Princess used boat warranty scheme

Mike,

Of course it sells cars, that page has huge presence, 1.1m likes, 22k people discussing the page right now. They are delivering information to a wide range of folks
Those who can only dream of owning a Bentley, (but as DAKA has pointed out, they might win the lotto).
Those who aspire to own a Bentley and will make it their bloody minded ambition to do so
& Those who are in target market, who are either loyal to or interested in the brand

We are 'Tribe' Mike and these forums, these facebook pages prove that. Mentalists like us are happy to declare allegiance to this brand or that brand and debate ad infinitum to justify the way we believe in a brand. There has never been a way to engage your customer or potential customer...

Imagine how much it costs Bentley to push cars around the show grounds, lend to the media, print and supply brochures through traditional channels and for distributors to push through demonstrator stock. That FB page would have cost pennies in comparison and yet they have over a million people asking to be kept in the loop regarding the Bentley brand.

Point is Mike, it doesn't matter that you are not into FB, I know that I am not...but the rest of the world is... :)
 
Last edited:
Nick_H said:
?? If a salesman came to the door and suggested you buy his products, would you consider that word of mouth? Of course not, and it's no different if they try and post on a public forum, it would be seen for what it is, advertising, however subtly it was done. If builders/dealers want to make use of social media they should advertise on them, or host their own web sites, facebook pages or twatter feeds (love that!), because at least they can control them to some extent. They have no control over what gets posted on here, and by whom, so any attempt to get involved invites anyone with a grudge, a bias or just a mischievous nature to take them to task
Click to expand...

I agree Nick, however I think that in the case of this thread, PMYS were invited to make comment. It was their delay in doing so which has caused interest.
 
scubaman said:
Plenty of reason for some with enough dosh to go out and buy one, see :)
Click to expand...
Unlikely. By definition, if they're the kind of sad people who have to get their fix of Bentley thru Facebook, they can probably only afford a secondhand Lada:)
 
Like it or not, products sell on Brand name, LVMH (the owner of Princess) is only interested in brands & their only ethos is brand promotion & awareness. They know that without the right luxury brand image it will not sell, of course SM is not the only route to this, but part of the package. As regards Princess, they are not particularly interested in the forum grouping, and look to the new markets opening up, new customers who are perhaps not so savvy about boats, giving a written warranty appeals to someone who knows little about boats. Perfectly understandable, who would want to be the salesman selling to members of this forum!!

We all aspire to the boat of our dreams, that's why JFM's build was so compulsive, even though we know that maybe there may be better built boats out there. However when it comes to decision time & paying the hard earned dosh, other factors come into play… what's the residual value? Who wants the best built boat that's worth nothing in 5 years time, because the prospective buyers want to buy 'the right brand' which their friends will swoon over.

Did PMYS shoot themselves in the foot? probably not, but they could have handled it much better. JFM clearly prefers the personal arrangements which I totally understand, Princess feel their customers want a written warranty, which is better? make your own choice….

PS. Other brands (oops sorry boat builders) are available...
 
pan said:
Other brands (oops sorry boat builders) are available...
Click to expand...
Well, earlier you said companies, but now you're talking of builders.
My question still stands, care to name one who does what you think they should do?
 
Oh dear.. still splitting hairs Mapis! My last post was referring to 'Branding' and the effect of that on sales & was not linked to the previous post.

Other brands (oops sorry boat builders) are available… was supposed to be tongue in cheek, in case other builders felt left out!!
 
pan said:
Like it or not, products sell on Brand name, LVMH (the owner of Princess) is only interested in brands & their only ethos is brand promotion & awareness. They know that without the right luxury brand image it will not sell, of course SM is not the only route to this, but part of the package. As regards Princess, they are not particularly interested in the forum grouping, and look to the new markets opening up, new customers who are perhaps not so savvy about boats, giving a written warranty appeals to someone who knows little about boats. Perfectly understandable, who would want to be the salesman selling to members of this forum!!

We all aspire to the boat of our dreams, that's why JFM's build was so compulsive, even though we know that maybe there may be better built boats out there. However when it comes to decision time & paying the hard earned dosh, other factors come into play… what's the residual value? Who wants the best built boat that's worth nothing in 5 years time, because the prospective buyers want to buy 'the right brand' which their friends will swoon over.

Did PMYS shoot themselves in the foot? probably not, but they could have handled it much better. JFM clearly prefers the personal arrangements which I totally understand, Princess feel their customers want a written warranty, which is better? make your own choice….

PS. Other brands (oops sorry boat builders) are available...
Click to expand...

I don't think that's necessarily true - about a year ago one of the senior brokers at PMYS said to me that they'd realised that they needed to target existing boat owners, and that's what led to them changing their approach to px. I do agree though that the formal warranty scheme seems likely to be aimed at new (non-owner) customers.

