Thanks for the choice, Cannondale
Jay Morgan
Posts: 7
I imagine there aren’t many people who have the need to compare a product across different countries, but I thought I’d share this in case anyone has had a similar experience.
I’m looking for a SuperSix Evo and, living in Paris—but soon to be moving to the UK—I had cause to look at both French and English Cannondale websites. It struck me as odd that there are more colour-way options on the French site so, I wrote to Cannondale asking why.
“We historically only ever carry one colourway for each model in the UK as trending towards one colour or the other always leads to left–over stock in the less popular finish. This is not cost-effective due to diminishing perceived value of previous year stock, so we eliminate the option and choose the most popular colourway straight off the bat...”
I’ve spent 25 years involved with retail through many different businesses around the world, and I have to admit, this is the first time since Henry Ford and his “any colour as long as it’s black” statement (much to be admired but times have changed a little since then) that I’ve heard of a brand offering less choice, purely to the benefit of the business. Perhaps it would be more cost-effective for Marks and Spencer to only sell navy blue socks, or Apple a black iPhone only in 16GB, or perhaps a choice of precisely one sofa at Ikea… humm, you get the picture. Oh, and the left-over stock comment…surely that's why we have the sales periods (incidentally, typically a time when most brands do most of their business).
Anyway, one thing came out of it: I’m buying my Cannondale in France it seems.
I’m looking for a SuperSix Evo and, living in Paris—but soon to be moving to the UK—I had cause to look at both French and English Cannondale websites. It struck me as odd that there are more colour-way options on the French site so, I wrote to Cannondale asking why.
“We historically only ever carry one colourway for each model in the UK as trending towards one colour or the other always leads to left–over stock in the less popular finish. This is not cost-effective due to diminishing perceived value of previous year stock, so we eliminate the option and choose the most popular colourway straight off the bat...”
I’ve spent 25 years involved with retail through many different businesses around the world, and I have to admit, this is the first time since Henry Ford and his “any colour as long as it’s black” statement (much to be admired but times have changed a little since then) that I’ve heard of a brand offering less choice, purely to the benefit of the business. Perhaps it would be more cost-effective for Marks and Spencer to only sell navy blue socks, or Apple a black iPhone only in 16GB, or perhaps a choice of precisely one sofa at Ikea… humm, you get the picture. Oh, and the left-over stock comment…surely that's why we have the sales periods (incidentally, typically a time when most brands do most of their business).
Anyway, one thing came out of it: I’m buying my Cannondale in France it seems.
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Comments
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At least they were up front about it.
Just bear in mind if you do buy in France you'll be getting a left hand drive model...0 -
That's funny have a couple of mates interested in buying 2014 Evo but it's in a crappy Blue colour so they won't be buying them.0
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25 years in retail and this a surprise? Really? It's an incredibly common practice from front-end all the way to the distributor. In fact, it's pretty much a ubiquitous practice in the French sporting goods market.English Cycles V3 | Cervelo P5 | Cervelo T4 | Trek Domane Koppenberg0
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Shame our supermarkets don't adopt a similar strategy when it comes to perishable goods?0
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The UK is the second largest bike market in the EU after Germany. Choice should be greater here than in France or Italy.
See page 20
http://www.coliped.com/docs/issuu/Europ ... 202012.pdf0 -
An interesting phenomenon. Are they suggesting that whatever two colour options they offered, there would always be a trend towards one or the other due to some sort of positive feedback (slightly more people buy one colour, so that colour becomes more fashionable, so more people buy that colour etc), or just that they are unable to gauge consumer preferences accurately enough to offer two options that would be approximately equally popular?
If the latter, sounds like it's just a case of a bit more market research required. I would have thought it would be money well spent as many people will choose a different brand if they can't find a colour they like.
Doubtless someone who actually knows something about marketing will be along in a minute to put me right.. ;-)0 -
It's not actually the customers that they query in this process, it's the retailers. Ordering is done long before production, so the number of orders for each colourway determines what they make available to each region. It's quite common in retail to order lots of different colourways and only receive one or two (the others are either substituted or not delivered depending on the distributor).English Cycles V3 | Cervelo P5 | Cervelo T4 | Trek Domane Koppenberg0
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im sure if you wanted one badly enough you could shop abroad for a different colour scheme. Internet has made this a lot more possible to do.0
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When I was looking to buy a new track bike I wanted the spesh langster pro in this amazing (IMO) colour scheme.
However...
This is the only one available on the uk so I didn't bother...
Insta: ATEnduranceCoaching
ABCC Cycling Coach0 -
The issue is the huge range of 'choice' they have to provide in order to sell anything: 5-7 sizes multiplied by 3+ group set options is a heck of a lot of variations. Doubling up all of those would make it a nightmare.
We may have a big bike market but our average purchase price is around £150 or something so the amount of interest in relatively 'expensive' road bikes is probably a lot smaller than comparable European countries.
Also, very few brands offer colour choices, so it's not like you're hard done by0
