Brands, retail policies, and the whole marketing war bit

[kensuguro]

For new divers, they are usually TOLD what is right for them so LDS is probably one of the most effective communication and distribution channel for manufacturers.

Totally agree.. being a new diver myself, I get that alot. Probably not acceptable in other industries where people are used to making choices (or the illusion of, at least) from a wide variety.. With diving, there are times where things get a literal as, "naa, you don't want that".. I was shocked at this style of sales at first, but quickly understood that there wasn't much of a choice. Can't say the advice is bad.. I'm sure alot of the times an experienced shop owner knows what he's talking about, but I would also count in the politics (with other shops) and definitely the economics.. Bunch all that together and a shopper soon starts looking for outside information just to be sure. (the obvious response I think)

The other thing is the market "hype".. where is it? One of the major factors I think that make novice divers like myself vulnerable to questionable sales talk.. I think part of hype is hot air, but then it's also a good way to atleast know what's out there. Scubaboard is definitely one way to find out... Do magazines spread lots of product info? I'm trying to look for a defacto standard, "everyone knows about it" type of an information source.

 

[wunat]

Do magazines spread lots of product info? I'm trying to look for a defacto standard, "everyone knows about it" type of an information source.

Magazines are good sources of information especially those where they put a bunch of gears and test them head-to-head. But then again, these results could be subjective. Magazines articles are also subject to sponsorships so keep that in mind when reading the test results.

Scubaboard is probably one of the best place you can get feedbacks. 1st hand experience is certainly the preferred source but then LDS don't usually carry a whole range of gears for us to try out. So it's other people's 1st hand experience that we may have to rely on.

 

[Wayward Son]

I can, to a degree, see a manufacturer limiting their warranty to authorized dealers. Though I can also make an arguement against that.

I can see requiring service to be done by an authorized dealer in order to keep a warranty in effect. No reason for a regulator maker to assume that every Joe 6 pack with a tool box can properly service the item.

What I'm having real trouble seeing is how or why a manufacturer thinks limiting their dealers options, ie forbidding mail order & internet sales, forcing them to sell at artificially set minimum prices, for example, is somehow helping those dealers? In a perfect world, maybe, but the reality is that there are "catalog" companies such as Leisure Pro, who aren't divers, do not get wet, do not teach (and thus do not have the overhead costs of liability insurance & such that goes with it), who do not buy from the normal chain & are not constrained by anything other than what their conscious says, if that, that these shops are up against.

Oceanic only within the last year has started allowing internet sales. They still require the purchase to be from an authorized dealer in order to warranty it, but the dealers may sell on the net, and they clearly have some flexibility in their prices. See scubatoys as an example. But when I bought my 1st Versa Pro console a year ago, Oceanic did not allow it. This is new.

Zeagle has a similar policy. The net is fine, but must be an authorized dealer.

Aqualung, Scubapro & others haven't made the move. We aren't facing change, we're in the middle of it with more to come. It's possible that these companies are simply so big that they do not yet feel the impact enough to do anything yet. I guess we'll see if that remains true over time.