COLLETT CONTROVERSIAL
The curious tale of the forgotten spenders...
Angler, shooter, industry stalwart and general controversialist, Steve Collett, questions whether as marketers we are constantly targeting the wrong people... in both shooting and fi shing!
C
ast your mind back an hour, two hours or three hours and give me the average age of your customer. It’s all very well us in the trade
pretending to like young children, holding them aloft akin to product endorsements, “pretending” that they are our future, but haven’t we forgotten something? What about the “returner”, the
1 Steve Collett 80 | Tackle & Guns | June 2019 1
grey hair brigade, the stench of pee and biscuits mob, you know those blokes who come in and look like an advert for Dignitas? The bloke who would do anything, absolutely anything, to get away from that battle axe he has been married to for twenty years, and in the meantime pay a premium for it. They are the blokes that actually spend money, and yet we don’t give a fi g about them? All of our gear is now designed to be slim fi t, ripped, or tailored, futuristic and “edgy” looking. Our marketing is aimed at the “yoof” and the blokes on jazz cabbage in their tents. But go on, cast your mind back, how many trendy kids or grinning six year old have made your till ring in the past week? It’s all very well looking to the future and plonking a cute little girl on a box yelling “hold this fi sh or ill twat thee”. But is she really going to go on and be a consumer or an inspiration? Is that little lad who looks so cute holding a crucian carp under duress really going to contribute to the industries growth? No. Because by the time he has grown up, some vegan sandal wearing Libtard will probably have fi shing
castigated and categorised along with punching kittens and stabbing folks! Even if fi shing and shooting haven’t been placed on the sex offenders register, isn’t that little lad or girl is going to fi nd out pretty quickly that she will get more likes on “insta” if she wears less and holds her mush like a slug? And he will only get likes if he looks like an American gangsta with a wad of cash leaning on a Lamborghini, spouting about how many men he has killed this morning. Is it time we recruited the
returners, the grey gang, and the bloke who has just seen his lad discover girls and go out, more granting him more free time? I mean there is only so many times a man can walk around a garden centre, or pop in Dorothy Perkins on a Saturday. Stepping away from fi shing, I have just seen the same deal in air gunning. I’m looking at getting into fi eld target again after a long lay off, but nothing is marketed at me anymore. I’ll give you an example, it’s easier for me to write this way. I’m after a good FT or HFT rifl e. I’m not that bad off. I’ve stuck a couple of grand away for a gun, and the same for a scope, the bathroom can wait another two years. Whilst looking on YouTube and Google as you do, I am confronted by men in their fi fties trying to be sixteen wearing fl at brimmed caps and full brand tracksuits, and being “groovy”. That brand can do one, I don’t want to be associated with someone who resembles Timmy Mallett and will be next on the
www.tandgmagazine.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
