Technical
be a full campaign with a complete package of information including high resolution digital photography distributed to the relevant media.
The press conference
Whenever and wherever possible, we like to launch new products with a press conference and the best place to do this is at major exhibitions. Here in the UK, it will normally be either at Saltex (for municipal products) or BTME in Harrogate (for golf products). We may also plan major launches in Europe, USA and Asia depending on the target audience for our products.
Ahead of the show, we issue personal invitations to selected journalists and editors asking them to attend. We normally arrange this close to lunch and offer hospitality. Someone once said that the quickest way to a journalist’s heart was through the stomach!
At the press conference, we have the opportunity for our Product Managers to provide a detailed overview of the new product and answer any questions from the media. Depending on the location, there will also be an opportunity to ride and drive the machine, which allows the media to get up close and personal with it.
We will also have senior staff from the company present so that they can continue conversations with the media over lunch. Every journalist attending the press conference will depart with a detailed press pack containing all the information about the product and all of the high resolution imagery.
The Distribution network
Hopefully, our marketing and advertising campaigns have created a ‘pull’ response to the new product - prospective customers are interested enough to want to see the machine and request demonstrations.
We will have encouraged our dealers to take demonstration machines so that they can respond efficiently to these requests. We will also use our own demonstration team to tour the country using a dedicated Roadshow format, stopping off at various
ITTEC is the Ransomes Jacobsen distributor in the Czech Republic
complete all of the sales-related paperwork.
The delivery of equipment provides yet another marketing opportunity. When we have supplied high profile end-users, or a machine is going to be used for an unusual application, we have the opportunity for additional media coverage.
Our Public Relations Manager will visit the particular club or end-user to get the story behind the purchase, take photographs and then issue the information in the form of a press release to the relevant media. This is a further opportunity to build brand awareness in the marketplace.
New mowers leaving the Ipswich factory
locations across the UK (and Europe) to show the product to prospective purchasers. Similar activities will take place in the USA and Asia, if appropriate.
Within the four to eight week period after launch the orders begin to come in. The factory will have been building ‘stock’ machines in anticipation of sales, and machines will be despatched to our dealer network.
Like the other major manufacturers in our industry, we don’t sell direct to the end- user. We sell through a network of dealers in the UK and through distributors in other parts of the world. Each dealer/distributor will have a designated territory or country, although in Europe under EU rules they are free to sell across the European trading area.
Once a sale has been agreed, the mower will be packaged for shipping in our warehouse, loaded onto a truck and delivered to the dealer/distributor. Here, it will undergo a stringent pre-delivery inspection before being delivered to the end-user. The sales representative from the dealer, and on some occasions a territory or regional manager from Ipswich, will install the machine, ensuring that every user is comfortable in its operation and
So, we’ve brought a new machine to market; we’ve launched it, promoted it, sold it, delivered it and it’s out there in the field doing the job it was designed to do. We support it using our dealer network and factory technicians throughout its lifecycle, ensuring that it continues to perform to its maximum.
However, there will be subtle changes made to the machine during this period. Our design team will be monitoring feedback from customers and, after evaluation, will incorporate improvements into the design, if required. So, whilst we endeavour to produce the optimum machine at launch, there will always be design changes over its lifecycle; it’s the nature of what we do.
In conclusion, this final article has closed the circle on the design and production of a new mower. We hope it has provided an insight into all of the processes that go into the making a modern commercial mower. It takes a large team of design engineers, manufacturing personnel, a professional sales and marketing team, a committed management driving the business forward and a dedicated distribution network to bring new equipment to market, and we’ve been doing just that, in Ipswich, for over 180 years.
A recent delivery of machines to Fife Council in Scotland provided a PR opportunity OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013 PC 135
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