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Section
6: What do we want to accomplish by the information about the club that we send out? Who are we trying to reach, and what are we trying to say to them? We communicate to two separate groups. The first is our existing membership. For this group the sorts of communication is stuff like event dates and other event info, who to contact about that missing 300 pin, and maintaining a forum for a variety of reflections which help put people's randonneur experiences into some sort of perspective. This internal information has always been, and continues to be, handled very well by the newsletter. More recently the online newsletter, and the broader web site, have helped to fill this niche. Last year, with no brochure, members who
were used to having the schedule at their fingertips found themselves
reaching for something that wasn't there. Ian's schedule card
helped fill this void, but I think there were times when all
of us missed having a handy full information schedule to refer
to (without firing up our computers.) The schedule as it existed
on the web site in 2002 was not easily printable, and this too
was a source of some frustration. We need a paper schedule which
includes all the schedule information which used to be on the
brochure. Appealing to the 'Possible Randonneur' The second target group is the interested non-member - the 'possible randonneur'. Traditionally, the running of the Pacific Populaire (and the other populaires), and the randonneur brochure, have been our way of saying "come give randonneur cycling a try." (My sense is that in practice word-of-mouth seems to have been our most powerful publicity device...) Populaire as Publicity A well-publicized populaire remains a valuable tool for introducing new people to the sport (and it can be a valuable revenue source as well and this gives us freedom in other areas.) A simple populaire brochure distributed to bike shops and community and fitness centres, complementing mailings (e and/or snail) to the previous year participants, are simple and effective ways of promoting events like the Pacific & Victoria Populaires. Annual Rando Brochure The randonneur brochure has served, not only as a source of information, but as a mission statement defining randonneur cycling as practiced in BC. I believed in the randonneur brochure so absolutely that I ran the Pacific Populaire for two additional years in large measure because I felt it was my responsibility to cover the brochure costs which I was gradually increasing, by enlarging the format and print quantities. Looked at as a whole, the brochure was an enormous job. The design and information gathering was a manageable and fun task, but when you add to it the production process, and especially the distribution... well, it was a full time job. That is why it is particularly difficult for me to admit that despite the enormous effort over my 4.5 years of handling it, the brochure was certainly not the success I had hoped it would be. On balance I think it failed as a publicity vehicle. One problem was that it was a cluttered how-to document, when what we should have been saying was "There's something beautiful here - take a look... catch the wave." There were other problems with the brochures as well. They tended to just get buried in mountain of paper at community centres and in some bike shops too. Sometimes the brochure racks themselves were out-of-the-way places and nobody saw them. Also, I'm not sure the sort of annually focused saturation distribution I was doing was the correct strategy for the brochure. (Arguably the Populaire brochure is a different matter.) I wasn't targeting the elusive 'possible randonneurs'... but how do you do target this group? What is this group? What are the demographic characteristics of a randonneur... Between 35 and 65, probably already a road cyclist, often technically minded, often professional (w. professional's income), intelligent and often (but not necessarily) over-educated, a risk taker, goal oriented, possibly competitive, perhaps restless, probably in a number of ways obsessive... (this ringing any bells?), but possibly none of the above. Well, how to target that person? The one thing we know is that they will need a bike, probably a road bike, and bike supplies... beyond that, any publicity is a bit of a crap shoot. One brochure left behind at your dentist's office in November might be more effective than 100 brochures left at the Minoru pool and fitness centre in March. And this leads me to further emphasize something I have mentioned in passing several times. I think has been a significant strategic error that our publicity has been seasonally based. I don't think that we need to tie appeals for the sport to a current events calendar. We should entice possible randonneurs by selling the idea of, the feeling of, or the spirit of randonneur cycling. Inspiration can grab someone at any moment, not just in March. A word about distribution The starting point for any discussion about producing paper publicity is determining whether or not an effective distribution plan is in place. If it looks like there's no one to take this ball and run with it, what's the point of spending a lot of time and money on the project? Ian's 2002 Calendar/Prom Card When it became clear that the rando brochure wasn't going to happen last year, Ian quickly produced a handy 8.5 x 3.5" schedule card that acted in part as a limited edition publicity device. I think this is an idea with a future. We might consider modifying it in the following ways: don't make it year specific (i.e. no event listings), include a synopsis of randonneur cycling that might spark interest in our target group, focus on the spirit of sport rather than on information, with the goal of getting possible randonneurs to tune into the web site. By making the card not seasonally specific, it takes the pressure off distribution because we can deliver it to bike shops (and elsewhere) over time and year round, without worrying about schedule info becoming obsolete. It should be simple and fairly inexpensive to produce - one run could last for 2 or 3 years. I can't decide whether it would better to have some contact information on it, or just the web address. I have taken a bash at designing such a card. --> GO A word about the web site I am now comfortable enough with the state of the web site that I feel we can encourage visitors from outside of the club. We might want to think about it as a substitute for the traditional rando brochure. The internet reaches everyone (almost) - it's difficult to imagine a cyclist without home internet access (There's Bob Bose? & Henry B... Henry goes to the library; Bob has access through his office.) The cost to the club is about $400 per year. I think it's a good moment to switch away from the rando brochure and replace it with a 'teaser card' inviting people to go to the web site. Degree of difficulty... Be Honest When speaking to the outside world, I think we should be very up front about the fact that this sport is not for everyone - that it is difficult and sometimes dangerous. Guiding principles for any publicity strategy should include: simply letting everyone know we exist, showing people the enthusiasm we have for the sport, while not necessarily focusing on encouraging participation. I think, in fact, that rather than trying to sell people on the sport, we should make an effort, with people who have any hesitations, to discourage them from entering events. This will save a lot of grief for people who might be tempted to bite off more than they can chew. The real McCoys will show up anyway. Other Publicity We have some interesting stories to tell. People with the gift of gab, and we have lots of these, could make their contribution to the club by contacting various publications with story ideas. Coast Magazine has been good about including Randonneur cycling articles from time to time, as well as our schedule. Momentum faithfully prints our schedule. Now there is Elements magazine as well... And if you have something particularly powerful to say... there's Outside. The Vanessa Factor Vanessa Cowley, Harold's daughter, is between assignments, and has a small window of time. She has offered to help with some of our publicity material for 2003. She is smart, organized, and keen, and has had design experience. Even if we don't have a rando brochure, there's still the Pacific Populaire Brochure, and the teaser card. Before imposing on her I think it is important to determine if there is someone ready to pursue the printing and production side of the operation as well as distribution. |