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Monday: Paul Arden
Tuesday: Harps
Wednesday: Bernd Ziesche
Thursday: Mr T.
Friday: Ray
Saturday: Viking Lars
Sunday: Bruce Richards

Ronan's report

Bloomin' marketeers eh? Wouldn't life be better without them. Smarmy over-smooth bastards with their Blackberrys and BMWs, trying to rip us off...
...All those ads. for over-priced over-hyped goods that we don't need. Weren't things better before marketing was invented?

Maybe...

The guy in his shed, trying to make a better rod for his local clientele. He talks to them first to find out what they want, and then busts a gut to make it at a price they can afford and at which he can turn a profit: Marketing.

The guide or instructor, looking for quality feedback from a client, so that he can improve what he does next time: Marketing.

A tackle shop goes on-line, because that's how people like to shop nowadays: Marketing.

Originally "Marketing" simply meant trying to find out what people really want and then giving it to them at a decent return. Problem is, a lot of the time people don't know what they actually want, or if they do they can't describe it. Just look at the endless discussions here on 'loops trying to describe fly rods - and we're meant to know what we're talking about for heavens sake! God help a rod designer.

Henry Ford famously said that if he'd asked the public what they wanted, they would've asked for faster horses.

We say we want nice local friendly fly-shops. Really? And then we order our kit on-line from abroad to get the best price.

A lot of great marketing people don't even know they are marketing - they'd probably punch you if you said they were! The guy in the shed; the successful guide/instructor. Through years of experience these guys seem to intuit what their customers want before the customer even realises it. They keep going because they deliver the goods year-in and year-out working hard and passionately.

And then there are the big name tackle manufacturers and retailers. I'm guessing they actually have departments, or people, with Marketing somewhere in their title. Some of these people will have responsibility for consumer research, product design and selection; others will focus on communications - the ads and leaflets, exhibitions and press releases, which you'll either love or hate depending on your point of view.

Actually I quite like reading ads for fishing stuff; on the whole it's done well and is way more entertaining and engaging than the crap they put out for cars and soap powders these days. How else would we find out about new products without marketeers sending press releases and samples out for review, or adverts showing us the products we're interested in?

Either way - the shed-bound rod builder or the Junior Executive Vice President for Fly Rod Marketing at International Mega Fly Rods Incorporated: I'm betting that they're all mad-keen anglers, trying desperately to do a good job, being asked to deliver more with less money than last year, working their nuts off for less money than they'd like, to pay their mortgage and feed the kids.

Whether you like their products or not, give them some respect.

Will

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