The Mike New Technics Bearing

[DSJR]

Mike, there's still much uncertainty here in the UK right now, with jobs more "on the line" than ever, squeezes in spending ability etc and a generally depressed vibe. Don't despair just yet

[Mike_New]

Hi Dave,
I guess you are very correct when you mention the economic state of the UK. However at least 75% of my bearings have gone to people outside the UK many into the baltic countries and Russia would you believe! the remainder to Europe Asia and the US who have been real enthusiasts.

[Marco]

Well folks, the last Bearing was sold today.
That makes about 125 bearings in total
So if there are any more interested SL1200 devotees keen to experience the best that the SL1200 can produce, then you will need to decide what to do. As I have not had a great deal of interest from anyone for the production of another batch of 25.
I guess the vast enthusiasm demonstrated over the past three years has now somewhat sadly died down.

Hi Mike,

My advice is to try and get someone in one of the major magazines to review a modded Techy, fitted with one of your bearings, not necessarily the printed versions, but perhaps something like TNT Audio or one of the other well-known on-line magazines, which have a strong presence in the US and further afield.

There's a limit to how many bearings you'll sell by word of mouth on forums. Selling 125 of them that way is rather good going!

However, if you want to take things to the next level, you'll need to promote yourself proactively, and become known in much wider circles. It boils down to how much effort YOU want to put into selling your bearings (realistically you can't expect any more sales to simply fall on your lap), or if you're quite happy now to have made a bit of pocket money from the sales you've had here and just put it to bed.

Personally, I'd vote for the former option and would do everything I could to help

Marco.

[Ammonite Audio]

Hi Dave,
I guess you are very correct when you mention the economic state of the UK. However at least 75% of my bearings have gone to people outside the UK many into the baltic countries and Russia would you believe! the remainder to Europe Asia and the US who have been real enthusiasts.

That mirrors exactly my experience with selling the Jelco collars.

[Frankyc2003]

However, if you want to take things to the next level, you'll need to promote yourself proactively, and become known in much wider circles. It boils down to how much effort YOU want to put into selling your bearings (realistically you can't expect any more sales to simply fall on your lap)

+1 here.

I agee with Marco.
You are in a VERY niche market so don't despair...
Most Technics users don't care about the quality of their bearings, they DJ and that's it... So your pool of potential customers is already quite small. And your products are not cheap (they are worth every penny I think, so don't get me wrong here). But that price tag can become easily justifiable by the use of clever marketing! In the commercial Audiophile world, there are some insanely expensive products on offer, but they have some crazy packaging, fantastic credentials, full scientific papers to back them up. Audiophiles love a nice gaphic, or table or curves with figures etc... So maybe some work can be done here to create a full press pack for your product.

What can help in your situation, is as very relevantly suggested by Marco is advertising via the web... Not everyone has heard of AOS, not everyone has read all the fantastic reviews your product have had... So web based magazines are definitely the way to go. Have you contacted people behind Stereophile, Absolute Sound, etc... Be prepared to build a 'test' deck, with all your upgrades on, crate it and offer it to reviewers far afield. Get your work, hard effort and manufacturing talent, heard in as many places as possible.
Closer to home, I would try to get in touch with David Price, ex-editor of Hifi World, ex-editor of Hifi Choice, he was one of the early advocate of the Technics as an audiophile deck in the UK, in the national press at least. If he hasn't already heard of your fantastic product, I am sure he will be very interested.

But again as in any business, you need to set some realistic goals and targets. How much income do you want to generate a year from your upgrades, how much time and availability have you got on your hands... How flexible are your suppliers..? When the orders arrive thick and strong, you want to be able to honor those orders as quickly as possible...

All this will seem pretty obvious and common sense, but that's the name of the game... And to look at the optimistic picture here, OZ and NZ have pretty much avoided all recession and economic lag, South East Asia is also very promising market, especially China where young professionals with large disposable incomes become more and more interested in HIFI (proof being the wealth of new products in shows in China.)

Anyway that's my twopence...

To paraphrase Kevin Kostner, If you build it, they will come!

