Here a few of my thoughts on the subject, I don`t know if I can get all of my thoughts together in one post, so I may end up writing a few things over a period of a few days, not sure !!, I am writing this as a dealer ( DE 44 SJ ) and I also don`t know if my comments are shared by all, we will probably see that if people press the " gefällt mir " button,
I think Tigers header Dead Duck is not quite right, The title should be
,
" Half hearted and much room for improvement" ,
The Sales action that we had at the beginning of 2016 with the buy a V 4 and get a free Akrapovic Exhaust and Tickets for the Moto GP was a very good thing and I think enjoyed by all that where at the Moto GP,
The problem with it was that we dealer where informed about 10 -14 Days before the Akra action started, and it never made it to the national motorcycle magazines, it was too short notice, and not enough people knew about it !!!
If something like this hopefully happens in future , for example over a period of lets say 01 - 15th March to the start of the Motorbike season, The dealer need to know mid Januar at the latest, and it needs to be advertised in the " Motorrad Magazine " middle and end of February, We could have sold twice as many bikes with the Akra action last year , if people knew about it.,
but after the Akra /Moto GP aktion, there was nothing else that happened in 2016 and marketing activities peetered out and ceased to happen
What to me seems to be missing, is the lack of a further development as far as advertising and Marketing, 20 years ago, no manufacturer spent money on Marketing, but times have changed, You have to invest in advertising and marteking to profile the brand , so that you can reap the rewards of sales, We have been one of the most sucessful Manufacturers in Motorcycle sport over the last 20 years, but no one knows about it, The saying " win on Sunday, sell on Monday" just doesn`t happen with us, Too many people still see Aprilia as a Scooter Manufacturer and fail to see that we build the finest Sports super Naked bikes on the Planet !!!
the average customer nowadays is not the 20 - 25 year old, he is between 40 & 65 years old and is usually in a stable job, earning a decent wage and expects to be treated better , Look at how the other European Bike manufacturers have developed over the last 15 years, it`s not just that they have developed new bikes, it is all about involving the customer, you can`t just sell him a bike, you need to involve him and make him feel a part of a community that he belongs to,
Triumph for example sent ALL of there customers letters around 2002 / 2003 asking them what kind of bikes would you like us to build, and thats what they have done since, and that has been the cornerstone for their sucess over the last years, they organise so called " Rat Packs " to give the customer the feeling of being part of it.
In our modern times of emails and social media , it has never been easier to reach customers, but look at the Facebook page from Aprilia Germany, The last post of information was on the 22.12.2015. that means that there was not one single post in 2016, not one !!!!, That people is Dark ages !!!! There should be 365 posts per year , photos and comments from the prodution line in Noale , Moto GP posts, new developments , sales , events, it should all go on there. If Donald Trump can win an election with social media, we must be able to improve our image and sales with it!!
when we dealers do a " sell out" report after selling a bike, we have to fill in the customers phone number , but the email address is an option, make the email address compulsory, the moment you have that , you have regular contact with the customer, you guys at Aprilia don`t have time to phone the customers regulary, but an info emai, can be sent to all of your customers for example once or twice a month at the press of a button, I don`t share Rolands reservatons about what we in Germany call Datenschütz, I think we all get 2 junk mails a day asking us if our penis is stiff enough, an email twice per month from Aprilia should not be a problem, and if it is the customer can always select himself not to receive the mail, but then it his his fault if he feels he is not getting enough info.
The other thing that needs more attention is marketing events, Rolands and I are out and about during the spring and summer months at least once but usually twice per months at weekends ( usually Sundays) and quite often together , displaying bikes and letting people testride our bikes at biker Cafes and clothing shops, and anyone else that will have us, and we try to push the brand forwards as much as we can, and I think that that is one of the reasons that we sell overproportionel , compared to the average dealer. but the support that we get from Aprilia Germany is really minimal.
Aprilia Germany has a show truck, but it just is not on the road often enough, The truck should be out and about every weekend from March til September , there are so many events , if you don`t get people to sit there arses on your bikes and ride them , then they go and buy something else !!!. Look at last year, I offered to travel the 400 KM `s to Bremerhaven and work with the truck for the weekend at the bike races ( Bike races, sporty motorcycles, there is a connection ) , but all I was told was that there was not enough money to send the truck, that is saving at the wrong end.
Look at the Moto GP at the sachsenring, look at how many manufacturers had there trucks there , seling clothing and merchendising, for gods sake, if we are there racing with Aprilia, we need to grab the customers when they are there, in our element.
Look at Glemseck, a big and very cool bike meeting with all kinds of special bikes, No Aprilia , no Truck , No sales !!!
I personally am willing to travel anywhere in Germany an wave an Aprilia flag if help is needed in supporting these kind of events.
We have been supporting the local exibition in Dortmund over the last few years, and other brands do in my opinion go over the top with clothing and Apparel at the show, and I do not wish to fill the stand with clothing, but we have not being able display anything over the years, I do feel that if we support you there , that we should have the opportunity to at least have a small display , and maybe earn some money at the same time. What also annoys me about such large scale events such as Dortmund, is the lack of Aprilia profile, we have a huge Piaggio group stand, which probably costs a lot of money, but for example, in years where Max Biaggi, and that French bloke won the Superbike world Championship, there was absoloutly nothing on that stand telling people that, my opinion is that there should have been an enormous banner with a picture of Max standing on his footpegs , punching the sky and the slogan " Max Biaggi World Superbike Champion Riding an RSV 4 Aprilia"
and on the Stand there should always be one of the bikes from the Moto GP or Superbike championship up high on a stand so everyone can admire it.
Look at things like the World Ducati Weekend, or Tridays, these are events that have grown in strength and numbers of visitors over the last 10 years, although I think events of more than 50000 people too much, it must be possible to organise something along these lines with Aprilia at an Italien Racetrack, with the objective of growing to around 20000 vistitors over the next 5 years.
Just to sum up my thought, I do not wish to preach to you guys, I am just a small dealer, in a small town, and I have just put my thoughts to paper, and I am very passionate about the whole subject of Aprilia / Moto Guzzi, I have probably said a lot of things that you are aware of, but we all need to work at getting it better in the future
There are so many things that can, and must be improved if Aprilia are wanting to remain a force to be reckoned with in the future, if any of you marketing guys are going to be coming to Piaggio in Düsseldorf and wish to meet for a form of brainstorming, please feel free to call me.
