Jarrettknives
Well-Known Member
Earlier in this forum, Boss gave me some kudos for putting out what he called a very professional newsletter and for using a unique way to stay in front of my customers. Well, regarding the knife business in general and the newsletter as an example, read this post and then check out a new thread in the Jarrett Knives forum http://knifedogs.com/showthread.php?t=5960
Back story - I spent 25 years in the electronic alarm industry (designing and selling high rise fire alarm systems, CCTV (Closed Circuit Television), access control, and security systems, etc) working for Honeywell Intl. Honeywell makes more than just the thermostat that is probably on the wall in your home. Honeywell is a monster in the commercial electronics industry making all the electronics in the cockpits of all the major air carriers; control equipment for oil rigs and refinery's, down to the turbos in your favorite high performance vehicles, and yes, electronic security. Why tell you this here?
One thing I learned from them is what they are excellent at...and that is listening to "The Voice of the Customer" or VOC. It is stupidly simple! If you ask your customers what they want and you really listen to them, you will always be ten steps ahead of the competition. Honeywell uses focus groups populated by the leadership in industry as well as everyday people like you and I. They may conduct them when they have a product in development or when they simply want to come up with the next mouse trap. Bottom line is that they are asking their customers what they want, how they want it, when they want it, what color, what size, etc. They then give that information to the business development team who work with engineers to create the new widget.
Our business, the knife business, is not that different. There are always new knives being made and presented at shows or on the internet. Ever wonder why some seemingly great designs just seem to fizzle and go away? Or in our case on the forums, the only additional comments on the thread are our own, BTT's (Back to the top)? Ever wonder why what looks to be a very simple design just takes off? And again in our case, people are falling all over themselves to get one or asking the maker when he can make more? Most likely the maker of the "seemingly great design" that faltered made something that he really liked without checking with the customer base first. Maybe he made it to feed his artistic side and to challenge himself to see if he could pull it off - but the end result was that he was the only one that really liked it. Quite possibly the maker of the one that really took off did some trial and error development and tested the waters to find what was popular. Quite possibly he didn't even know he was doing anything very scientific or business like - he just showed it to some friends and then he LISTENED to their responses. If they said, "what if you move the choil up a bit" or "I think it would be better with no bolsters", etc, then he went back to the shop and made it the way that they told him. It's not rocket science.
So....all that being said...that's what I'm attempting to do with my newsletter. Sure, it would be simple enough to write articles on things that I'm interested in but when the newsletter gets in front of my target audience, do you think that they'll give it the time of day if they are not interested in the same topics? Hence - I'm asking for input in the thread that is linked above. Mostly I'm interested in finding out what the knife buyer or collector wants to see but aren't we all (makers included) knife buyers and collectors? We are participating in Tracy's forum, KnifeDogs.com because we all have one thing in common - a love for all things sharp.
If you have a few minutes to spare, I'd really appreciate it if you would check out that thread and let me know what you, as a knife lover, would like to see in future issues. If I don't know enough about a certain topic that you would like to see covered, I will find someone that does and ask them to write an article.
Yes, I do want my newsletter to help me sell more of my knives - and the first two issues have certainly done that. However, I'd like to see where we can take the newsletter to better the knife community as a whole. Yep, this is a grass roots project, but then again, anything worth doing starts out that way. I bet Tracy could write a book on grass roots projects...USAKnifemaker.com AND KnifeDogs.com are two great examples of taking great ideas from grass roots to fruition.
Thanks for taking the time to read this even if you don't choose to add your two cents. Makers - I really hope it makes you think about the marketing side of your business. Knife buyers and collectors - I hope you now know that your opinion counts - oh boy does it count! Take care all and God Bless.
__________________
Best regards,
Wayne
Full Time Maker
Member of the Professional Knifemakers Association
www.jarrettknives.com
Are you a Dawg yet?
Be sure to check out the new Jarrett Knives Forum
Stop by my table at
The A.G. Russell Knife Event
Back story - I spent 25 years in the electronic alarm industry (designing and selling high rise fire alarm systems, CCTV (Closed Circuit Television), access control, and security systems, etc) working for Honeywell Intl. Honeywell makes more than just the thermostat that is probably on the wall in your home. Honeywell is a monster in the commercial electronics industry making all the electronics in the cockpits of all the major air carriers; control equipment for oil rigs and refinery's, down to the turbos in your favorite high performance vehicles, and yes, electronic security. Why tell you this here?
One thing I learned from them is what they are excellent at...and that is listening to "The Voice of the Customer" or VOC. It is stupidly simple! If you ask your customers what they want and you really listen to them, you will always be ten steps ahead of the competition. Honeywell uses focus groups populated by the leadership in industry as well as everyday people like you and I. They may conduct them when they have a product in development or when they simply want to come up with the next mouse trap. Bottom line is that they are asking their customers what they want, how they want it, when they want it, what color, what size, etc. They then give that information to the business development team who work with engineers to create the new widget.
Our business, the knife business, is not that different. There are always new knives being made and presented at shows or on the internet. Ever wonder why some seemingly great designs just seem to fizzle and go away? Or in our case on the forums, the only additional comments on the thread are our own, BTT's (Back to the top)? Ever wonder why what looks to be a very simple design just takes off? And again in our case, people are falling all over themselves to get one or asking the maker when he can make more? Most likely the maker of the "seemingly great design" that faltered made something that he really liked without checking with the customer base first. Maybe he made it to feed his artistic side and to challenge himself to see if he could pull it off - but the end result was that he was the only one that really liked it. Quite possibly the maker of the one that really took off did some trial and error development and tested the waters to find what was popular. Quite possibly he didn't even know he was doing anything very scientific or business like - he just showed it to some friends and then he LISTENED to their responses. If they said, "what if you move the choil up a bit" or "I think it would be better with no bolsters", etc, then he went back to the shop and made it the way that they told him. It's not rocket science.
So....all that being said...that's what I'm attempting to do with my newsletter. Sure, it would be simple enough to write articles on things that I'm interested in but when the newsletter gets in front of my target audience, do you think that they'll give it the time of day if they are not interested in the same topics? Hence - I'm asking for input in the thread that is linked above. Mostly I'm interested in finding out what the knife buyer or collector wants to see but aren't we all (makers included) knife buyers and collectors? We are participating in Tracy's forum, KnifeDogs.com because we all have one thing in common - a love for all things sharp.
If you have a few minutes to spare, I'd really appreciate it if you would check out that thread and let me know what you, as a knife lover, would like to see in future issues. If I don't know enough about a certain topic that you would like to see covered, I will find someone that does and ask them to write an article.
Yes, I do want my newsletter to help me sell more of my knives - and the first two issues have certainly done that. However, I'd like to see where we can take the newsletter to better the knife community as a whole. Yep, this is a grass roots project, but then again, anything worth doing starts out that way. I bet Tracy could write a book on grass roots projects...USAKnifemaker.com AND KnifeDogs.com are two great examples of taking great ideas from grass roots to fruition.
Thanks for taking the time to read this even if you don't choose to add your two cents. Makers - I really hope it makes you think about the marketing side of your business. Knife buyers and collectors - I hope you now know that your opinion counts - oh boy does it count! Take care all and God Bless.
__________________
Best regards,
Wayne
Full Time Maker
Member of the Professional Knifemakers Association
www.jarrettknives.com
Are you a Dawg yet?
Be sure to check out the new Jarrett Knives Forum
Stop by my table at
The A.G. Russell Knife Event
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