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Jimmy, I hate to tell you this but your $40,000 price tag is missing a zero or two. Floor space, carpeting, designing and constructing a big display, shipping it to each show, drayage, storage, construction and electrician labor for set-up and tear-down, bikes for display, catalogs, give-aways, show advertising, and that's before you even start on staff travel, lodging, meals, salaries... and you do it all over again week after week. The only thing that you re-use is the booth display itself, and it is only good for so many shows, so you can amortize that. The motorcycles may come from local dealers to save them the huge expense of shipping them from show to show. Everything else is an expense repeated over and over again at each city.
The convention and exhibit industry is a lot bigger than the motorcycle industry. As a thirteen-year veteran of this sort of thing in the firearms industry, I've played all of the biggest venues in the country – Las Vegas, Orlando, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Dallas, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and too many small ones to count. I've done Germany (Nurnberg) myself, and I’ve seen the price tag there. It’s no bargain. I'm telling you guys that even though we'd all like to see Triumph flying their colors at a major show, I won't hold their decision not to spend that kind of cash against them. But I do expect them to make it up to us with smaller local promotions, customer support, and special financing packages. That’s what sells product, motorcycles and otherwise.
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