Cheers
Jimmy
 
jimmy_the_builder said:
I don't think that's necessarily true - about a year ago one of the senior brokers at PMYS said to me that they'd realised that they needed to target existing boat owners, and that's what led to them changing their approach to px. I do agree though that the formal warranty scheme seems likely to be aimed at new (non-owner) customers.

Cheers
Jimmy
Click to expand...

So that being the case, then I take it back 'they have shot themselves in the foot', impression I got from the PMYS reply was they were not interested in existing owners. At SIBS whilst they asked about what boat I owned, there did not seem to be much interest, except to establish if I was a tyre kicker or not.
 
pan said:
Oh dear.. still splitting hairs Mapis! My last post was referring to 'Branding' and the effect of that on sales & was not linked to the previous post.

Other brands (oops sorry boat builders) are available… was supposed to be tongue in cheek, in case other builders felt left out!!
Click to expand...
Yeah, my reply was a bit of tongue in cheek either, actually. :D
Regardless, no boat builder is exploiting SMs the way you suggest they should - and this is a fact.
Are they all shortsighted, and not capable to keep up with changing time? Possibly.
But personally, I doubt that whoever will be the first to heavily jump in the SM bandwagon will enjoy any substantial competitive advantage, in this industry.
Time will tell, I guess......
 
I think "social media" and forums are 2 very different entities.

A forum can be a very powerful communication tool for businesses but it requires quite a specific approach. For one thing you will get exposed if you aren't genuine - and I'm not suggesting for one moment that has happened here.

Where forums are superb are as a platform to engage and inform. Most organisations get forums totally wrong, don't understand them and forget that a lot of the people posting are actually quite legitimate customers as opposed to sad dreamers in their bedrooms. It doesn't help that everyone on forums use an anonymous made up name. It always reminds me of CB radio "handles". The fact is that whilst some forums attract too many of the wrong sort this particular forum has a lot of genuine boat owning intelligent people.

Yes, posters on here do get it wrong from time to time, add 2 and 2 to make 5 and sometimes a little bit of of information can be a dangerous thing. But I think that's where professional posts come in. Add knowledge, fill in the gaps and where necessary correct misplaced beliefs. Corporations probably can't do this because you need an individual. When corporations post they come across a advertising hungry publicity machines and forum members get angry that people are trying to blag free publicity on "their" forum.

But it doesn't have to be like that. If companies or professionals are prepared to invest time and effort they can join in perfectly legitimately and both sides benefit.

One of the best examples I can think of on here is Volvo Paul. People come on with a technical issue, a few people hazard a wild guess as to what might be wrong then VP comes along with a technically correct answer. As a by-product he is seen as someone who knows his onions and so gets business. It's a win win situation. We have someone who provides free technical advice, he gets a bit of business. He doesn't tweet, face page or interweb. He doesn't have friends followers linkers or pokers but it works.

VP is a one man band. He is master of his own destiny and doesn't have to answer to a marketing department, sales director or brand consultant. Big companies don't have that freedom. There is rarely one person in absolute control and that makes it a bit harder to post on forums though it can be done. I can think of a Porsche technician who posts on a motoring forum. Porsche won't know it but he does so much good for the franchise service network.

The flip side is when someone from a company who doesn't really know what they are talking about posts. They get pulled apart and by association the brand is damaged. To avoid this most organisations simply avoid posting or getting drawn into discussions.

On a well know cruise forum senior management have taken to hosting open house Q&A forums. Some come across really well. They answer questions, admit when things have gone wrong and end up retaining existing customers as well as attracting new business. They might even gain additional insight into what the punters want. I did see a Q&A for one cruise line recently where the answers were really poor and people who clearly had genuine concerns were fobbed off with company official lines. "Our travel staff are excellent" when a myriad of posters have just told of low effort staff who have little or no product knowledge to the extent they are trying to get people to book balcony cabins on ships where there are no balcony cabins available! We won't be rushing out to use them, to be fair they are a pretty crappy cruise line so their big cheese is only telling us what we already know :)

The boat world is probably a little bit out of date compared to an equivalent such as the motor industry. Could they learn to engage customers and potential customers better? Most definitely. There are shining examples of genius such as Sunseeker who's public brand penetration is amazing. For everyone else every day is a school day.

Henry :)
 
Last edited:
henryf said:
I think "social media" and forums are 2 very different entities.

A forum can be a very powerful communication tool for businesses but it requires quite a specific approach. For one thing you will get exposed if you aren't genuine - and I'm not suggesting for one moment that has happened here.

Where forums are superb are as a platform to engage and inform. Most organisations get forums totally wrong, don't understand them and forget that a lot of the people posting are actually quite legitimate customers as opposed to sad dreamers in their bedrooms. It doesn't help that everyone on forums use an anonymous made up name. It always reminds me of CB radio "handles". The fact is that whilst some forums attract too many of the wrong sort this particular forum has a lot of genuine boat owning intelligent people.

