Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Where's the Insider News?

Gosh, I don't know! I was talking to my friend Walt Rauch a couple of weeks ago, and he asked me the same thing. "Is anything going on?" he asked. "I don't hear anything." My answer was, neither do I. Part of this is the Dog Days of summer...most of the industry are starting to ramp up for SHOT..get the catalogs in production, hammer out the photography for brochures, etc. Plus most of the major players have been sitting on new products while the white-hot black rifel market burned itself out, followed by the traditional summer sales slump. A lot of what is be trumpeted as "new" are in fact previously announced products that are finally getting a place in the manufacturing queue.

It goes without saying that all of us in the industry have our favorites...some of that favoritism is based on hard, cold dollars — companies that spend a lot with our respective television shows or magazines tend to favor the people involved with that media. Sometimes it's based on people we've worked with for decades. I try really hard to reach out beyond my circle...why I spent time last week with Mossberg (not a sponsor), TASER (not a sponsor) and Springfield (not a sponsor). One of my best friends is an executive at Glock (not a sponsor), and we talk weekly. Same with lots of other executives.

In some cases, however, my "insider" status is a little too insider — I am under a series of non-disclose documents on new products or upcoming developments. Also, I'd like to point you toward the podcast...last week I talked about a meeting in Boise with the guys from Tactical Solutions, Primary Weapons Systems and MGM Targets talking about where we thought the industry was and where we're going...as a rule, I focus a lot of that kind of information on the podcast, a BEAST that MUST BE FED!

RE: Sig, I don't have a clue. There was a change in Sig marketing, but I made it a point of going to New Hampshire to meet with the new folks, talk to Sig Prez Ron Cohen and generally make sure they understood that at least on my side we still had a relationship.. We've all been very cordial at various trade shows, etc., yet I no longer even get press releases from Sig, much less T&E product. I've talked about the situation with my friend George Harris, head of the Sig Academy, and he's as puzzled as I am. I can only conclude that stuff indeed happens.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Michael,

Next time you talk to Sig about their new marketing gurus (whom I know fairly well) push them to to push the marketers to hire a dedicated social media/marketer...

Me, for example. My contact at the firm made the pitch, but ran into resistance.

Anonymous said...

I've seen behavior like SIG elsewhere. Either management is process of changing (e.g. they are getting orders from overseas), the corporate entity is in process of being sold or they think that a relationship is potentially toxic.

Unknown said...

"or they think that a relationship is potentially toxic."

There you have it Michael. You're toxic. You've gone to one too many Zombie shoots!

*LOL*

DAve said...

OTOH Sig has that cash for clunker guns thing now which has thrown my life into total turmoil...
*P220...or the house payment???*

Anonymous said...

Or, they could just be idiots. There is always that possibility.

Sigarms/Sig Sauer/Sig just hasn't been the same. They were all over the sigforum but not anymore. And cash for clunkers sounds kinda gimmicky and desparate.

It all seems strange.

FatWhiteMan said...

I used to get all kinds of communication and offers from SIG then suddenly, nothing, nada. Save for the Cash for Clunkers gimmick.

Anonymous said...

I just think they are out of touch. Probably don't have anybody there that can spell facebook let alone knows what it is and how to use it.

Anonymous said...

Sig is too busy to deal with us lowly civilians who aren't employed by some alphabet soup agency.

Well, not so much insider information, Michael, but Cass Sunstein, I think that is his name, was recently confirmed as some Minister of Information or Information Czar for the Obama administration.

He is...how shall I say...very pro-PETA and very anti-hunting..

Extrapolating that out down the path of unintended consequences....what's gonna happen, worst case scenario-wise, when all the Fudds can't hunt anymore, EH!!??

Will these same Fudds sell off their $5,000 over/under shotguns and buy a boutique branded AR instead and then top with a $1,500 optic???

Will it make a whole segment of the gun population finally realize that the Second Amendment is really not about hunting?

Anonymous said...

Sig has been acting increasingly erratic over time.

Witness the "we're only shipping one magazine with our pistols" debacle, which was rapidly followed up with "oops, disregard, our supply problems aren't as bad, so now we'll ship them with two again."

It was lame when they announced it, and while it was great they ended it, it never should have been implemented to begin with.

SIG is not the company that they used to be, and I own five of their pistols (all German!).