Dealer sponsors or not..??

[gray_rm]

As a salesman myself, I can understand the difficulty in some cases of offering discounts (depends on owner of shop, supplier costs, margin etc.)
However, if there's a large organised group (i.e. KSRC) who has committed to a certain group of stores, that *ought* to be recognised by those stores.
Although, I've only been a member here for 4 weeks, so the stores might want some sort of 'waiting period' (like healthcare) for newbies before they start offering discounts (otherwise people may join just to get a discount and not participate - which doesn't seem proper.)
To avoid having to issue identify cards, with length of tenure, etc. maybe we negotiate with those 3 advertised stores that once you've passed into a certain Avatar status (which can be confirmed) a certain discount kicks in?
My $0.02

[MadKaw]

As a wise man once said "retail is for suckers"..

I asked the question because, as has been stated, you can get 10% of stuff from just about any shop just by asking. I thought it was od that Chris couldn't get 10% of and not only is he a KSRC member but also bought his bike from this shop.!!
I have not been able to contact the owner of Parra Kawi to discuss this, as he was not there on Tuesday when I dropped in and has not replied to my 2 e-mails since. He may be on leave.
BTW, he approached me and made the discount offer, I didn't ask for anything.? He's a decent guy so I hope this is just a communication problem with his staff..

My concern is, will other Kawi dealers not bother to offer any incentives to members as they believe we are "associated" with specific shops.?
and are we sponsored by the best shops.??

In regards to discount or id cards, that is another expense that I'm sure the dealer won't pay for so we will have to. Again its us doing all the work with, advertising, expenses and putting in the time for minimal reward.
With 440 + members you'd think shops would want to be involved with us, unfortunately its not the case.
Anyway you'd think the t-shirt would be enough, it has there name on it.....

All your comments are appreciated..

[mfzx6r]

Dave
Wayne did tell me at the supers that he was going to the US for a holiday [Kawasaka Aust payed for]
so he may still be there


mario

[HemiDuty]

From my experience in (non-motorcycle) retail and wholesale, there is usually more than enough margin to accomodate a 10% discount to groups like this. Just have a look at some of the online prices that can be found for accessories and such and remember that they usually come from the same wholesaler / importer.

[samhasa636]

This discount will not work without staff awareness of:

1) How much the discount is
2) Who gets a discount
3) How to apply a dsicount in a sale

No t-shirt or membership card in the world will solve this outright. The managers of each store need to make sure these 3 things happen. And they will only do this if they think they are going to lose business. Directly, or indirectly through reduced awareness

I could see some real benefits from cutting up the header in this forum to allow some advertising for sponsers. Maybe even Kawai Oz will chip in some money since they should be the key beneficiary from the shirt (and site) advertising.

I guess this really depends on how serious the KSRC mods and operators are.

[Ment]

I could see some real benefits from cutting up the header in this forum to allow some advertising for sponsers.

I think a basic 10% discount doesnt warranty additional advertising space. There business names are on our t-shirts at no cost to them. That is the pay off for them, freed advertising and loyalty from our members.

I think we would all want a lot more in the way of discounts and service for web advertising.

[samhasa636]

I think a basic 10% discount doesnt warranty additional advertising space.

I didn't say it would be free.

I was really thinking about a way of getting more shirts out there at a reduced cost (if not free) to members. More shirts = more new members = more negotiation power.

[mrmina]

i think we should be sponsored but only if they offer discounts.

otherwise what is the point.

[MadKaw]

I think a basic 10% discount doesnt warranty additional advertising space.

I didn't say it would be free.

I was really thinking about a way of getting more shirts out there at a reduced cost (if not free) to members. More shirts = more new members = more negotiation power.

Sam
You must be kidding.!
Most dealers have no interest in putting there hands in there pockets in relation to this group, that has been made very obvious.
Kawasaki Aus wouldn't even put a KSRC sticker on ther race bike for us.

With that in mind, we don't expect anything from any business, which is fine as we are self sufficient and have no obligations to anyone but ourselves. The offer of a small discount is to attract our business, we therefore provide advertising so its a 2 way thing.

In regards to "how serious the operators" of this group are. We are very serious about keeping this a user friendly, independant, non biased open forum. Bring in financial sponsors (not that its possible) and things would have to be monitored so as not to upset them.

I don't want to see adds all over the place anyway, if we wanted that we could have stayed on Yahoo..

