-Jonny
SOTN
Since their catalogue every year has been called the "Bible", they took it to the next level this season, by actually making it look like a bible, and calling it "The Good Book". Is this Burton's way of maintaining that they are godlike in all they do? Is this there way of saying Omnipotence is theirs and theirs alone? Or is it just because everyone called it a bible before, so why not go with the theme? Any way you cut it, it has me talking about the Behemoth that is Burton. I can only imagine how much this book costs to layout,print, and ship. The price tag on this must be staggering. But when your on top, you must always set the bar high I guess. But couldn't we save money somewhere? Maybe not. Ride tried a couple of years ago to not have catalogues. They said they were "going green", and nobody read them anymore. That everyone went to the internet anyway. That didn't work out too well, and the next year they were back. I guess what I am getting at is who pays for this? I saw Burton prices jump $10on everything across the board. Last season's custom binding was $149, this year it's $159 etc..As an business owner, I am always looking for ways to save money, while maintaining the integrity of the store. I think companies might need to do this as well. Do you think Burton would sell any less if their catalogue cost less to produce? Maybe it would. Maybe there are surveys and trends and analysis reports that say they will. Who am I to Judge someone that puts out a bible? I may be reading too much into this. There are more important things I could be doing.
Like figuring out how I am going to sell Burton products in store now that they are completely online. Not a sermon--Just a thought.
i totally hear ya with everything that you are saying. just thought i'd interject a counterpoint: burton (and other board company's stance) is that the cost of production significantly increased due to the petroleum prices in the first/second quarters, business conditions, etc. From a "positive standpoint" the lower-end boards like the HATE are killing it, making the need for the avg consumer to ride a super high-end deck less necessary.
ReplyDeleteGoing direct does make some business sense for them (cut out the middle man blah blah blah), but I am always one to say support your shops and vote with your wallet. if burton is making things harder for you, i'm sure other brands will be happy to pick up the slack, right?
Burton tried the "green" catalog-lite thing one year (2002?) and the consumers FREAKED out - talk about negative feedback. i was surprised how many people bitched and complained about it. lesson learned, consumers want bulk.
Looking at the "bible", I was pretty stoked on snowboarding and burton product even though I've seen everything and tried some of it all already, so the book is doing its job. You can see where Burton did cut back on the costs in: the size, the paper quality, the depth of product knowledge, etc.
For burton to invest $2 (i made that cost up) to produce 250k catalogs (again a made up #) is $0.5mm, a hell of a lot cheaper than a TV ad or other standard forms of advertising.
And a $10 increase for you is $20 increase for the customer, right?
it def. helps jake's wife family owns a printing buisness. doesnt matter what the cost,its mafia. they look better on paper and going direct will work better for them from the start cause the paper marketing is already so slick. all the manus love to kill reps every once in a while why not go direct.
ReplyDeletesmall shops is what helped all snowboarding companies grow to where they are now.
ReplyDeletemy friend own a small snowboard shop. he carried burton since 90s. he had some last season burton boards he couldn't sell during winter season and he wanted to sell them on-line on his web-site.. but! apparently burton will not let you sell any of their products on-line unless you are a shop that spends 200k+ a year on their product.
i understand that cutting out middle man makes sense for burton business, but they forgot how they got to where everyone knows them and wants their product.
I'm not sure how their corporate profit maximizing makes me feel about buying their truly great product.