Well, the "become a two season hunter" marketing approach has been proven to work very well.
Having worked at Cabela's, I think what may be misunderstood is that in the "chicken or the egg" riddle, the hunters aren't reacting to crossbow manufactures targeting as much as the manufactures are reacting to consumer demand. Look at the "traditional" compound companies that are now making crossbows. That is because it doesn't take long for a company to see that there's lots of demand out there.
I too was shocked at just how much demand for crossbows was out there. However, I was pleased of how much interest there was in traditional archery too, from existing compound shooters. Lots of compound shooters seemed interested in traditional archery, but they seemed a little spooked because they think it's more involved than it actually is.
Here's the proven approach...
http://www.bowhunting.net/artman/publish/I_Remember_Papa_Bear_54/Become_a_Two-Season_Hunter_-_Chap_18.shtml When I was first offered the position at Bonsib Advertising in Ft. Wayne, Indiana handling the Bear Archery account in 1966, something immediately caught my eye. Looking at the Bear Archery ads that the agency had already produced, I went right to the Bear address: "Rural Route One, Grayling, Michigan." What an exceptional address. It really portrayed the perfect image for an outdoors company.
But, if I were asked to name one factor, and only one, other than Fred Bear, himself, that led to the dramatic success and growth of Bear Archery from the 1960s through the 80s, it's this phrase: "Become a Two-Season Hunter."
We hammered that marketing message in our media selection, advertising theme copy, our illustrations, our films, and our publicity. Not all of our advertising actually used those words, but we certainly followed that strategy in our media placement and many of our themes.
MORE SEASON, MORE CHALLENGE
Many hunters, like Fred had done, eventually tire of shooting deer at long range. After Fred shot a 285-pound buck in 1933 that was the largest deer he ever shot with a rifle, he really wanted to get closer to his game. Many rifle hunters experience this at some point. Tom Blee, Bob Kelly and Fred discussed this marketing approach shortly before I joined the agency. Fred also mentioned the fact that many firearms hunters resented the fact that bowhunters got to be out in the woods first each fall. Tom thought of the "Become a Two-Season Hunter" line and marketing strategy. The copy stressed that one could hunt with the bow and arrow at the beginning of the fall hunting season, while the woods were quiet and the fall colors at their peak. Early in the season deer are more calm and following their normal feeding routines on game trails that they've followed the prior nine months of the year.
We put forth the idea that even if these new bowhunters did not score on a deer with their bow, they at least would become better hunters by developing short-range skills that would stand them in good stead when firearms seasons rolled around later in the hunting season. Because of the limited reach of the bow and arrow, bowhunters must develop and discover new strategies for getting as close to deer as possible before loosing an arrow.
For example, I shot the largest white-tailed buck I ever shot with my bow one day in the rain from an old logger's stump blind in the Grayling area at a distance of about 12 feet. And the deer had come even closer to me than that before he slowly walked away and turned for my best shot. The rain had held down my scent and the noise of the raindrops and accompanying wind had covered what little noise I made with my old Fred Bear magnesium handle takedown bow as I drew the arrow and shot. That's also why bowhunters wear camouflage clothing with face paint and sit in treestands or on the ground in blinds.
This "Two-Season Hunter" marketing approach helped build the number of bowhunters in America from fewer than 500,000 when Tom thought of it in the early 60s to more than 3 million annually a couple of decades later. Of course, some people drop out of bowhunting or any sport for that matter. Our old friend, Sherwood Schoch, former archery editor, Bear Archery salesman, and then with Tom Jennings the first true salesman of the new compound bows, says that he thinks that we have an annual dropout rate of about 10 percent, and that sounds reasonable. Also, his logic is that every 10 years our bowhunting population has turned over. In other words, in my estimation this would mean that over a 30-year period we've probably had a total of 6 to 9 million bowhunters take up our sport.
We also sold the nation's fish and wildlife departments on the fact that bowhunting was not only another wildlife management herd control tool with a minimum impact upon the environment, but that it also provided maximum utilization of the resource, and increased revenues in the form of bowhunting license sales.
Shown is the "Be a Two-Season Hunter" ad from Outdoor Life in 1966 that had already been prepared and was running just as I began to work for Fred. This was a major investment for Bear Archery in those days to run a full-page, four-color ad in such a mass circulation magazine directed at the current firearms hunter and bowhunting prospect. But it paid off very big for us.
To help support and promote this "Two-Season Hunter" idea out in the archery shops and sporting goods stores, Bonsib had "Two-Season Hunter" jackets made up for some of our salesmen to wear when they called on their archery shops ... half camo, half red. A real eye-catcher and conversation starter. This campaign, of course, was also supported by dealer versions of the "Two-Season Hunter" ads and point-of-purchase materials.
Topic: Crossbow Language included in NYS Budget (Read 4681 times)
