Keep inventing
Monday, 08 March 2010 09:25
Sean O’Driscoll emphasises the importance of innovation and gives his views the International Fly Tackle Dealer Show.
Flicking through one of the business magazines that are delivered to my desk every month I was intrigued to read that a certain media guru, going by the name of Margaret Heffernan, was claiming that innovative products are pointless if the price is too high.
Of course she is partly right because it’s no good inventing the very latest super-duper rod or reel and trying to sell it at a price that the market is not comfortable with.
She then suggests that the old way of segmenting markets is changing – the top’s gone, the battle for innovation has faded and the old battle over price has come back with a vengeance.
So there we have it. We might as well all forget about trying to improve our products and just them sell on price. What a load of old baloney!
I am really baffled that someone who professes to be in the media can argue this point. But she does and continues: “New technologies mean that cheap imitations are now very good and the Internet makes it easy to find them. With good quality cheap products available, and consumers and businesses fleeing from debt, the deluxe version isn’t compelling.”
This lady must walk around with her eyes and ears closed to the constant bombardment of innovative products that are fed to us every day by TV, radio, magazines, newspapers and the Internet. Does she think that it’s me-too products that drive the media? No, it’s generally products that target people who are looking for something that will give them the edge.
Thankfully the tackle trade thrives on innovation, and we are blessed with one-man operations and product managers at the bigger companies who are all striving to bring the latest technology to the table.
Of course there’s a percentage of our trade who are all about me-too products, where the main reason for buying is price, but I would have to say that percentage is in the minority.
There’s no doubt in my mind that those companies that continue to offer innovation and push the boundaries with materials and components are the ones that are growing our sport – and long may they continue. Without them we will just die and big-box stores and supermarkets will ultimately just gobble the tackle shop up.
Fly fishing show shenanigans
Readers by now will be well aware of the mess that the fly fishing world has got itself into with the International Fly Tackle Dealer Show. I haven’t passed comment yet because the last time I openly questioned the running of the show by the guys at Nielsen I was given the cold shoulder by one or two of its staff. I think I also got the blame for the poor attendance one year as they criticised the total lack of international publicity for the event. I never realised I was so influential!
The truth hurts sometimes and the old show was struggling. Nielsen was unable to make the sort of money they needed to make it work, so they didn’t really invest in it. For a worldwide show its yearly advertising budget was less than some of its exhibitors spent in a month!
Once all the shouting has settled down it is vital that the fly fishing market is serviced by an international trade event because it is the only true global form of fishing that we have.
