[ okay, sorry, I wrote WAY too many words; my apologies
]
Hello Sal,
By appearing here, by moderating this Forum, by fielding our questions, and by asking us to critique your business like this, you have already put yourself in the top 1 or 2% of web-accessible businesses. Still, there are quite a few things you could do to improve your company's presence on the web (and hopefully, in the process, increase your sales). To summarize: don't fear the web, embrace it...
First off, your website is pretty, but it is incomplete and not up to date. The Starmate's been on the market a little longer than the Lum, but the former can only be found on the news page, while the latter is on the main catalog page. And according to your official online information, you're not yet sure how much you're charging for the Starmate, nor what the overall length of the Lum is (Dennis Wright had one in his display case when I stopped by on Friday -- would you like him to measure it for you?
)
So I agree with the growing mob of villagers gathering outside your website, it needs work. The catalog page is not represented loudly enough on your front page, and it takes too long to load (I wouldn't mind the wait so much if it really displayed everything that you offer). On the other hand, I really like being able to see everything at once. Hmm, with some clever photography, or some photoshop work, what about displaying one or two large pictures with a dense layout of knives, in the spirit of the scans with which Mr. Mattis has been tantalizing us. Make them clickable image maps, so that hovering the mouse over any knife in the picture elicited the knife's number/name, and clicking on it took you to the detail page for that knife (or the knives in that family). I suppose what you'd need is one picture for the majority of the collection, and an ancillary picture for the more recent models, which could be re-shot as needed.
There are probably a lot of customers (or potential customers) out there who are web-capable, but have no clue about BladeForums and JKM's wonderful scans, or who are looking for their first knife and are not yet the kind of people to hang out in a knife forum. They need accurate, complete, up-to-date information on your web page, arranged in easy-to-browse formats. And speaking of BladeForums, where's the prominent link on your main page to the BladeForums Spyderco Forum?
I'd like to see a "Spyderco Museum" on your site, showing the evolution of your knives, with pictures, specs, and manufacturing history of each model you've made. (Maybe start by bribing Mr. Mattis to bring his scanner up to your office for a couple days, and let him loose in your patterns/prototype drawers.)
You need someone on staff who can make changes to your site rapidly. Could be a new position, or could mean finding someone already in the building (or their spouse, or their teenager) who has html/webmaster talents. But you need someone who can get pictures and specs of a new knife that's sitting on your desk onto the web within a day or two.
Add a section to the website showing various prototypes and one-off's, and let people "vote" on those that interest them. I can see this voting happening at three levels, possibly at the same time: 1) "this looks/sounds nice, I think you ought to make it", 2) "I'm very interested in this knife, and would consider buying one if you made it, here's my email address, let me know if it progresses", and 3) "I WANT THIS KNIFE, so much so that I'll commit to spending $xyz amount (a fixed number chosen by Spyderco) if you make it, here's my email address" (and perhaps a credit card number, so people can put their money where their mouth is).
This way, you could put the CF-handled, BDC-bladed, Rolling Lock Military up and see how many people would actually commit to it. If you end up with 100 (or whatever) Serious Requests for it, then you have the option of building a batch, knowing that you have that many "pre-orders" guaranteed.
You're working to get SFO up and running on the web, that's good. I'd like to see them get the spare prototypes, very-limited runs, etc. I wouldn't mind getting email once or twice a week, saying things like "Spyderco built 10 warncliffe-bladed Starmates, to see how they'd work out, and they're keeping 3 -- we've got the other 7, here's the URL." You might even work up some deal where, for some of these, the knives are sold with a contract that requires the user to contribute some feedback on the knife's design/materials/construction, etc., after using it for a while (people around here certainly wouldn't mind doing that, especially to get a 10-of-a-kind knife). And somewhere in with this, once a limited run knife sells out, leave it up on the site with a button next to it reading "Damn, I wish I'd seen that earlier, I'd have bought it" -- another way to judge demand for new designs.
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Regarding the whole problem of storefront dealers vs. web dealers, MAAP pricing, SKU's, etc., again, follow a path of embracing the web rather than fighting it: Set up a private network for your authorized dealers.
It needn't be much more elaborate than a separate section of your website that only dealers can get into, using a login and password. Give them up-to-the-minute information on what's in your standard catalog, and also on the limited production runs (like the recent pink-handled knives), let them vote on whether they think new designs or variations are something they can sell to their customers, and give them the ability to order inventory from you with really quick delivery.
Combined with the miracles of modern overnight shipping, this could be a way to handle the problem of not enough choices vs. too many SKU's: What if, instead of having to stock three each of five different colors of Delicas, a dealer could show a customer the standard black models, and a green one they happen to have in stock, and pictures of the other colors available, and truthfully say to the customer, "I can have that purple one you want here tomorrow afternoon for you to pick up". The dealer could log in, check availability, and arrange shipment before the customer even leaves the store.
Rather than having to make enough of some interesting-but-less- broadly-appealing knife (like the recent pink ones) to completely fill the distribution channel, you could make a smaller quantity (perhaps based upon voting by dealers and ELUs), and make them available to the dealers through the private network (putting some on SFO at retail, for those who can't find them elsewhere). The smaller production runs for these kinds of knives might result in higher prices on these "fringe" items, but a) those seeking them out might happily pay a little extra, b) they may become more favorably inclined to buy some of your more mainstream knives, and, c) well, you can advertise them as limited availability special editions, which demand a higher price.
