It's all in the marketing!

[Grenadier]

I have some time to kill while my lunch is digesting, so I'll do a bit of rambling about the past.


Many years ago, I can remember Federal introducing what they called a "reduced recoil" 12 gauge 00 buckshot load. Instead of being a full house load, they simply reduced the power of the load a wee bit, resulting in a significant decrease in recoil.

I can also remember seeing this stuff lying around, unbought. It seemed that everyone was turned off by its name, figuring that they didn't want a wimpy-sounding load in their powerful 12 gauge shotguns.

One year, Federal made a change to this load, figuring that something needed to be improved. As a result of this change, boxes of this stuff were flying off the shelf, and this product line became a very hot seller, that continues to have very high popularity to this date.

What was that change?

Did they increase the powder charge? Nope.

Did they change the composition of the shot? Nope.

Did they increase its accuracy? Nope. It was already a very accurate load.

What did they do?

Easy. They simply changed the name from "Federal Reduced Velocity Buckshot" to "Federal Tactical Buckshot." Soon, an overwhelming number of law enforcement agencies adopted this same previously wimpy-sounding load as their standard issue.

In addition to this, Federal took some of these same shells, packaged them into boxes that said "Power Shok" on them, and sold them to the general public, while charging a higher price. Again, a very popular load amongst people who want a reliable manstopping load.

Thus, when naming your product, take a bit of time to think about what your potential customers may perceive it to be, regardless of how truthful you are in your initial thoughts.

I suppose that the same thing can be said about naming a martial arts school as well.

 

[CoryKS]

See also the very popular Chilean Sea Bass which, for some damn reason, didn't sell very well when they called it Patagonian Toothfish.

If they really want sales to go through the roof, they'll rename it X-Shot. Nobody knows what the X- stands for, but it looks rilly kewl.

 

[KenpoTex]

Anything with the word "tactical" in the name (gun, knife, light, pen, apparel, etc.) is guarenteed to attract the armchair commandos and anybone else that thinks their skill will be magically increased by carrying said "tactical" item.

Maybe I should market tactical toilet paper

 

[jks9199]

It's more than a cliche that if you paint it black, and label it "tactical", cops will pay half again the price for it...

 

[thardey]

Black toilet paper huh?

"X-gen tactical toiletpaper." (By Charmin)

It's rough, it's tough, it won't take any crap off anybody, and you can't find it in the dark!

 

[jks9199]

Black toilet paper huh?

It's rough, it's tough, it won't take any crap off anybody, and you can't find it in the dark!

Doesn't that then rather defeat the purpose?:idunno:

 

[thardey]

Doesn't that then rather defeat the purpose?:idunno:

Who cares? It's Black!

 

[FearlessFreep]

It's more than a cliche that if you paint it black, and label it "tactical", cops will pay half again the price for it...

heck yeah, I'm opening a "tactical donut shop"





(apologies to LEOs)

 

[KenpoTex]

it really is pretty amusing...I was in a "cop" store a while back looking at some Benchmade folders. I was playing with a plain-jane Griptilian, then picked up a Gravitator (wow, what a cool name). I'm not kidding, the proprietor sounds off with: "that one's a lot better for 'tactical knife' than the first one you looked at." (why? because of the black blade, higher price, and snazzy name?). I do like the design but seriously...geez

I guess that's why I could never make a living owning a gun or knife store, I'd probably only carry a handful of models and my inventory wouldn't include items that were "cool" only because of the name.

 

[Grenadier]

Who cares? It's Black!

You have a good point.

I think we can all recall the hype and blitz given by the media, over Winchester's Black Talon bullet, which was nothing more than a regular jacketed hollowpoint, whose jacket was of a soft aluminum alloy, and colored black (Luballoy?).

Every ignorant fool was bleating "Oh no! These bullets are eeeeevilllll! These black bullets work like a buzzsaw, can pierce body armor, and the jacket can break into fragments, possibly cutting off sugreon's fingers!"

In reality, the Black Talon, again, was nothing more than a regular hollowpoint bullet, and performed about the same as any hollowpoint from any of the well-known manufacturers. It had absolutely no advantage over similar offerings from Federal, Speer, Remington, etc., and was certainly not capable of punching through body armor correctly rated against projectiles of its caliber.

Despite the facts, various minions of Sarah Brady (Handgun Control Inc.) along with her sympathetic (or just plain pathetic) congressional allies, kept harassing Winchester, threatening them with lawsuits, etc. I remember some of the embellishments they would bleat, such as claiming that these evil black bullets would expand to create gaping holes in their targets.

So, Winchester makes a few changes...

1) They improve the bullet design, so that it offers *better* expansion along with better penetration consistency than the previous generation Black Talon.

2) They replace the soft aluminum alloy jacket with a harder conventional copper alloy jacket with no black coloring. No practical difference in performance.

3) The design of the bullet gives slightly better reliability in feeding.

4) The powders used in the ammunition are now of a lower flash type.

5) They call the new bullet the SXT, replacing the "evil" Black Talon.

In the end? Winchester and their R&D team are laughing their butts off at the gun grabbing crowd, since they came out with an even better performing bullet as a result. This design actually kept the same premium features of the Black Talon (such as their reverse taper design), while improving on everything.

The gun-grabbing crowd, in their ignorant smugness thing they actually won a big battle...

Thus, everyone is happy.

Here's a really good read on the eeeeevil black bullet:

http://www.thegunzone.com/black-talon.html

 

[Deaf Smith]

What? You mean my tactical axe kick is no different than a regular axe kick? I paid alot of money to learn that 'tactical' move!

The tactical buckshot does cost more for a reason. Supply and demand. Not that much demand for reduced power buckshot, which deer hunters would not touch. So since they had to recalibrate the machines, re-package, test, etc... it cost more. It works well in my Mossburg 590 ghost ring sighted 12, I'll say that.

Same goes for 'reduced recoil' pistol ammo (simply less powder and lighter weight bullet is used.) Less demand, special lload. Cost more.

I have only one set of miltary pants. Those I use deer hunting (green OD) and a military jacket I also use deer hunting. When taking a gun class I don't go there wearing 'tactical' stuff, or karate stuff, or anything like that.

But I do show up with a real cool AR-15 with EOT, BUIS, spare mags, and of course, a Glock or Kimber in a Kyndex holster (IWB, not those 'tactical' holsters.) I mean, gotta look like I know what I'm doing, right?

Deaf

 

[allenjp]

Anything with the word "tactical" in the name (gun, knife, light, pen, apparel, etc.) is guarenteed to attract the armchair commandos and anybone else that thinks their skill will be magically increased by carrying said "tactical" item.

Maybe I should market tactical toilet paper

Dude, if you market this, I will invest in it!

Better yet, I am going to invent an energy drink called "Tactical Energy" it'll sell it's a** off!