[mjw930]

Good to see support for the Dealer!!! They pay for the truck through marketing funds earned by a percentage of sales. It's not like they can take the cash and put it in their pocket. So yes the dealers pay for it, kind of.

I'm not sure what point you are trying to make? Sure, marketing is factored into the price the dealer pays for the bikes and that supports things line print ads, the initial cost of the trucks and the 2 corporate sponsored events but the dealers pay an additional fee to have the demo trucks show up at their dealerships and then have to provide all the support personnel. Obviously they wouldn't do it if there wasn't a payback but based on the numbers from my dealership it's worth the money (if promoted and managed efficiently).

No point, just clarifying the paying statement and actually think it's great that there is support for the dealer.Victory should be at the event. My whole point is there is always two sides to every story.

Understood but this story is pretty cut and dry. Victory decided to not directly support "regional" rally's so the local dealer asked for a demo truck ON THEIR DIME and the mothership said no. Not to many sides to this story.

This isn't final, VM is "negotiating" with Victory so hopefully reason will win out. I'm sure part of this is no other dealers in the region wanting a truck the weeks before and after the event. If 1 or 2 of the other SE dealers wanted a truck around that same time Victory could justify sending a truck into the region. What's foolish is not recognizing this event as the largest fall rally in the SE and pushing it's dealers to schedule events around it.

I can't say for sure but it really looks like the SE rep dropped the ball on this one. Sometimes the reps are nothing more than order takers and other times they actually participate in dealer marketing and coordinate their regional activities.

 

[BellesAZ]

IMHO, the finger pointing goes in both directions - dealerships and Victory corporate.
Biketoberfestis regional and just because you see a bunch of out of state cars in attendance, doesn't mean they are there because of the festival. They are there because they spend the winter there. It's the same way here in Phoenix. As was pointed out that 2 out of 10 sales were out of state. Such is life when you have a dealership in Florida or Arizona.
Demo truck presence at Daytona and Sturgis are purely for brand recognition purposes. That's the whole point and why Victory corporate is there. It isn't meant to drive traffic to any local dealership.
How dealers use marketing funds is also up for debate. They don't have to only be spent on the Demo Truck. They can use them to highlight their presence at these festivals.If they choose not to use marketing funds towards this that's up to them. OK, so the demo truck isn't going to be there, so what's stopping dealers from setting up a booth directly at the show with several bikes on display? Other dealers/manufacturersdo it.You canmeet face to face with potential owners andschedule demos at your store and directly engage with the customers. What a missed opportunity for a dealership not to be at the festival with thousands of people walking by their booth?!? I would have killed for that exposure in the past.
There are other marketing opportunities during bike show week that our local Vic dealers miss. At Phoenix Bike Week, the local Harley franchises sponsor rides, concerts, activities, etc.. in order to participate, you have to start out at the dealership. They had a celebrity ride, which was extremely popular - you met at the HD dealership and got to ride with Dierks Bentley - I mean Harley was all over that. You don't see either of our Vic dealerships doing this type of stuff.
Victory needs to wake up a bit and be a better partner to dealerships. Victory could do well training their regional reps better to help local dealership with marketing. These dealership owners are bike riders/mechanics/engineers. The ownersaren't sales people and they need better training and help. There isn't much local support by Victory at the direct level unfortunately and there ismore low hanging fruit to be had - word of mouth advertising just doesn't work after a certain point.
Victory can also help the local dealers advertise the demo truck. In order to access the Vic website and customize or look at their bikes, you have to sign up and get an account. Victory could send an email from corporate on behalf of the dealer to help advertise the event. They can send a Demo truck in your area schedule at the beginning of the year and send two email campaigns to their database of account holders. I mean.. c'mon, some of this stuff is Marketing 101.

