Princess are on a marketing roll

[petem]

Yes but you won't find yourself in the crosshairs whilst having a sundowner on the back of a Predator.

I have just held up the copy of the aforementioned magazine to SWMBO and told her that a load of old men are getting energised about receiving it for free. Her response 'Why?'

Henry, I think you should give it up as bad job. You've done your best.

Speak for yourself, some of us are still on the right side of 50!

 

[Bigplumbs]

Speak for yourself, some of us are still on the right side of 50!

Yes but which side is the right side.

Dennis

 

[MapisM]

Quite what murdering people has to do with it all I don't know.

Absolutely nothing, obviously - it was just an (extreme, admittedly) example of folks targeting the coverage as such, with zero interest on actually selling anything.

Now you are saying that "there is an element who buy because of that crowd", and while I still doubt that Kotler would call it a brilliant example of razor sharp marketing, it's different from saying that someone aiming at blanket coverage rather than sales is a mktg god - which is what I argued with, nothing else.

That aside, what Oundle has to do with Milan I also don't know. I could name dozens of places in IT where you would struggle to believe that there's someone building boats, but Milan is not one of them.

 

[Nick_H]

Imagine the reaction if the Princess magazine had a free copy of a U2 CD bundled with it

 

[jfm]

I think that's a tad unfair. Some effort has been put in to select interesting content.

Pete I don't think it is unfair - in fact I agree wholly with what chris-d writes. While I don't mind at all them sending it to me, it IS a me-too magazine. OK the team found some eclectic content but that isn't any big deal - you just hire a few people and ask them to get on with it. Nothing takes away the "me-too"-ness of it, and the fact that plenty of their boat buyer target market really don't look to Princess to entertain them via a magazine nor tell them about fine watches. It is a hackneyed marketing strategy rather than a "marketing roll" imho and Princess really need to do some far more fundamental things to solve their profound financial problem of making loses and creating no shareholder value. It's a company with great heritage and is a very important employer, and has loyal customers plus plenty of not-yet customers who feel warm towards it, but it needs something much smarter than this.

All that said, the magazine may be a mere side show in Princess's grand scheme of things and they may well have a great new strategy to return to good fortunes, following the appointment of a new chief executive 6 months ago or whenever it was. It will take a while for the results of all that to become apparent to outsider observers like me, but good luck to them.

 

[jfm]

Absolutely nothing, obviously - it was just an (extreme, admittedly) example of folks targeting the coverage as such, with zero interest on actually selling anything.

Now you are saying that "there is an element who buy because of that crowd", and while I still doubt that Kotler would call it a brilliant example of razor sharp marketing, it's different from saying that someone aiming at blanket coverage rather than sales is a mktg god - which is what I argued with, nothing else.

That aside, what Oundle has to do with Milan I also don't know. I could name dozens of places in IT where you would struggle to believe that there's someone building boats, but Milan is not one of them.

Yep to all that.
As regards "there is an element who buy because of that crowd", there is also an element who don't. Anyone know the size of the two elements?
Nick_H has hit on more thought provoking strategy above. A CD? How retro! It aligns nicely with Princess's current retro project 31/art-deco-or-whatever-glamour-era marketing strategy. (Obviously you'd include a free download too)

 

[petem]

Pete I don't think it is unfair - in fact I agree wholly with what chris-d writes. While I don't mind at all them sending it to me, it IS a me-too magazine. OK the team found some eclectic content but that isn't any big deal - you just hire a few people and ask them to get on with it. Nothing takes away the "me-too"-ness of it, and the fact that plenty of their boat buyer target market really don't look to Princess to entertain them via a magazine nor tell them about fine watches. It is a hackneyed marketing strategy rather than a "marketing roll" imho and Princess really need to do some far more fundamental things to solve their profound financial problem of making loses and creating no shareholder value. It's a company with great heritage and is a very important employer, and has loyal customers plus plenty of not-yet customers who feel warm towards it, but it needs something much smarter than this.

All that said, the magazine may be a mere side show in Princess's grand scheme of things and they may well have a great new strategy to return to good fortunes, following the appointment of a new chief executive 6 months ago or whenever it was. It will take a while for the results of all that to become apparent to outsider observers like me, but good luck to them.

I'm not arguing with what you say, particularly the hackneyed point. I'll go back to what I said at the start, for what it is (a lifestyle freebie), it wasn't bad.

 

[MapisM]

for what it is (a lifestyle freebie), it wasn't bad.