Happy Easter

[Mike_New]

Hi Francois and Marco,
I hear what you are saying, however it is the fact that anything to do with the SL1200 sales wise, is to be operating in a very niche market. I have looked at the online magazine site that you mentioned Marco and I could only find a couple of articles on the SL written about 5 years ago. Sure I will contact them and see what they say, thank you.
I don’t think Mr. Price would be interested in talking to me, as he is a close friend of Cawley. I did offer to supply a bearing to him for free at HFW, for use on his testbed SL but got no reply.

As for putting together an evaluation kit, this is possible, but to ship it to all the “reviewers” would be very costly and they all have their own time frames to work in, so the delay for any positive results would be measured in years. Sure I could send out just bearings to all the candidate magazines, but this would also be very costly, resulting in a large upfront capital outlay, which I am not interested in; for instance I would have to make a batch of 25 just to meet this requirement, even if I could determine the best mags to contact.

I think you are correct in assuming there is a still large potential market for the bearings among the large population of audiophiles who have SLs. However I believe that the very real marketing problem is one of language.
For instance I have only sold 2 bearings in China (how many people live there?) So, yes I need to join a Chinese forum and put Chinese on my website. Only one problem!! This also I believe pertains to Europe, in particular Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and others; where I guess they have their own Audio forums. This of course is where agents/distributors become useful, but the downside is that they require margins for their efforts so the price has to be increased, which is not unreasonable.

I have tried to work with some people in Europe who may have the time to be interested in actively participating on a local forum, and to represent my Bearings for a margin on the price. But nothing ever really happened.

The US should be good for a much larger uptake, but again as you say getting into HiFi mags is important. And most of them do not do reviews for free, you have to advertise with them which again is expensive for such a niche market.

In summary, getting out to a wider audience on the internet which has a proactive interest in the SL, is the better path to follow I think. How to do this effectively is the big question.

[Audioman]

Hi Francois and Marco,

The US should be good for a much larger uptake, but again as you say getting into HiFi mags is important. And most of them do not do reviews for free, you have to advertise with them which again is expensive for such a niche market.

In summary, getting out to a wider audience on the internet which has a proactive interest in the SL, is the better path to follow I think. How to do this effectively is the big question.

Have you tried Tone Audio the internet magazine? The owner is on Steve Hoffman forum where there are a lot of Technics owners. In the UK, if DP has blanked you Hi-News is your best bet. You could try making Ken Kessler aware to see if that sparks his interest. Of course Adam (Beobloke) now writes for them and is already aware of your products. Haden Boardman does freelance articles on DIY and classic kit. May be worth talking to - (hb_s) on ebay.

Paul.

[JazzBones]

Hi again Mike, its a question of 'how do I go about increasing my business'? Yes, advertising is very very expensive, I once sold advertising space for IPC Business Press and had a constant battle convincing business, big or small, to give me some of their advertising budget for the year! An ad in a monthly publication lasts for a month and then that ad gets binned so thats out of the question.

I suggested on a different post that you go interactive with your customers by allowing feed back and comment, I think you did respond to this. Yes, China is big but places like Hongkong, Singapore, Phillipines, Japan etc have a large number who speak English very well. Then we have India with 1Bn population with a high proportion of English speakers so China is not your only market place.

Secondly, the HiFi mags do have a section for readers to write in and I have noticed that a few people are informing other readers of their activities in modifying turntables such as Thorens, Garrards etc., its high time for a Techy to get noticed. What I feel is the need for someone who is extremely articulate and has upgraded their 12XX with your products to write a readers letter outlining what has been down, bearing etc. don't forget pictures.
This could be a spark that flames wider interest amongst readers who are totally unaware of you or your products?

Let me leave you with this:

IT PAYS TO ADVERTISE

The cod fish lays 10,000 eggs;
the humble hen lays one!
But the cod fish does not cackle,
to tell you what she's done...
and so we scorn the codfish,
while the humble hen we prize.
Which indicates to you and me,
that it pays to advertise!

..... Earl Mountbatten of Burma

[Mike_New]

Hi Paul and Ron,
Thanks for the ideas I will try some of them.
I noticed today that this thread has attracted nearly 45,000 reads so there must be a lot of people out there who could be interested. Just imagine 40,000 bearings!!! then I could sell them for $250 each.

[UV101]

i'll take one @ $250!!!!!! only 39,999 needed now!