[JamesLaugesen]

I'm with Sam on this one.
I found it interesting that the forum has no advertising banners.

Some active advertising allowing the sponsor(s) to advertising certain products or services (like: "Kawasaka Parramatta - Special on all tyres!!!") would go a long way. Static advertising where they just get a banner wouldn't have much benifit to anyone.
But "real" advertising would be good for us and them.

Problem with T-Shirts is that people need to remember, care, and then act.
A nice add on the top of the forum is good, coz the viewer can just click it and have a squiz.

There would also be far less cost to the club since we don't really need to do anything.

If we decide we want something like that I'm willing to donate my services (maybe with some other peeps helping) in putting a little advertising system together for the sponsors. There's bound to be a suitable open source php add system floating around anyway.

[Cath]

So what's your opinion, Dave?
Will the next run of shirts have the shop advertising on them or not?

And when is the next run of shirts scheduled? I only got one shirt last time, but there's seven days in the week

[JamesLaugesen]

I posted before reading Dave's thread, but I still stick with my post
Should clarrify some stuff on good points he made though.

Definitely selling-out isn't cool, but you can't really relate KSRC-AU's own advertising with using a Yahoo group.
The 10% discount thing is a great idea as it should (theoretically) boost businesses salees, balancing the discount and improving their market position.

The problem I see is that the businesses have to sit, wait and hope that people are wearing the T-Shirts, seeing the T-Shirts and then buying something.
Give 'em some online advertising with a way of choosing exactly what is being advertised and boom, you open up a nice kettle of kawasakis.
Doing this they can know how many people are actually seeing their ads and involved in the club, promote specific things as per their business model.
For us, this will make them more inclined to support KSRC-au as more active members means more people seeing their ads.

Anyhoo, I haven't been here long enough

[MadKaw]

My opinion, Well I think its pretty clear in my previous post.
I'm happy to have sponsors that offer a discount in return for our business as we currently have. No out of pocket costs to anyone..
As far as adds on the forum, it won't happen for many reasons. It will alienate us from other dealers further, it takes away our impartiality to other dealers, they won't pay for it, it makes the site look tacky and wastes bandwidth to name a few.

If we have a paying sponsor and you take your bike to them, they screw it up. Who are you going to whinge to then. You wouldn't post negative comments about our sponsor would you... They may not like it and could damage the financial relationship......
That already happens, but as we have no obligations to anyone, it doesn't matter and you can speak your mind with no fear of repurcutions.
Lets not go there...

As far as the next t-shirts, I would say no sponsor names will be on them. You might like to wear it to an opposition dealer, you won't get a discount then..
We'll put it to a vote when the time comes, or I'll just decide..

[red_dave]

As a Marketing Manager for a chain of battery stores around the country, I would love to be able to offer all KSRC members a discount on any battery they needed (not just bike batteries). The problem I have is that I don't have the confidence in my network that they would honour this discount and consequently remember to honour this discount into the future. This is certainly a communication issue as I can alert my stores to do this, but it's up to them to inform their own staff etc...

As such, i've chosen not to do a blanket "% off" for our group but encourage those who require batteries to contact me directly...

[samhasa636]

Now Dave, this topic is on whether or not KSRC should maintain a sponsorship arrangement with dealerships, given that the current arrangement isn't working (apparently) I was only saying that I could see problems with a "wear a shirt get a discount" system. I was then offering a way for the club to get revenue to pay for shirts that would increase membership, which drives up the price of advertising, which then pays for more shirts and so on and so forth. I understant completely that these things need to be managed and take a lot of time (something none of us have to spare), that is why I asked the "serious" question.

Believe it or not I am on your side. But I think of it this way:
Phone call from Mad Kaw asks "wanna put your shop name on our shirt"
Manager thinks "Sweet, ongoing direct market exposure for nicks"
Manager agrees to a 10% discount, but can't stop thinking about the free market exposure
Manager hangs up the phone, still thinking about market exposure, forgets to tell anyone about the discount arrangement.

And I don't find it completely suprising that Kawai Oz was not willing to put a sticker on their bike. If I was a sponsor of said bike and paid good money to be there I would be pissed if anyone was getting free exposure on the same bike. Then I might not be as inclined to sponsor again the following year.

If this is a subject you have already explored then I apologise for suggesting it again.