Thursday, March 18, 2010
Virginia Fly Fishing Festival
The peak of the spring show season brings us to Waynesboro Virginia. Waynesboro is a quiet and beautiful little town, tucked in the corners of the Shenandoah mountain skyline and it plays host to the annual Virginia Fly Fishing Festival. This year is the 10th anniversary of the Virginia Fly Fishing Festival and we celebrate in earnest on the weekend of the 17th and 18th of April 2010. Fly Fishing Benefactors (FFB) is a Gold-Level Sponsor for the Festival this year and we are proud to be a part of the festival and the 10th anniversary celebration. Come see us in the vendor tent for all the Festival merchandise, including; Great T-Shirts with prints from the Festival Artist over the years; mugs with the festival logo and the new Virginia Fly Fishing Festival aluminum fly boxes made by FFB. Along with the festival gear and merchandise, FFB will bring all our wares to show and demonstrate as well. We always have specials at the Festival and this year we will have a record number of "Good Deals" at the festival and on the web site for those that can't make the festival in person. We are looking for some volunteers to help us at the festival this year so drop us a line if you are interested in hanging with us that weekend.
Monday, March 15, 2010
NCC-TU - The Aftermath
What a great show in Bethesda this weekend! I commend George Gaines and the staff for putting on a such a wonderful show. We got to meet a few of our newest on-line customers, made a few new friends and customers, and we still got to enjoy the scenery and gear available. Some great raffle prizes and silent auction items were scrambled for most of the day, as well as the premium prizes like kayaks and float boats. Venue for the show is outstanding and even the weather cooperated (rainy) for an indoor event. : )
Now we switch gears as the biggest show of the season approaches. The Virginia Fly Fishing Festival is in about a month (17 & 18 April) down in Waynesboro. I hope to see a lot of you there. If anyone is interested in volunteering for the show to help out, please drop us a line, we could use the help.
Now we switch gears as the biggest show of the season approaches. The Virginia Fly Fishing Festival is in about a month (17 & 18 April) down in Waynesboro. I hope to see a lot of you there. If anyone is interested in volunteering for the show to help out, please drop us a line, we could use the help.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
NCC - TU Show - Bethesda Maryland March 13, 2010
Hi all! Fly Fishing Benefactors will brave the inner-loop of I-495 early Saturday morning, the 13th of March, to attend the NCC-TU Annual Fly Fishing Show in Bethesda Maryland. We will bring all our usual stuff and the new gear for 2009/2010. We hope to see you there. George Gaines and staff put on one of the best shows around, so make an effort and get out there to see the guests, and fondle the gear!
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
What does it take to make a gear sale?
Almost every marketing plan has a hopeful outcome. From selling multi-million dollar helicopters (like I do 9-5), to selling $15 fly boxes and $79 fly reels, there is a plan established to be successful. Obviously, the consumer wants the "bestest" for the "leastest." A good marketing plan will no doubt tout that premise. However, what if you find many good products for a very good price? The selection process become complicated again. The real difficult part of making a final choice on a product for a price, is the after sale performance of the item. Now that you decided you'll spend X dollars for this product, will you be happy after the sale?
Consumer Reports (CR) does a wonderful job of exemplifying that "post purchase performance." CR is un-biased and accepts no advertisements from industry. This allows them to play the straight and narrow when it comes to evaluating products. The truth is, they just report on a consumer's "after purchase" satisfaction level.
Generally speaking, these after purchase comments are done by us, the average "Joe Citizen." Not necessarily technically correct or accurate, they are mostly subjective and rarely objective evaluations of a post purchase performance level. This means that some of us consumers do not give an accurate evaluation because of our inability to be objective. For instance, I recently read a review of a HD camcorder on Best Buy, where the consumer pointed out his obvious ignorance, by complaining about the product and giving it a rating of Zero out of 5 rating, because the software was too complicated for him to operate. The camera probably worked flawlessly but the knucklehead making the evaluation gave the camera a zero out of 5 because the software was too hard for him to operate. I would like to guess that the camera probably performed at a 5 and the operator performed at a Zero because of their ignorance. Is that a fair evaluation of the camera? No it is not! CR, does wonders to ensure this problem does not happen when the ratings are published.
