A beer company once told its customers they were changing the label, but, not the beer. The brand plummeted in popularity, with the consumer being of the view that the beer had in fact been changed. Its a classic example of marketing gone wrong.
The Specialized Trail Crew is a spectacular concept, but, on current form, they're heading for a marketing disaster. About 76 Specialized enthusiasts registered and poured hours into the competition. There were six winners. The 70 others show every sign of becoming ex Specialized fans. While the Specialized fans keep up the sporting facade of congratulating the winners, I suspect that deep down there is lingering resentment.
Vance set up The Trail Crew to support the losers. Though there was lots of initial enthusiasm, little materialized. Now the Crew seems to be looking at other brands - Giant and Fisher. Mountain biking girl is disappointed and amazed at the choices.
I would not be surprised if you get other seriously disgruntled ex-Specialized fans amongst the 70 non winners. Let me tell you why:
1) Every one of the 76 entrants are hard core Specialized fans. How do you possibly say that one is more committed than the other without running the risk of seriously offending the one who does not win.
2) We live for our bike brand. We put effort into this and then - well nothing --- you hear nothing --- only much later you hear about the winners. No rationale, just simply 6 gloating winners with new bikes. Are we convinced that they will be great brand ambassadors - I really am not sure at this stage.
3) Brands are about building a community of users. That community of users merely want to be part of the brand. They buy the apparel and anything they can lay their hands on. They are seriously committed. Now you are telling 70 of them that they are not good enough to represent the Specialized brand! Will they look elsewhere - almost certainly.
4) So what makes more sense. Keeping 76 fans or making 6 happy and running the risk of loosing your 70 best brand ambassodors?
Maybe I'm wrong on these observations or I've seriously missed something. However, given the posts that I have read so far, if we cut through the facade of good sportsmanship, you'll quickly realize that the 70 out there feel like they've been kicked in the teeth. Do I want a free bike from Specialized. Well actually no - what I really want is to be recognized for being a true blue Specialized fan. A sticker, a letter, a thank you - is all it takes. Now, well what about that Silverback brand - they seem to be committed to their fans?
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Graham,
ReplyDeleteWith this project, we wanted to do something unique. We were interested in hearing real stories helping describe what this bike is all about. We were thrilled and eager to engage our community of fans but we had no idea how ridiculously hard it would become to actually pick among, like you mentioned, our most hardcore fans. We loved all the awesomely creative anecdotes, flickr albums, and YouTube videos. We appreciated every entry as it was shared and enjoyed around Specialized HQ. It took weeks to review the applicants and we eventually narrowed it down while considering location and riding experience. During this interim, we were excited and supportive of new connections being made among our fans along with others being inspired to start their own trail crew.
We’re proud and excited to introduce our first Stumpjumper Trail Crew. They’re off to a great start, posting great content about their rides, races, travel, and adventures. We invite everyone to follow along and enjoy. After all, we’re all bike geeks and love this stuff. We’re keeping our fingers crossed this will be well received, hopefully giving us the momentum to launch other projects with social media.
We can talk more on the phone as well if you'd like. You can reach me @ 408-779-6229 x2266
Cheers,
Tan
@iamspecialized