 

[dsjr70]

Belles,
Just to touch on one of your points I did talk with Andy and he is going to be set up anyway. One scary thing is I wonder if he is going to have any 2011 bikes to bring out there. He recieved 3 CC and 1 CR, as of last week he sold 1 of the CC's (I believe 2 days after he got it). By October I can honestly see all the CC's being gone leaving him with a CR. I dont believe Vic has even begun manufacturering any of the other models mostly because they are still trying to push out the 10's before flooding the market with the 11's. I may have to lend him a few of my bikes to fill his tent...lol
That is one of the big plus's to having the demo truck at these events, people can see the whole line-up.
I am a little fuzzy on the marketing money you guys are talking about so maybe either you or Mark can fill me in. It is my understanding that Victory does have marketting money in form of a coop. But these funds are a matching type program for radio/print/TV ads and can not be used for the demo truck or festival type adevertising. Atleast that was my understanding, I could be wrong on this one.
Don

 

[mjw930]

I have no idea where the money come from or goes or how they are allowed to spend it but that's somewhat irrelevant. Andy is willing to pay for the truck and has ordered the bikes he needs to have on hand for the event. It's not a question of where the money comes from but one of Victory delivering on items the dealer is willing to write a check for.

Regardless what anyone thinks the only major event happening in October is Daytona, for Victory to not focus on this event and support all the dealers who need product, marketing and factory support is asinine.

 

[dsjr70]

I have no idea where the money come from or goes or how they are allowed to spend it but that's somewhat irrelevant. Andy is willing to pay for the truck and has ordered the bikes he needs to have on hand for the event. It's not a question of where the money comes from but one of Victory delivering on items the dealer is willing to write a check for.

Regardless what anyone thinks the only major event happening in October is Daytona, for Victory to not focus on this event and support all the dealers who need product, marketing and factory support is asinine.

I agree it is irrelevant, but not the first time we have all went off topic. I thought someone mentioned using the factory marketting money for the demo that is why I brought it up. I was just under the impression that money was to be used as an incentive to get a dealer to advertise more.
I know he has ordered all his 2011 models but I am still not sure all of them will be delivered to him before the event.
As you know I agree 100% with your last statement or I wouldnt have started another thread to put myself in hot water again...lol

 

[phoenix9]

Belles,
Just to touch on one of your points I did talk with Andy and he is going to be set up anyway. One scary thing is I wonder if he is going to have any 2011 bikes to bring out there. He recieved 3 CC and 1 CR, as of last week he sold 1 of the CC's (I believe 2 days after he got it). By October I can honestly see all the CC's being gone leaving him with a CR. I dont believe Vic has even begun manufacturering any of the other models mostly because they are still trying to push out the 10's before flooding the market with the 11's. I may have to lend him a few of my bikes to fill his tent...lol
That is one of the big plus's to having the demo truck at these events, people can see the whole line-up.
I am a little fuzzy on the marketing money you guys are talking about so maybe either you or Mark can fill me in. It is my understanding that Victory does have marketting money in form of a coop. But these funds are a matching type program for radio/print/TV ads and can not be used for the demo truck or festival type adevertising. Atleast that was my understanding, I could be wrong on this one.
Don

Belles did a very good job of explaining marketing strategies that work in her last post. When you are talking about marketing money holdbacks, every company does it differently. When I was running my little corner of the world in the upper midwest, the marketing coop dollars were a holdback percentage based on the previous year's sales and could be used by the distributor in any way he saw fit to pull in customers (we, as the manufacturer had to agree with the strategy....that way they didn't use our funds to market products we didn't produce). To give you an example of some of the mrketing events we paid for with coop dollars:
-PGA tent sponsorship (10 tickets a day for 6 days)....we divided up the tickets between us and the distributor and each broughtpartnering customers to the event
Plus Jimmy Buffet concert, Bears and Cubs games, annual golf outings, hunting and fishing trips....etc. Obviously, these are some of the more "out there" events....and they work in our industry but would not in the motorcycle industry. It justshows that companies need to think outside the box in how they market and look fro return on investment.
We also used those funds to split trade show costs, local marketing and advertising costs....etc. I completely agree with Belles in that Victory needs to do a better job of training their regional reps on HOW TO SELL the product and drive customers to the brand. the dealers know there business and Victory needs to be there to "compliment" them by giving their strengths to the game. As I write this I can come up with 15-20 methods and procedures that are not being utilized by Victory and their dealers to grow the brand. I'd be willingto bet that if I was a fly on the wall following around some of the regional reps I could tell you what they were gonna do before they did it.....but that also begs the question of direction from the top. Those reps do what they think they are "supposed to do".

