Re: The Problem with Marketing the Re***bent isThe Name

erness.wild@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:
> Around my area, everyone knows what a re***bent is, it's an indoor
> excersize bike. Thus the problem with marketing an outdoor re***bent
> bike. 

Go somewhere that isn't a problem and it's still hard to market them.
The name is a minor problem.

> I personally never even saw one until last year when I heard a
> guy yelling "Yippie!" as he zoomed by me. I thought it was a crazy
> 'homebuilt" contraption. 

There's your main problem: they're so rare that hardly anyone in the
wider scheme of things knows they're built commercially.  People
stopping to look at my very professionally built one often assume it's
home made, and it can't be because I look capable of such good
engineering or the bike looks, well, home-made.  It's because they never
see them in bike shops.

> It needs a distinctive name, one that can't be confused with anything
> else, especially with indoor excersize bikes. I don't have a marketing
> brain for it but how about: Popcycle OR Mocycle (Mochet) OR
> Accelerbike.

In NL they're called "Ligfietsen" (laying bikes), and AFAICT folk know
what that is.  It's about the most 'bent aware country in the world, and
they're still very rare and hard to come by.  Which means in turn that
they're relatively hard to source and expensive, expensive enough to put
off most casual enquiries.

It's a chicken and egg thing.  In order to be more popular, they need to
be more popular.  I don't think the name really harms them much.

Pete.
-- 
Peter Clinch                    Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637   Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177              Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net p.j.clinch@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
     http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/