P, are you talking specifically of the latest edition which henryf mentioned in his OP, or in general?
If the first, I haven't seen it, so I can't comment.

But generically speaking, I've yet to see one single issue of these things which I ever found worth looking at more than the cover - if that.
Fwiw, I will mention Linssen Magazine as the only (very partial) exception, because I did read some bits of it, occasionally.
Then again, maybe it has something to see with the fact that my soul is nearer to anyone who call their boats "Sturdy" rather than "Predator"....

 

[petem]

P, are you talking specifically of the latest edition which henryf mentioned in his OP, or in general?
If the first, I haven't seen it, so I can't comment.

But generically speaking, I've yet to see one single issue of these things which I ever found worth looking at more than the cover - if that.
Fwiw, I will mention Linssen Magazine as the only (very partial) exception, because I did read some bits of it, occasionally.
Then again, maybe it has something to see with the fact that my soul is nearer to anyone who call their boats "Sturdy" rather than "Predator"....

P, I'm talking about this particular issue as I haven't read any others for a few years.

 

[paultallett]

Chucking my hat in to the ring......... I do move in the circles of the marketing world, so please don't judge me

I see this thread is generating a lot of comment, both good and bad, that in itself has put the Princess name in front of a target audience whilst they are mostly at work

So it's agreed that the exercise will be cost neutral to Princess due to the advertising space they have sold within the mag...... And that's the whole point. We are all thinking the mag is about US. Sure, Princess is putting itself in front of a target audience and, if it makes current owners feel they 'belong' no harm is done......... BUT.......

I've not seen the magazine, so this will be a rough guess......

There will be advertising for cars, hifi, hotels, restaurants, watches etc...... Now any good director of said companies that are advertising, will keep his eye on where and how his company is being exposed on a marketing front. So said director see's the Princess mag that his company is advertising in and as if by magic, a non target audience suddenly knows who Princess is, and if Princess are doing this correctly, will have reversed the angle and be offering said directors a nice day out at the factory with a trip out on the product.

Total cost to them for doing this......... Nowt

But if it sells a boat or 5 in the process, I'd say that's done just what Princess set out to do.

 

[henryf]

Now you are saying that "there is an element who buy because of that crowd", and while I still doubt that Kotler would call it a brilliant example of razor sharp marketing, it's different from saying that someone aiming at blanket coverage rather than sales is a mktg god - which is what I argued with, nothing else.

That aside, what Oundle has to do with Milan I also don't know. I could name dozens of places in IT where you would struggle to believe that there's someone building boats, but Milan is not one of them.

My mistake, Sunseeker are rubbish and no one has heard of them outside a tiny group of owners. Your average man in the street wouldn't know Sunseeker from Sunny Delight.

My lighthearted remark was aimed at the fact Fairline are now apparently using an Italian design house. I have no idea or desire to know from where in Italy they originate. I merely picked an Italian city / town / area of population that a young man like Pete would have heard of


Henry

 

[MapisM]

My mistake, Sunseeker are rubbish and no one has heard of them outside a tiny group of owners. Your average man in the street wouldn't know Sunseeker from Sunny Delight.

H, since you wrote not long ago that I'm a funny man, I hope you will not mind me pointing out that your reasoning is also very funny indeed. Btw, I hope you will appreciate that my comment is on your reasoning and not on yourself, hence not "ad hominem", as yours instead was.

As much as their products aren't my cup of tea, I never rubbished S/skr - and even less so their marketing.
I fully agree that they are good (not gods! ) at marketing, BUT not because they created a remarkable brand recognition per se.
What really matters is that such image is instrumental, at least with some of their clients, for eventually selling what they build.
Hence my objection to your statement "By marketing gods I meant in terms of blanket coverage rather than translation into sales".

But you are far too clever to not have already understood that, in spite of your sarcastic and misleading remark above.
And we've done this to death by now, anyway... :nonchalance:

 

[petem]

My lighthearted remark was aimed at the fact Fairline are now apparently using an Italian design house. I have no idea or desire to know from where in Italy they originate. I merely picked an Italian city / town / area of population that a young man like Pete would have heard of

Believe it or now, I've even heard of Trieste where Mancini Design are based, although I do confess to having a sneaky peak at Google Maps to see whereabouts in Italy it is .

How about those, who are so critical of this harmless magazine, coming up with some ideas of how Princess and other builders should market their products? They all do boat shows (small and large) and are all over social media. What else could they do?

