Aquadigital Products Discussion

Reef Pilot · #1 01-13-2015, 12:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by albert_dao

I'm a little late here, but to answer Walter's question, the idea of jebao granting exclusivity is a joke. Jebao's business plan doesn't include any form of relationship building with its dealers. No amount of massaging is going to change that.

I am not advocating exclusivity. I think that was AD's desire. I was just saying you can't ask for that, unless you at least have a foot in the door with selling their product.

I guess it comes down to volumes. If a distributor can get better pricing due to volumes, then it can be a benefit to the consumer as well. But our new world of online retailing (even all the way from China) makes it harder and harder to compete given the volumes they can sell directly.

I think this Alibaba Express is really going to have an impact, and it is just starting in Canada and North America. And BTW, BABA might be a good stock to hold, too. I think they are now already bigger than eBay and Amazon combined with e-Commerce. And they just went public a couple months ago...

Aqua-Digital · #2 01-13-2015, 01:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

I am not advocating exclusivity. I think that was AD's desire. I was just saying you can't ask for that, unless you at least have a foot in the door with selling their product.

This in theory makes sense, however for a distributor to get a product going in a territory costs a lot of investment, not having rights to it can be a costly exercise when they find tom dick and basement Bob selling it at some crazy margin. So we NOW only touch stuff we have some level of rights to. This business is way to cut throat to have anything else.

Some lines we do share but these are long standing arrangements where typically there are silent agreements and manufacturers bind us to selling levels.

Aqua-Digital · #3 01-13-2015, 01:46 AM

We will have another one on board by April

mikellini · #4 01-13-2015, 02:02 AM

An issue I have with AD (and I've already spoken with them via email about this) is regarding 'reviews'. From an ethical perspective, essentially offering someone a sale price on an item in exchange for doing a review on that item is a bad idea. You would never presume to do this with a publication/journalist, but for some reason it seems that this has been done many times (and continues to be common practice) with hobbyists. Putting the aside the issue of inherent bias due to money invested and desire to buy the product, the biggest problem with this is gross misrepresentation of a 'sale price' as a 'review opportunity'. I'd like to hear what others have to say about this (since I've already heard from AD).

Reef Pilot · #5 01-13-2015, 02:07 AM

You would be surprised how common this is everywhere, incl journalism. Very hard to find true reviews anywhere... Do you really believe what Motortrend says about a new car review??...

That's actually where these forums are in fact very valuable. You get experiences and opinions from real users, who actually paid for the product.

Aqua-Digital · #6 01-13-2015, 02:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

You would be surprised how common this is everywhere, incl journalism. Very hard to find true reviews anywhere... Do you really believe what Motortrend says about a new car review??...

That's actually where these forums are in fact very valuable. You get experiences and opinions from real users, who actually paid for the product.

+1

mikellini · #7 01-13-2015, 02:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

You would be surprised how common this is everywhere, incl journalism. Very hard to find true reviews anywhere... Do you really believe what Motortrend says about a new car review??...

That's actually where these forums are in fact very valuable. You get experiences and opinions from real users, who actually paid for the product.

Motortrend (and other journalists) do not have to pay to review things. They aren't usually given things free of charge either. They are given 'review units' that are returned after the review is completed.

I completely understand that it wouldn't often work (except with low cost items) to just 'gift' items to hobbyists for review. I also understand the worry about someone taking the product and running. But I suggested what I feel is the right way to do it (taking a deposit, then giving the option to purchase or return after the review, split shipping costs) and was told that I should essentially just read someone else's review.

Ron99 · #8 01-13-2015, 02:30 AM

I've had some experience in this industry with review units and the ones I have seen were provided free of charge to select bloggers/reviewers. They are a marketing write off for the manufacturer etc.

I've done some automotive writing and reviews and in that case the car companies usually give me a car for a week or so to drive and review. Cars are big ticket items so no give aways there. There were a couple I would have loved to keep

Aqua-Digital · #9 01-13-2015, 02:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikellini

I completely understand that it wouldn't often work (except with low cost items) to just 'gift' items to hobbyists for review. I also understand the worry about someone taking the product and running. But I suggested what I feel is the right way to do it (taking a deposit, then giving the option to purchase or return after the review, split shipping costs) and was told that I should essentially just read someone else's review.

I understand the theory, the issue is cost, believe it or not distributors have the tin margins, and to give a product away that then comes back effectively second hand that can not be sold is a huge loss, where as giving someone the opportunity to have something they may not be able to afford in return for as best as possible an unbiased review is a two way positive deal.

Distributors in this industry do not have the luxury to give away products even if it can be written off or seen as a marketing plus point. I wish we could just give out units, but it just can not be afforded.

Sadly nothing in life these days is free. So we offer a middle ground, nobody is making that reviewer take up the offer of course

Aqua-Digital · #10 01-13-2015, 02:10 AM

Here is why we do it.

when investing in a new product it is good to get honest open feedback of a product. These products typically are not cheap we distribute and to give someone the product for free simply does not work, we did this once and the guy ran off with the unit and we never heard a word back!

The idea is that end users get the chance to hear from other end users what they think about the product. This then feeds interest and then dealers know if the product is worth selling it also gives us a good representation of expected issues or concerns.

If by offering the product at typically import cost to someone is an issue then they dont have to take the offer up. But so far in 7 years of doing this we have had nothing but good feedback, however if that policy is now negatively accepted we simply will stop offering this to Canreefers.

Bottom line if you dont like it we wont do it.