BTW, if I could give these print magazines and even airshows some advice, it would be that they need to do some of their own marketing to remain relevant in future.
Each of these magazines needs to follow a cloud computing based model where its available to any user with a smart phone, any time, any where, archives, all reviews, in a searchable database format over the web, every second of every day. They need to do more reviews, more hands on flying, writing subjective handling characteristics, making videos attached to their web based articles so a reader can not only see the words and static pictures but also multi-media.
People who can afford to buy these aircraft have iPhones, smart phones, web access data plans and computers.
And also, these marketing channels need to market themselves through social media marketing and get people interested in airplanes and flying.
I know I started breaking everything that had an engine in it that my family owned sitting in Pakistan when I was 13 years old to try and make airplane like things out of them because I was reading RC magazines and airplane magazines from the US (the media of the 80's). I as a kid used to cherish and wait for the day my US magazines would arrive so I could get new ideas, new inspiration. That's how I started.
Today's 40 and below generation ... they don't wait for any of that stuff. They want it and get it now over the web on smart devices, in searchable formats. To guide their attention to flying and machines is going to require a paradigm shift by the industry as a whole or they will become as irrelevant as Kodak has become to digital photography and media because their leadership lacked vision to see the future and let a great American icon known the world over become a pathetic casualty.
Abid
--- In Sport_Aircraft@yahoogroups.com, "apollonorthamerica" <apollonorthamerica@...> wrote:
>
> BTW, the biggest, most effective and cheapest tools we have to sell Revos that has proven sales numbers behind it are:
> 1) Website
> 2) E-mail
> 3) Follow-up
>
> Airshows are near the bottom of the list and magazine ads are even further down. We get more action from $50 ads placed on Barnstormers.com than all magazines combined.
>
> I have let Evolution Trikes go to the hands of my partners and stepped back. We have not seriously tried social media marketing or other cloud computing based marketing solutions but I will, in my next venture and I think that will have a lot better ROI than any print ads or airshows. The days of marketing or product information getting to people by magazine ads and to a lesser degree airshows is over. I am not going to dump money in things that are going to go the way of dinosaurs.
>
> But Sebring Expo is one show, I would go to every year as it stands now.
> 1) Its 2 hours from where i am
> 2) Its reasonably priced for a booth ($600)
>
> But even for Sebring Expo, once you combine the man hours missed, travel, hotel and plain tiredness, the cost runs up into the $8k range for us easily.
>
> Sun N Fun is even closer 40 minutes. The cost there runs into $10k
>
> Oshkosh ... forget it. The cost for us of doing that show is closer to $18000.00 and that show sucks, and I mean sucks for trikes and they seem to not give 2 hoots about it either.
>
> Abid
>
>
>
> --- In Sport_Aircraft@yahoogroups.com, "apollonorthamerica" <apollonorthamerica@> wrote:
> >
> > You hardly ever sell at an airshow itself.
> > That barely happens.
> > In fact going to airshows at least by me in blunt direct terms is flushing money down the drain or close anyway. And I started Evolution Trikes, that company that the gentleman was raving about.
> > We go to these shows just because of the fear that if we don't people may start talking about us not being in business or having too many financial difficulties etc.
> > You sell months after the show, to people you didn't spend much time with at the show. That's the God's honest truth.
> >
> > The six sales he mentioned in a month for Revos (actually they were 5 not 6) had absolutely zero to do directly with Sebring Expo. Its just the occasion 2 of the people who we had been working with for 3 months+ used to show up and close the deal. 3 of the orders were already taken and nothing to do with any airshow or magazine ad whatsoever. It was a lot of babysitting customers through hard work and sales process to part with their hard earned money and were customer referrals from our other customers. It wasn't a flashy magazine ad. It wasn't an airshow with big banners. It was some customer sticking up for us and guiding people to us for sales for free and us working our butts off and answering questions and more questions and more questions over and over and then convincing them to come fly the machine from as far away as Israel to make those sales. That's how hard that is. I wish it was as easy as doing marketing on an airshow and boom, you got 5 sales. That w ould be really easy. Its not that easy.
> >
> > Abid
> >
> >
> >
> > --- In Sport_Aircraft@yahoogroups.com, palmettoe@ wrote:
> > >
> > > I agree Helen, and I was waiting on you to comment, been there done that
> > > and waited weeks on end for results. My point was, bad WX, poor economy, too
> > > close to Sun N Fun and other events when WX is more favorable.
> > >
> > > Smart buyers check with their spouses first...
> > >
> > > Or, if they, the smart buyers, are the primary breadwinner and decision
> > > maker, "kiss them goodbye" lol. It is a remarkable event when a good
> > > salesperson and rep spends hours upon hours with a potential customer including a
> > > demo flight only to hear "I gotta check with so and so and maybe I'll get
> > > back to you". Makes one wonder why they don't discuss the possible purchase of
> > > an A/C before the free ride. Anyway, everyone I've discussed this problem
> > > with agrees with the odds are very poor that a sale is the result of time
> > > spent, especially at an event such as Sebring given all the negative factors
> > > I mentioned earlier.
> > >
> > > John
> > >
> >
>
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