 

[mjw930]

Just to add a little fuel to the fire, on the Victory website where they promote their Fuel IT demo tour all of the pictures are of their truck in Daytona!

http://www.polarisindustries.com/en-us/Victory-Motorcycles/Experience/Pages/000DemoLateSep.aspx

 

[ZZedmonds]

I would be disappointed if Victory didn't show up at Daytona too. After working for a fortune 500 company that participated in Automotive trade shows of many different shapes and sizes, I have a deep appreciation for the tremendous expense of said events. Victory made the decision to put the demo trucks at the dealers rather than than events like Daytona because they get more bang for their buck, probably selling more bikes. After being in the trade show thing it's like planning a wedding... not just one but what is it's multiple events over the course of the year? Lot's of logistics and crap to plan and execute. The demo trucks on the other hand? Pretty much cookie cutter once from dealer to dealer. It does not make sense for them to spend that kind of money to attend an event that merely satisfies it's "fans" on not focusing on selling bikes. That's just smart business.

 

[mjw930]

I would be disappointed if Victory didn't show up at Daytona too. After working for a fortune 500 company that participated in Automotive trade shows of many different shapes and sizes, I have a deep appreciation for the tremendous expense of said events. Victory made the decision to put the demo trucks at the dealers rather than than events like Daytona because they get more bang for their buck, probably selling more bikes. After being in the trade show thing it's like planning a wedding... not just one but what is it's multiple events over the course of the year? Lot's of logistics and crap to plan and execute. The demo trucks on the other hand? Pretty much cookie cutter once from dealer to dealer. It does not make sense for them to spend that kind of money to attend an event that merely satisfies it's "fans" on not focusing on selling bikes. That's just smart business.

You missed the point earlier, The DEALER wanted the truck for this week at his dealership, on his dime but Victory wouldn't do it and he requested this in January.

 

[ZZedmonds]

I would be disappointed if Victory didn't show up at Daytona too. After working for a fortune 500 company that participated in Automotive trade shows of many different shapes and sizes, I have a deep appreciation for the tremendous expense of said events. Victory made the decision to put the demo trucks at the dealers rather than than events like Daytona because they get more bang for their buck, probably selling more bikes. After being in the trade show thing it's like planning a wedding... not just one but what is it's multiple events over the course of the year? Lot's of logistics and crap to plan and execute. The demo trucks on the other hand? Pretty much cookie cutter once from dealer to dealer. It does not make sense for them to spend that kind of money to attend an event that merely satisfies it's "fans" on not focusing on selling bikes. That's just smart business.

You missed the point earlier, The DEALER wanted the truck for this week at his dealership, on his dime but Victory wouldn't do it and he requested this in January.

Well... Sorry about that. I missed that point. It's hard to say what kind of politics or bad communication may have lead to that. In that respect, I would be bent out of shape if I were the dealer.

 

[TCB-1]

Over the past few years, allot of bike man. are not going to the rallies. Or if they come, not doing demo rides. Times are tough everywere..

 

[foambuilder]

I have been to4 Demo events. Two in Salt Lake City, one in Boise Id, and one in Idaho Falls, ID.
The one in Boise was just scheduleded a month ago (it was 10/8) and the one in Idaho Falls (10/9) was not on the sked until 2 weeks ago. The dealers tell me that it costs them $4000 for one day of a Fuel-It demo event.
In SLC, there were 20 bikes and they were all out all of the time. There was a waiting line for rides.
In Boise there were groups of 11-13 riders in a "roatation". In Idaho Falls, there were groups of 3-6 riders, and some as low as 2 riders.
I was not aware of any outside advertising by the IF dealer or Vic in newprint or TV commercials or whatever of the event. As a matter of fact, I had made my sked to go to the Boise event and found the IF event listed on the Vic-Demo site 1 weekprior to its timeline.
So, maybe there is flexibility in sked of demo trucks? Seems to me there is if delaers are close enough together.
I decided to go to both ID events to get numbers for a new XC. I don't care which dealer sells it, but I get tocompare "apples and apples"$ numbers before I buy one. It is certainly interesting. There is one hell of a lot of "bargain room" to be had if you do your homework. So far, the demo deal is wortha good chunk of cash to buy a new bike.
Based on the amount of riders I saw atthese dealer events, maybe there were some sales. Perhaps there would be mpre at a bike event, but you would still need a dealer to be there to sell the product.
FWIW: Vic builds about 5-6000 bike a year. Sales are up 7%. HD is down 80%. Suz is down 120%. Honda and Yamaha are flat. Kawasaki is down 40%. Victory is just a PITA to the other manufacturers.
eta moya dva rubles

 

[mjw930]

FWIW: Vic builds about 5-6000 bike a year. Sales are up 7%. HD is down 80%. Suz is down 120%. Honda and Yamaha are flat. Kawasaki is down 40%. Victory is just a PITA to the other manufacturers.
eta moya dva rubles

Actually, Victory sales are up 68% over the first half of the year as per their 2nd quarter results.

