On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 4:50 PM, Scott Hilliard <kiayker_at_sbcglobal.net> wrote: > > I would really love to see some statistics as to which are the most > popular sea kayaks. While you are all touting performance, I suspect the > truth of the matter is that your typical sea kayaker (even second and third > time buyers)are not really so sophisticated as to their choices in boats - > and paddles, and other gear for that matter. Just look at car sales for > example. Is everybody really looking for the most efficient vehicle? Just > what in the %^$# is going through the heads of the people who buy Hummers? > Why do we have so many different variations of automobiles if everybody is > looking for the same perfect car? I suspect that a great many designers and > manufactures of sea kayaks are looking to produce little more then what > current trends in sales dictate. But then that's just my very cynical take > on the subject :-) Cynical or not, I think this is probably the major explanation for why Mariners aren't the most popular kayaks in the world; or even the USA (although they're pretty popular on the west coast). And even if most of the paddlers were sophisticated, they probably wouldn't want anything that cost more than XXX dollars or weighed more than XX pounds or were longer than XX feet. So this begs the question: what are we being sold when we hear that a $3500 kayak is a "performance" kayak? Just something really really tippy so that we can feel smug about taming it when none of our friends can? Or are folks who actually *do* get something from performance boats actually getting that extra edge? None of this, of course, answers Duane's question: Was Mariner the only mfgr to get it "right". When Matt and Cam were not going to continue producing Mariners why wasn't someone like Necky bidding heavily for the rights to license, say.... the Coaster. It seems to me that would be an almost sure-fire big seller. Of course, what I know about marketing kayaks in particular or marketing in general can fill books. In fact, I'm pretty sure it *has* filled books. Heck... how hard could it be. :P Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Mar 11 2008 - 19:40:03 PDT
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