[TenTec] Hamfests in general

[Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP]

Yes Jim, but MOST HAMS don't go to the Hamfest that the dealers do.
If they go at all, it is usually to local events.

Perhaps 20,000 out of 700,000 US hams go to Dayton.
3% of the potential customers will be there.
So will Ten-Tec.

But Orlando?  Perhaps 1%?

I understand Elecraft is doing a better job of covering hamfests.
I've spoken with Eric in Orlando and in Friedrichshafen.

Perhaps their ham radio sales is doing better than Ten-Tecs.
I don't have any insight to Ten-Tec's business, nor Elecraft's.
But I do to our own business and I know why we are cutting back in some
places and investing more in others.
And I fully understand why some choose not to go at all, because EVERY
Hamfest we have ever been to has been, at least from an event standpoint, a
big loss.
Of course we have no idea how much business thereafter was leveraged from
attending the event.

73
Rick, DJ0IP

-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Jim Brown
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2013 6:27 PM
To: tentec at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Hamfests in general

On 2/18/2013 11:02 PM, Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP wrote:
> Jim, what you noticed is exactly what smart companies are doing.
> Instead of going to expensive hamfests,

The problem with that approach is that many (most?) hams want to SEE and
TOUCH a radio before spending a big chunk of our hard earned savings on it.
If the manufacturer does not sell through dealers with brick and mortar
stores, a potential customer can only see and touch the radio at a hamfest
or in his buddy's shack. That limits choices for most hams, and it yields
the market to the companies with the greatest number of users and the
biggest advertising budgets. Ten Tec is at a huge disadvantage by both of
those measures.

Many hams also want some personal relationship with the manufacturer.  
That CAN be accomplished online, and another US mfr who only sells direct in
North America, Elecraft, has done a spectacularly good job of online contact
with their customers -- they run rings around Ten Tec in that regard. They
also go to hamfests.

73, Jim K9YC
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