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=108235&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1449304&highlight=

 

[foambuilder]

for mjw930-
Nice of you to find the article. I was repeating what the Polaris/Victory rep told me on 10/9. I stand, or sit, corrected.
OK, one part of the article says 68% and I think those are dollar numbers. Another part farther down says 48%.
Anyway, up is up and MamaVic isn't doing to badly.
Quote from Article:
Sales of the On-Road division, which primarily consists of Victory motorcycles, increased 48 percent during the second quarter of 2010 when compared to the same period in 2009. The North American heavyweight cruiser and touring motorcycle industry remained weak during the quarter, but Victory continued to benefit from the actions implemented over the past nine months to accelerate growth. Victory motorcycles had strong retail sales during the 2010 second quarter, increasing more than 10 percent in North America compared to the second quarter last year, resulting in market share gains and retail sales growth for the third consecutive quarter. The increased demand reflects the acceptance of the new model year 2010 motorcycles, particularly the new Cross Country(TM) and Cross Roads(TM) touring models. North American dealer inventory of Victory motorcycles declined 32 percent in the 2010 second quarter compared to 2009 comparable levels. The sale of Victory motorcycles in markets outside of North America continues to accelerate, with sales reaching 25 percent of total On-Road/Victory sales for the year-to-date period ended June 30, 2010.
eta moya dva rubles

 

[dsjr70]

Anyway, up is up and MamaVic isn't doing to badly.
Quote from Article:
Sales of the On-Road division, which primarily consists of Victory motorcycles, increased 48 percent during the second quarter of 2010 when compared to the same period in 2009. The North American heavyweight cruiser and touring motorcycle industry remained weak during the quarter, but Victory continued to benefit from the actions implemented over the past nine months to accelerate growth. Victory motorcycles had strong retail sales during the 2010 second quarter, increasing more than 10 percent in North America compared to the second quarter last year, resulting in market share gains and retail sales growth for the third consecutive quarter. The increased demand reflects the acceptance of the new model year 2010 motorcycles, particularly the new Cross Country(TM) and Cross Roads(TM) touring models. North American dealer inventory of Victory motorcycles declined 32 percent in the 2010 second quarter compared to 2009 comparable levels. The sale of Victory motorcycles in markets outside of North America continues to accelerate, with sales reaching 25 percent of total On-Road/Victory sales for the year-to-date period ended June 30, 2010.
eta moya dva rubles

I personally would be interested in a 3 or 4 year outlook. They are quoting growth numbers based upon the worse year in motorcycle history for every manufacturer.

 

[tsdavis]

FWIW: Vic builds about 5-6000 bike a year. Sales are up 7%. HD is down 80%. Suz is down 120%. Honda and Yamaha are flat. Kawasaki is down 40%. Victory is just a PITA to the other manufacturers.
eta moya dva rubles

Actually, Victory sales are up 68% over the first half of the year as per their 2nd quarter results.

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=108235&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1449304&highlight=

Glad I helped.

 

[dsjr70]

Well, I am glad to see we will be getting the Demo truck in 4 locations... Unfortunetely 3 weeks after Biketoberfest...

 

[gwritesel]

I think Victory just need to display a few bikes on trailers at Biketoberfest,maybe a bike and trailer package and their sales will go off the charts.Sorry couldn't help my self,I ride my bikes everywhere that I go.
Geo.

 

[mjw930]

I think Victory just need to display a few bikes on trailers at Biketoberfest,maybe a bike and trailer package and their sales will go off the charts.Sorry couldn't help my self,I ride my bikes everywhere that I go.
Geo.

OK, so I'm sufficiently lost........ And your point is?

 

[hmd520]

why would you not want to be represented against your competition at a major event?? makes no sense. So if Victory does not go to the show... they loose .
Just an opinion... you have to be consistant with your presence..... it will eventually pay off.