Icon

Originally posted by 2547 Originally posted by iGRF   Because I've enhanced several sports already commercialising them and this is my retirement hobby  F tfy ...

Ftfy

Originally posted by 2547 Anyway ... why don't you take on the UK dealership for the iCon seems you'd make a fortune ...

Because I've ruined several hobbies already commercialising them and this is my retirement hobby, why would I want to ruin it chasing around trying to flog boats to impecunious GP14 fodder?

Originally posted by iGRF Originally posted by 2547 Any new class that develops a split personality in its early years is making life hard for itself; I suspect people messing with trapezes on the 59er was party responsible for the class never really getting going ... there was always a doubt about what it really was; a hiker or a trap dinghy?  The 59er was already a dead class when I came along, a couple of friends of mine had one and were bemoaning their lot and that was back in 2002-3 during my MPS period. I don't think anyone putting trap wires on it did anything other than improve a bad lot as far as I could judge. The reason boats like that failed was the same that all those over canvassed 90's craft went the way they did, totally unsuitable for the actual genuine none artificially Olympic squad induced market which is obvious to me in that it is by and large inland water and often very restricted at that. Hence if I were to be designing a commercial product it would be very much with that target demographic in mind as it seems RS have eventually spotted with their new billy no mate offering. The Icon in its standard form is actually that sort of product and all that is preventing that from taking off is marketing support. There needs to be an Icon in every reasonably sized piece of water in the UK for demo use, and one available for immediate delivery there and then, we live in a sunny day impulse purchase world. Someone should have done the legwork, got one into P&B, Jonti at Grafham and every other spot where a chandlery adjoins the water. Interest free finance deals, trade your old boat in deals, hell there are companies that would even lease them, like they do our mountain bikes, it just needs a modern day marketing approach like that which the rest of us have to employ to continue to survive in what is a very tough leisure market. The days of folk coming to you, sadly are over long since. As I've said before, what's needed for these local builder operators is a professional marketing arm financed by a working margin, but then for that to happen they'd have to stop chiselling direct sales and let someone do the job properly.

The Icon in its standard form is actually that sort of product and all that is preventing that from taking off is marketing support.

I dunno.   It's pretty much the same spec and PY of a Tasar.   If the Tasar, which is a great boat,  can't crack the UK market in any sensible, class forming numbers, then I think the Icon will really struggle.  

Still, lets see, maybe Devoti has a plan.

Originally posted by 2547 Any new class that develops a split personality in its early years is making life hard for itself; I suspect people messing with trapezes on the 59er was party responsible for the class never really getting going ... there was always a doubt about what it really was; a hiker or a trap dinghy?

The 59er was already a dead class when I came along, a couple of friends of mine had one and were bemoaning their lot and that was back in 2002-3 during my MPS period. I don't think anyone putting trap wires on it did anything other than improve a bad lot as far as I could judge. The reason boats like that failed was the same that all those over canvassed 90's craft went the way they did, totally unsuitable for the actual genuine none artificially Olympic squad induced market which is obvious to me in that it is by and large inland water and often very restricted at that. Hence if I were to be designing a commercial product it would be very much with that target demographic in mind as it seems RS have eventually spotted with their new billy no mate offering.

The Icon in its standard form is actually that sort of product and all that is preventing that from taking off is marketing support. There needs to be an Icon in every reasonably sized piece of water in the UK for demo use, and one available for immediate delivery there and then, we live in a sunny day impulse purchase world. Someone should have done the legwork, got one into P&B, Jonti at Grafham and every other spot where a chandlery adjoins the water. Interest free finance deals, trade your old boat in deals, hell there are companies that would even lease them, like they do our mountain bikes, it just needs a modern day marketing approach like that which the rest of us have to employ to continue to survive in what is a very tough leisure market. The days of folk coming to you, sadly are over long since. As I've said before, what's needed for these local builder operators is a professional marketing arm financed by a working margin, but then for that to happen they'd have to stop chiselling direct sales and let someone do the job properly.