oh ****! looks like the end of the road for me then Mark!:(

You know what they say about old horses....... :P

somebody sttttttttttttttttttttttop me !:lol:

and then the fee gets added to the price - so who exactly ends up paying??

sandbar
www.sandbarcomposites.co.uk

.

The way that I see it is that every well run business should have a marketing and advertising budget, usually factored into the price of the items that they sell. It's then up to that business where they spend their budget, whether in glossy magazines, small ads in the paper or even the newsagent's window.

Whichever of these you choose, FREE advertising is a rarity. Even if I wanted to sell my bike by sticking a postcard up in the local newsagents it would cost me a couple of quid a week for an advert to Joe Public with no specific interest in bikes.

But if you look at the opportunity that the DSC board currently offers to businesses with Ducati related product, or individuals with a Ducati (or bits of one) to sell. Here is a board that can be accessed worldwide, 24 x 7, every day of the year, is PRECISELY targetted at the audience you want to reach and it's FREE !!!!

Pretty good deal for advertisers isn't it?

As has been mentioned before, this is not a public forum, it's a club message board paid for solely by the paid up members of the club.

It seems to me that individual paid up club members should be able to advertise pretty much what they like. Normally, individual people will only be selling the odd spare part, or bit of bling, and now and then might want to sell a bike. That's fine with me, it's in the spirit of the club and a valuable advantage of this board.

It also seems to me that most of us are tolerant, and happy enough to accept that non-members can, and will, advertise stuff here as well. As Ruth says, the board is largely self regulating and non-members who post up ads for Yamahas and stuff will soon get the **** ripped out of them, but that's their choice if they want to post stuf like that on a Ducati board.

It also seems to me that most people are tolerant enough to accept businesses giving themselves an occasional plug as long as it's proportionate to what they give back to the club in other ways (ie: Cornerspeed with heaps of free advice and member discount, No Limits with a genuine 10% DSC discount).

Where people begin to feel irritated is when non-members and members alike cynically exploit the board for their own self interest. Some people seem to think that once they've paid their £20 a year (less than 50 pence a week) to the club, it entitles them to set up their own version of an eBay shop - again, precisely targetted at their demographic. Once again, if these people are providing a genuine service and are putting back as much into the club as they're getting, in one way or another, then I think that's fine with most people.

All most people seem to be asking is, use the board to advertise what you like, but don't be cynical about it and don't take the **** - Most people will see straight through that so don't be surprised if you're asked to stop advertising. As well as that, don't be surprised if your advertising actually has a negative effect - most people won't buy from people who are ****ing them off.

question Jools,

what if the person in question is both a seller and a paid up member of the club ?

I’ll play devils advocate, advertising and marketing helps sell more product, in some areas, like carbon fibre , mould costs have a major influence on the finished costs, selling more splits that mould cost and reduces the price for the consumer. On top of that carbon production is labour intensive so for good pricing you need to source cheap labour, that’s not the UK, its China or Taiwan but you can’t go there without volume that’s where marketing and advertising comes in again, it increases the volume to levels where it is cost effective and reduces the price to the consumer or allows the manufacture to invest in new technologies and materials and gives the consumer more choice and better quality. The end result is the customer gets cheaper prices and better kit that’s how every everything else works, electrical goods, computers even motorbikes.

So yes, advertising does have a cost to the advertiser but no, it doesn’t always mean the customer pays for the product, they might actually pay less.......

Nicely put Jools.

Not my point Weeksy.

Member or non-member you should be able to post adverts here as long as you give something back to the club in some small way and don't take the ****.

By definition that means that paid up members have contributed more to the club simply by paying their dues. They may also contribute more than the non-member by turning up at ride outs, supporting DD or doing something at the BMF etc.

That means that personally, I'm prepared to cut paid up members more slack before I consider that they're taking the **** - but not to the point where they're using the site as a trader or continually plugging their commercial venture.

It's quite easy really, you should give back to the club what you take out and if you do I don't have a problem with anybody, but if someone is all take....doesn't matter whether they're paid up or not, after all £20 is less than a round on a Friday night, so it shouldn't entitle you to endless ads

Spot on Jools :)



PS I'm reliable informed that £20 will buy more than a round on a Friday night in Bangalore ;)

[Edited on 30-1-2006 by Henners]