Thanks for the replies, very useful comments and information!

QUOTE:
Is it that people don't know about your product (awareness) or is that they are afraid to try it because it's unknown?

To be honest i think it is a bit of both, even though Carbon clutches have been used race cars for a fair few years now. On road cars it is still new. And most of the time its educating people the benefits of using a Carbon clutch to other clutches. Along with this we are up against very large household names in this sector, who have more association to clutches than what we do

QUOTE:
Ironically, sponsorship is (in my experience) more helpful in the latter case than in the former: it builds unconscious associations that can be very useful, but not conscious awareness.

As its the only resource i have to hand i am trying to take advantage of it as much as possible, can i ask what you mean by conscious awareness?

When it comes to the dealers, i am taking a harder approach, if you are not performing or actively promoting the product i will drop them, as i do have other dealers interested in selling the products. I always chat to the dealers, build up a good friendly relationship and this works well as they do push the products on. But some are 'yes people' say they will do something and it never happens, so these are the ones i would review.

Thankfully in this industry its easier enough to throw products are people to test/use for the exchange of them to actively promote products, where is be either logos on the car or talking to people. I have managed to secure some fairly well known names in the scene, but i will not know the benefits of this until next year when the season starts again next year.


Many thanks for your time guys.


Gavin

Hi Gavin

What I mean by "conscious awareness" (and sponsorship not building it) is that when people see a racing car with your product on it that doesn't usually mean that they will consciously think about the fact that the name is there, what it means in terms of what the car is using, and trigger them to consider buying the product as a result.

Instead, if they see it enough, they become familiar with it, associate the brand with the environment in which they encountered it and feel better about it as a result. These feelings are triggered when (and if) they encounter the product though some other route.

That's not to say you can't make use of the fact that you're sponsoring racing teams by telling peope in sales calls; although arguably it would be more useful to say / show that such teams are choosing to use (buy) your product because of its qualities (if you see what I mean).

It sounds like the biggest issue you are facing is buyer fear. I don't mean in the 'sit and cry when you walk through the door way', but in a fear of changing to your product and a customer coming in and complaining leading to them regretting making the change (change = risk).

You could choose to tackle this directly (consciously) through product guarantees. It might be worth running a trial to see how many claims you get (usually only a small proportion of customers with a legitimate claim make it anyway).

Alternatively, you could start leveraging the power of associations (the way in which the brain processes information) to your advantage. The latest article at my website called "Stradivarius's Consumer Behaviour Insights" will explain that more if you're interested.

For your product this could work by making reference to who else is using the same grade of carbon (e.g. Nasa, Ferrari, Formula One teams), the number of other customers who are buying your product, the amount sold (worldwide), and so on.

None of these points should matter versus the technical specification of the product you're selling, but I guarantee it will. Even technical people make decisions emotionally.

Let me know if that's helpful or not.

Philip

I totally understand what you have said and it is very helpful indeed.

Thankfully we have had only one warranty claim even then the products are not covered by a warranty as they are classed as a race item...the way this industry gets around warranties

Any other problems people have had is down to the fitting incorrectly, even then thats few and fair between.

Well it seems that the way forward is more sponsorship and brand awareness. How do you feel about advertising? As i have a new product to launch next year...again i have secured a well known car that is going to be using the product.

Funny you mention F1, this is another leverage tool i can use next year.

The problem with anything like this is that it takes time to build the awareness and i do not think i will see anything until next year. Only issue i have is, there is man above that wants sales now and i understand this does not happen over night

I would focus on building sales through the dealers that you have if you want quick results.

When it comes to generating new sales I wouldn't recommend advertising; it's very difficult to make it pay at small levels.

If you do go for an advertising route then at least include a discount code that enables you to track how many (or how few) people reply. A friend of mine ran an expensive ad in The Guardian and thanks to this advice was able to establish that it generated only two sales (and nowhere near covered its costs).

The fastest route to increase sales is likely to be through an incentive to the dealers. You could run it in one of a number of ways:
(i) Hit targets to get certain prizes
(ii) Best selling dealer wins a superb prize
(iii) Get caught recommending Carbonetic to a mystery shopper and win X

When they feel there is something in it for them personally people will shift their behaviour dramatically.

When it comes to growing the number of dealers, I would recommend getting advice on the sales approach from a selling expert. I know one guy who is very good (www.garymay.net). I have no affiliation to him and don't know what he charges but it may be worth a quick chat.

Getting dealers to recommend your product will be WAY more efficient than advertising directly to end customers in my view.

I hope that's constructive.
Philip