This would give your authorized dealers a way to offer more variety without the complaints about having to stock a roomful of inventory. It'd turn your whole dealer network into a quick response data gathering mechanism for what the public wants. It'd make it easy for every dealer to offer that last CF Cricket for sale. You could provide hi-res detailed images, ala JKM, that the more industrious dealers could download and print on a color inkjet, so they could have a binder on the counter showing all the available options.
This doesn't have to replace the standard distribution channels; it'd make more sense for them to get their boxfuls of Delicas, Enduras, etc., via the normal channels, and I suspect you'd want to enforce policies to keep dealers from trying to run "nothing-in-stock" stores, requiring them to carry a certain amount of inventory. But then, you'd have a good mechanism to do this: "if you don't play by our rules, we cut back on your login privileges".
The dollar-over-wholesale kamikazi Internet dealers could still buy from the distributors to the same extent that they can now, but they wouldn't be able to offer all the special goodies. Yet this dealer network needn't encompass only the storefront dealers; Mr. Mattis, for example, has no storefront (last I heard), but offers terrific service and follows your pricing guidelines; and what you're after, after all, is continued high quality of service...
I suppose you might have to work out something to cover the difference in operating costs between those who run storefronts and those who don't; and perhaps you'd even want the dealers to put up some sort of deposit to help defray the cost of the bits of inventory that'd be in your hands instead of theirs. Finances and politics aren't my job, so I'll let you work that part out
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I dunno, maybe I'm just reinventing the idea of distributors, but I think having Spyderco have a quick, direct, two way line of communication with all your authorized dealers can only be a good thing...
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On the quandary about release dates, what about listing them in two distinctly different formats, depending on whether they are: A) we are guessing for your benefit, because you want to know, versus, B) we really are trying trying to have it out by this date. Something like, only give A-type estimates by season ("we hope this will see the light of day in Spring 2000"), while B-type estimates are by month ("we'll try to have these arrive on the shelves by November 1999"). Make it clear that the A-type dates are subject to change at any time (or the project behind an A-type date may be cancelled altogether), while B-type dates are a little more concrete, and B-type date changes will be accompanied by a bit of explanation (e.g. "delay in parts shipment", "we want to do some more QA", etc.). We, your hardcore audience do have a lot of trouble sitting on our hands while eagerly awaiting something new, but perhaps we can agree to not complain when an A-type date changes, and also to accept B-type changes gracefully, if we have some bit of explanation, so we don't end up conjuring up ideas that you're withholding them just to torture us. ("Yeah, that's right, I heard Sal has a whole box of CF BDC Rolling Lock Pygmy Militaries in his office, but he won't share, just because he's mean".)
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Colored handles are good: a nice change from the drawer full of black handles for us hardcore types, and for the less knife-inclined it may make the difference in purchasing (e.g. "sure, the black Delica outsells the purple one 10-to-1, but half the buyers of the purple one would not have bought ANY knife if only black was available").
On the other hand, you don't have to do every knife in every color, you could have, say, Delicas available in black and in dark green, Enduras available in black and in dark burgundy, etc. If the colors are dark enough, just a few shades up from black, perhaps they could even supplant the black versions (e.g. Starmate only in very deep dark green G10).
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And, finally, since everyone else is tossing in their want list, a bunch of quick thoughts and personal preferences:
Less steel handles, more micarta handles.
Inlay kraton(?) on more of the steel handles (like on the Spur).
Clips: I like the glossy black ones best, as on the Calypso and Goddard Jr., followed by the glossy silver ones, as on the Starmate. I don't care as much for the matte finish black ones (not sure if I've seen these on Spydies, or just on Benchmades). Distribution of spare and/or "the other color" clips is another item for the dealer network.
Plain edged blades are good (particularly on artistic collaborations, where the serrations can spoil the clean lines -- on the other hand, perhaps you could encourage some of the designers to incorporate serrations into the flow of the design).
Sometimes it's really nice to have, like, ONE inch of serrations at the bottom of a large utility blade (rather than half the blade).
Joe Talmadge has presented a compelling case here, at various times, for sharpening a blade and then "coarsening up" the back end of it, for a "micro serration" effect -- what about putting this into production?
New generation locks (Rolling Lock, Axis Lock, etc.) are good.
Carbon fiber is really nice, but not when refit on existing models, so how about a special custom collaboration, designed from the start to be offered only in carbon fiber.
The new Lum feels even nicer than it looks, but it ought to have been fitted with a blade in one of the higher end steels (CPM440V, VG10), rather than ATS-55.
Hardness testing is an interesting idea, but probably too time consuming (hence expensive) to do to every knife; some electronics manufacturers (e.g. Fluke) offer "calibrated and tested" versions of their standard models, for an extra fee -- maybe this same approach would work for those wanting hardness testing, and would be a good fit to SFO and/or the aforementioned dealer network.
... and, finally ... I want a Starmate with a Rolling Lock!
Thanks for reading this far,
Hope something in here makes at least a little sense,
-- Carl