CR also does a good job by ensuring that certain evaluation criteria have pertinence to the rating process. Like weight of a camera or camcorder is obviously important if you are looking for being light and portable. Not likely you would care as much if they only made the camera in grey or black. Likewise, if a fly reel was light and carried a lot of extra backing, some people would find that a plus. Balancing the fly reel on your rod plays another important evaluation criteria. However, that the reel is blue, green, or red matters probably little. True, some people don't like shiny with a glint, as it may spook the fish. Aesthetics matter little but are always noteworthy pluses when all the mechanical and practical requirements are satisfactory. It could make the difference on your decision to buy or not to buy the product. We try to make it work great first, then we work on how nice it will look.
At Fly Fishing Benefactors (FFB), we pledge to manufacture a quality product, that will be functional and precise. The product will offer value for the price, and a company promise to work as advertised. Additionally, you won't have to spend a lot of money to get the best value for your dollar. And the best part, after you buy the product, we think you will be extremely satisfied with the performance of our products, thus reinforcing your good choice to buy it. Because , we will not only make the product right, we will make it look good and perform well too! You should have no regrets when you buy a product and we have found that many that have chosen us become repeat customers!
Take a look at our gear reviews and testimonials. The proof IS in the pudding and we are happy to say we have lots of different pudding at FFB! Give our gear a try, we think you'll be very satisfied and come back for more.
Consumer Reports (CR) does a wonderful job of exemplifying that "post purchase performance." CR is un-biased and accepts no advertisements from industry. This allows them to play the straight and narrow when it comes to evaluating products. The truth is, they just report on a consumer's "after purchase" satisfaction level.
Generally speaking, these after purchase comments are done by us, the average "Joe Citizen." Not necessarily technically correct or accurate, they are mostly subjective and rarely objective evaluations of a post purchase performance level. This means that some of us consumers do not give an accurate evaluation because of our inability to be objective. For instance, I recently read a review of a HD camcorder on Best Buy, where the consumer pointed out his obvious ignorance, by complaining about the product and giving it a rating of Zero out of 5 rating, because the software was too complicated for him to operate. The camera probably worked flawlessly but the knucklehead making the evaluation gave the camera a zero out of 5 because the software was too hard for him to operate. I would like to guess that the camera probably performed at a 5 and the operator performed at a Zero because of their ignorance. Is that a fair evaluation of the camera? No it is not! CR, does wonders to ensure this problem does not happen when the ratings are published.
CR also does a good job by ensuring that certain evaluation criteria have pertinence to the rating process. Like weight of a camera or camcorder is obviously important if you are looking for being light and portable. Not likely you would care as much if they only made the camera in grey or black. Likewise, if a fly reel was light and carried a lot of extra backing, some people would find that a plus. Balancing the fly reel on your rod plays another important evaluation criteria. However, that the reel is blue, green, or red matters probably little. True, some people don't like shiny with a glint, as it may spook the fish. Aesthetics matter little but are always noteworthy pluses when all the mechanical and practical requirements are satisfactory. It could make the difference on your decision to buy or not to buy the product. We try to make it work great first, then we work on how nice it will look.
At Fly Fishing Benefactors (FFB), we pledge to manufacture a quality product, that will be functional and precise. The product will offer value for the price, and a company promise to work as advertised. Additionally, you won't have to spend a lot of money to get the best value for your dollar. And the best part, after you buy the product, we think you will be extremely satisfied with the performance of our products, thus reinforcing your good choice to buy it. Because , we will not only make the product right, we will make it look good and perform well too! You should have no regrets when you buy a product and we have found that many that have chosen us become repeat customers!
Take a look at our gear reviews and testimonials. The proof IS in the pudding and we are happy to say we have lots of different pudding at FFB! Give our gear a try, we think you'll be very satisfied and come back for more.
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