier. A somewhat tricky position to defend when you, by your own admission, resell Indian supplied goods.
This is somewhat disingenuous to suggest that Neon were suggesting the reason this thread (and others of its kind) push sponsors away is because you are discussing an
'Indian' supplier. He was suggesting (in my opinion) that this thread - that appears to push business away from the forum to a non sponsor fails to incentivise sponsorship, especially when you have a double standard of expectations from sponsors vs. non sponsors as I highlighted above.
The fact that Neon/Soulman/whoever import certain products, rebrand, and then sell on is not really part of this debate. I know for an absolute fact that Adam @ Neon will have customised his pads and gloves to be different in all the subtle ways that no one thinks about, and that all costs money. His pads, for example, are most definitely not available anywhere else, you might get similar, very similar in fact, but certainly not identical. Couple this in, with the fact that any UK resellers could now very well have to pay 3 k minimum to have gloves and pads, in 1 model, 1 size and both dexterities available to sell due to kitemark testing, along with the shipping, the import rates, and also the aftercare service that they need to be prepared to give, and suddenly they are fighting not only an uphill battle against grey importers, but more of a mountainous struggle to be competitive on price.
Innovate and offer things that are not homogenous and come down to price. And that includes products, after sales service, pre sales service to name a couple. It might even get to a level of understanding where you accept that you can't compete on a particular product and no longer stock it. At least you won't be losing money on it.
This quote particularly highlights a lack of understanding on your part in this topic. As I stated above, Neon's softs are frankly not homogenous, and as I mentioned, do not exist other than from Adam. Your 'advice' is to simply 'stop stocking them' if you cannot compete, but I put it to you, that a lack of a softs range for example, would astronomically impact a brand. People do not want to just buy bats from people anymore, especially when there are some many 'boutique' brands that operate with shoddy standards. People are far less inclined to buy a bat from Joe Bloggs that he made in his back garden when the company that he represents does not have a market presence in all facets of the industry - yes the market is showing this. People want to buy full kit, or they want to just buy softs because 'bats are cheaper in India/Pakistan/eBay' and also because as aforementioned, having a market presence in softs/luggage/clothing etc gives the consumer trust in the brand. So yes, simplistically - stop stocking the product if you cant compete with X, but that fails to understand the nuances of consumerism and also fails to understand that there is a clear connection between losing sales in one area, and losing sales in others.
I will close by saying, that I wholeheartedly agree that a discussion around brands, both on and off of the forum is healthy, and the more breadth of brands that we get on here, the better for the consumer. However, I would say, as Harper Lee once said; 'Don't judge a man, until you've walked a mile in his shoes'. You must understand that making this forum consumer-centric will clearly drive suppliers away, while making it 'brand-centric' will drive consumers away.
No one wants to be in an echo chamber on here, however, there is a balance to be struck between alienating potentially great suppliers, and also going too far the other way.
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Topic: Online Stockist (Read 9633 times)