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Penguin45 wrote:18 months from now, it could all be changing for the better!
Exactly and, other than a bit of time, there’s nothing at to be lost from at least trying to make things better than sitting around waiting on doomsday IMO. Things may well happen, but they more often don’t happen on thier own without some intervention.
K.
Re: One Million!
penguin45 wrote:As things currently stand, we are absolutely at the bottom of the white goods food chain and we’re going to stay there unless we come out fighting. This has the potential to be a powerbase to change the industry.
I take my hat off to this this late night candle burning whizz kid who has an uncanny knack of ‘hitting the nail on the head’ in many of his postings…..respect my friend Chris 🙂 And indeed so, we ARE the bottom of the food chain. Our opinions should and could well be listened to by the public at large if we are to make a concerted effort in that direction.
My last posting was to try to point out the reality of the present situation and was as Del said somewhat “defeatest/resignation to the status quo” (possibly so) but nevertheless is the present position we find our industry currently in. I am up for seeking ways in which to ‘turn it around’ and to ensure we all have an onward and upward future to look forward to. But I still fail to see how this can be achieved realistically speaking.
It is all well and good trying to cite a ‘parallel’ with the Motor Industry and their fear of ‘What Car Magazine’ and ‘JD Power Surveys’ etc etc.. and the tremors within their ranks when they produce a ‘duff’ motor car. Any whitegoods product as you well know costs a fraction to that of a motor car and is therefore (IMO) irrelavant. In our trade only ‘Which’ come close to telling (the vast MINORITY) what is good or maybe not so good in the Whitegoods game. They buy current machines and bench test them (fact) and sometimes they find faults in these new machines and report accordingly. It is obvious they do not ‘take the back off’ as they would realise many of the machines they test are the same but ‘rebadged’. Many of their reports we find later are well flawed in one way or another. Nevertheless they do give a relatively unbiased report that stands in good stead for their customers( numbered only in a few thousand) at least.
How could we (the guys that fix ’em) possibly give any credance or opinion on the latest (for example) brand new ‘Hotpoint WF865 1600rpm Washing Machine’ before one is sold by some spiv wearing a suit and tie in Currys and the wheels fall off?…….40 or 50 members that monitor and report to UKW possibly may come across one 6 to 18 months later and report “Hey guys the bloody wheels are falling off Hotpoint WF865’s!!!!!!!”
What is the point?…its too late by then, Hotpoint have realised the problem well before we do, but do bugger all about it and instead and very cunningly CHANGE THE MODEL NUMBER to disguise the fact they have a wheel problem that will cost them little in balance to overall sales! A few hundred aggrieved owners of WF865’s find reference to it via Google to UKW after theirs has gone belly up….all we can say is…”Yes we have heard of this fault, but can’t do nowt, would you like an engineer to fix it though, we can do that for you?
To “come out fighting” and for us using a “big stick” is beyond anything we at UKW can muster I am afraid.(I would love you to convince me otherwise) And in the hope my opinions haven’t bored you or made you angry at my impertinence as finally I will conclude with another example to try and make my point …..Judy Benoit Milner…….Whirlpool Tumble Dryer….burnt her friggin house down it did……..we all read the posts…..thousands and thousands of ‘Jo Public’ read about it also on UKW…………..BBC Watchdog did a splendid article about it in which MILLIONS of people saw it on TV………
………What was the conclusion?………..Does anybody know if it affected sales at COSTCO?
I rest my case…. 😥Martin
Re: One Million!
Excellent post Martin.
And one that I hope will cool the thread slightly……..
Of course there are issues and of course the potential of UKW could be hugely influential in the future……….but don’t get carried away.
Out of all the members we have its usually the same bunch chatting and posting, I’m sure the rest have views but we should ask Penquin to do a presentation on the idea for those who attend our next meeting. Excell help is available from me and any forms etc you need designing is straight forward. Any help Penquin might need in typing stuff up is also available from me.
The thread is very good but………..we have more friends out there than some realize, there are manufacturers and service providers that may well be willing to help with the collection of data, some of you will know to whom I refer and that our contacts into these businesses are excellent. So please recognise that we are not the WHOLE industry, but a part of it, we should seriously consider asking our friends for help as their support will lend credance to the results….
regards
kevin
Re: One Million!
kheath wrote:Excellent post Martin.
At last, someone that possibly can see what I am getting at. We must thrash this out at Stafford, and Penguin…you must attend OK?
Martin
Consider this, a well read magazine review or web review can seriously affect a products sell-ability, it’s a proven fact. All it needs is enough exposure, either directly or indirectly and whilst it won’t kill sales of any product or brand it can affect them quite profoundly. However that said, no-one here is suggesting that UKW would have that much effect, yet. It may in time as it’s exposure grows, but that remains to be seen.
But I notice your post about Mr Gates, who we all just love Martin, it may come as no surprise that the most financially powerful man/corporation started in a garage in the middle of nowhere with no money, no resources and no customer base. They didn’t just say, “it’s not worth it why bother”. I’m not saying it will or wil not make a difference in the slightest, but at least we could honestly say we tried to make a difference.
I often draw parallels with other industries with the whitegoods one, as when you walk into WH Smith there are reams of magazines about browngoods, cars, in fact, just about anything on the planet but not a one about our boring white boxes, because that’s how the public sees them. The closest ou’ll get is a snippet in Which, various kitchen or homes magazines where, you’ll notice, most of the manufacturers target their advertising. Simply because most appliances are changed through neccessity, i.e. a distress purchase, by moving home or changing the kitchen, they rarely get changed because there’s a newer and better one come along. So, how effective it would be is debateable for sure and it would take years to really make a difference, this is not going to produce short-term results. But it time, it may.
But then, as this industry moves at glacial pace, just how would you fill a monthly magazine that was of any interest to consumers? 😉
K.
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