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

I wish them all well but there is imho a significant element of their target audience that is thoroughly turned off by all of this lifestyle magazine marketing.

Agree entirely. I get the Ferretti, Azimut and now Princess 'lifestyle' mags and I find myself thinking that in this day and age is that the best you can do. In my prehistoric industry we gave up this kind of stuff years ago. And the blingy lifestyle content they all have is just pretentious drivel. Having said that I can see why they do it because I guess the advertising pays for the content and printing so as far as the marketing guys are concerned its 'free' advertising

The only manufacturer's mag I used to enjoy was the Nordhavn one which had real stories about owner cruises, technical stuff and info on upcoming new model releases. Unfortunately they seem to have stopped publishing it. I guess mags with slick haired models and blingy watches sell boats better

 

[henryf]

How about those, who are so critical of this harmless magazine, coming up with some ideas of how Princess and other builders should market their products? They all do boat shows (small and large) and are all over social media. What else could they do?

Wise words Pete.

I look forward to hearing how it should be done. A couple of Mexican hookers and a bottle of Tequilla ?

H.

 

[Nigelpickin]

Wise words Pete.

I look forward to hearing how it should be done. A couple of Mexican hookers and a bottle of Tequilla ?

H.

Ah the 7 P's

Product, position, price, promotion, packaging, prostitutes and Patron Gold....

 

[jfm]

How about those, who are so critical of this harmless magazine, coming up with some ideas of how Princess and other builders should market their products? They all do boat shows (small and large) and are all over social media. What else could they do?

I agree the magazine is harmless and am only pointing out that not everyone loves it. On marketing they need to take more time to get inside the heads of their almost-customers. They emailed me today saying "Our knowledge is your luxury". Now I might be having a bad day but I read that as "We at Princess have all the knowledge on how to make a great boat; you don't need to worry your little head about that. You can just take comfort that we will provide you with luxury". That's absolutely not what a bunch of boat customers want to hear, thanks. My mental response is along the lines of "Don't you dare tell me about luxury Princess, I reckon I know way more about that topic than you lot and even if I don't I'm perfectly able to sort it out myself or if I need a consultant on the subject it wont be you, thanks. What I want you to do is build a great boat, nothing more nothing less (apart from staying solvent until you've delivered it). Please don't think about anything else when building my boat, and I don't like your claim that you can do that all on your own while I just drool about the forthcoming luxury I'm going to bathe in". Sure I might have completely misunderstood what they are trying to say, but it didn't resonate.
The challenge isn't selling boats - they do that quite well but giving away £20 notes for £18 is generally doable. The challenge is for them to turn around their dire fortunes where shareholder value seems nearly destroyed, and that is going to take a rethink of their whole manufacturing process (not helped by Brexit in net terms I suspect) and a bit of cost cutting. I guess the new boss is very much on the case and I wish him well in doing that, or he and the L capital team well in selling the company to a deep pocketed shareholder a la sunseeker. One or other of those two things feels necessary

 

[MapisM]

Believe it or now, I've even heard of Trieste where Mancini Design are based, although I do confess to having a sneaky peak at Google Maps to see whereabouts in Italy it is

Trust me P, the town is much better in flesh than on gmaps, and well worth visiting for anyone interested in historical towns built around a beautiful waterfront.
If I may throw in a small o/t suggestion, I'd recommend visiting the place at the beginning of Oct, and take the opportunity to enjoy the view of the world famous Barcolana regatta. :encouragement:

 

[MapisM]

The only manufacturer's mag I used to enjoy was the Nordhavn one which had real stories about owner cruises, technical stuff and info on upcoming new model releases. Unfortunately they seem to have stopped publishing it. I guess mags with slick haired models and blingy watches sell boats better

Yup, when I mentioned Linssen magazine I forgot "Circumnavigator", that also used to be interesting to read, occasionally.

 

[rafiki_]

The challenge isn't selling boats - they do that quite well but giving away £20 notes for £18 is generally doable. The challenge is for them to turn around their dire fortunes where shareholder value seems nearly destroyed, and that is going to take a rethink of their whole manufacturing process (not helped by Brexit in net terms I suspect) and a bit of cost cutting. I guess the new boss is very much on the case and I wish him well in doing that, or he and the L capital team well in selling the company to a deep pocketed shareholder a la sunseeker. One or other of those two things feels necessary

Ive had a conversation with Princess on manufacturing, and they are convinced that they know everything they need to. We are deep dive manufacturing, and we don't claim to know everything. Therein lies one of Princesses problems!