Yes, posters on here do get it wrong from time to time, add 2 and 2 to make 5 and sometimes a little bit of of information can be a dangerous thing. But I think that's where professional posts come in. Add knowledge, fill in the gaps and where necessary correct misplaced beliefs. Corporations probably can't do this because you need an individual. When corporations post they come across a advertising hungry publicity machines and forum members get angry that people are trying to blag free publicity on "their" forum.

But it doesn't have to be like that. If companies or professionals are prepared to invest time and effort they can join in perfectly legitimately and both sides benefit.

One of the best examples I can think of on here is Volvo Paul. People come on with a technical issue, a few people hazard a wild guess as to what might be wrong then VP comes along with a technically correct answer. As a by-product he is seen as someone who knows his onions and so gets business. It's a win win situation. We have someone who provides free technical advice, he gets a bit of business. He doesn't tweet, face page or interweb. He doesn't have friends followers linkers or pokers but it works.

VP is a one man band. He is master of his own destiny and doesn't have to answer to a marketing department, sales director or brand consultant. Big companies don't have that freedom. There is rarely one person in absolute control and that makes it a bit harder to post on forums though it can be done. I can think of a Porsche technician who posts on a motoring forum. Porsche won't know it but he does so much good for the franchise service network.

The flip side is when someone from a company who doesn't really know what they are talking about posts. They get pulled apart and by association the brand is damaged. To avoid this most organisations simply avoid posting or getting drawn into discussions.

On a well know cruise forum senior management have taken to hosting open house Q&A forums. Some come across really well. They answer questions, admit when things have gone wrong and end up retaining existing customers as well as attracting new business. They might even gain additional insight into what the punters want. I did see a Q&A for one cruise line recently where the answers were really poor and people who clearly had genuine concerns were fobbed off with company official lines. "Our travel staff are excellent" when a myriad of posters have just told of low effort staff who have little or no product knowledge to the extent they are trying to get people to book balcony cabins on ships where there are no balcony cabins available! We won't be rushing out to use them, to be fair they are a pretty crappy cruise line so their big cheese is only telling us what we already know :)

The boat world is probably a little bit out of date compared to an equivalent such as the motor industry. Could they learn to engage customers and potential customers better? Most definitely. There are shining examples of genius such as Sunseeker who's public brand penetration is amazing. For everyone else every day is a school day.

Henry :)
Click to expand...

Well said Henry and thanks for the plug. To be honest I don't have a website , maybe I should but Im lucky I don't need to advertise my services (yet) .

I am on Facebook but as me not vp, maybe the vp thing may work on fb.

I was going to stick my bit in and say that the forum has been a great place to drum up good business and contacts, but I don't advertise where princess have to. I think that helping others out on here is def a two way street, you give your time and in return you get paid back, even if its only a recommendation from either an existing client or for someone you may have never even met, but only in cyberspace.

I do think that some of the big boys may miss out not being in here but then again statements can be taken the wrong way. People choose which way they want to take there marketing.

Ill give you an example, I commented on a very nice looking 58plate 911 on Facebook, within a few days I have a message from the dealer asking if I wanted an more info on the car, from that they obviously looked at who had been on there site, and could it be to there advantage. So yes I think it does work.
 
volvopaul said:
I commented on a very nice looking 58plate 911 on Facebook, within a few days I have a message from the dealer asking if I wanted an more info on the car, from that they obviously looked at who had been on there site, and could it be to there advantage. So yes I think it does work.
Click to expand...
LOL, was him henryf, to whom you are now reciprocating the plug, by chance? :D :p
 
MapisM said:
LOL, was him henryf, to whom you are now reciprocating the plug, by chance? :D :p
Click to expand...

No, I wouldn't judge us by our facebook page !

I do think forums are valuable though. We have always spent a lot of time on them predominantly giving advice alongside social postings. There are times when you get a bit cynical or get bored of people who just want to spend the whole time talking about how much someone's car may or may not depreciate but then a thread comes along which either appeals to your interests or you can offer pertinent advice.

I have been given some sage advice over the years on forums.


Henry :)
 
henryf said:
I wouldn't judge us by our facebook page !
Click to expand...
Why? I can't see anything wrong with it.
By FB standards, I mean. Generally speaking, I never understood how FB managed to become so popular with such a fugly user interface, but that's not a problem of your own FB page, of course.
Obviously the basic idea behind it was PDG....
 
henryf said:
No, I wouldn't judge us by our facebook page !
Click to expand...
Its not bad, better than mine. Just think, henryf, if our companies had better Facebook pages, we'd be tooling around in 100 footers, not poxy little 50 footers:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top