An Advancement in Firearms Marketing.

[GardoneVT]

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/09/daniel-zimmerman/335991/

We need more shops like this. Less unfinished decor and bigoted salespeople, and more modern day design, ambiance, and overall purchasing and shooting experience.

[Default.mp3]

Meh. Sounds like Athena Gun Club (http://athenagunclub.com/). Nice, modern decor and all that, but IME, they certainly weren't any more knowledgeable than, say, the guys behind the counter at Gander Mountain. Obviously it appeals a lot more to the newbies, but at the same time, that kind of operation takes substantially more capital to get going. Not my kind of place at all, but I can see the appeal.

[HopetonBrown]

Don't care about ambiance. More ambiance = higher prices.

[LOKNLOD]

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/09/daniel-zimmerman/335991/

We need more shops like this. Less unfinished decor and bigoted salespeople, and more modern day design, ambiance, and overall purchasing and shooting experience.

Funny, I was thinking of this place before I clicked the link. It just opened last Friday, and I stopped by after work.

It's a nice facility, and is definitely trying for an upscale, Apple-store kind of vibe.

The round tables with the pistols will drive anyone who hates being muzzled to utter madness, though.

I look forward to trying out the range sometime when there is not so large a crowd.

[Drang]

...The round tables with the pistols will drive anyone who hates being muzzled to utter madness, though. ...*facepalm*
I still say that, when I hit the Powerball and buy an existing and successful gun shop, the first (and likely only) change I will make will be to install a booth at the end of the counter, three-sided bullet-proof material, and customers will be ushered there to do their coon-fingering.
Alternatively, if the floor plan allows, a door directly to one position on the range may also serve. (This assumes that Washington State Ballot Initiative 594 doesn't pass.)

[Hambo]

overall purchasing and shooting experience.

What exactly is a "purchasing experience"? Granted, I'm not the gun-buying public at large, but I'm not looking for a faux "experience" when I buy something.

[KeeFus]

We are getting something similar in Raleigh.

Bill Edwards, who also owns North Raleigh Guns, calls the planned 40,000 square-foot members-only Triangle Shooting Academy a "mega-range" that will include catered meals, space for parties and weddings, shooting lanes, competitive shooting leagues and even a play area where parents can safely leave their children.


http://www.wral.com/indoor-mega-shooting-range-coming-to-raleigh/14028391/#cAtgPkWwApUY8m8i.99

[LOKNLOD]

What exactly is a "purchasing experience"? Granted, I'm not the gun-buying public at large, but I'm not looking for a faux "experience" when I buy something.

To be honest, if you're here amongst the gun geeks at P-F, you're probably not the target market for the "experience" they're selling.

Still, the typical gun shop experience SUCKS.

If you're knowledgeable, the best you can hope for is that somebody will shut up and stay out of your way until you need them to help you access something, but you usually end up with some self-appointed expert telling you stories about how the Sig P226 X5 Competition saved his life when his Osprey got shot down in Vietnadastan during the hot parts of the cold war.

If you're not knowledgeable, that guy is an annoyance at best, but very likely an intimidating obstacle to actually purchasing something or the stereotypical used-car salesman type who says "Little lady, this is what you need, right here" while pushing the airweight snubby with pink grips and a box of +Ps across the counter.

[HCM]

We are getting something similar in Raleigh.

Bill Edwards, who also owns North Raleigh Guns, calls the planned 40,000 square-foot members-only Triangle Shooting Academy a "mega-range" that will include catered meals, space for parties and weddings, shooting lanes, competitive shooting leagues and even a play area where parents can safely leave their children.


http://www.wral.com/indoor-mega-shooting-range-coming-to-raleigh/14028391/#cAtgPkWwApUY8m8i.99

We have something like this in SA TX - skyline. NickA and myself have all dropped the membership - the range staff isn't bad but their gun store help and prices are both ridiculous.

[JM Campbell]

We have something like this in SA TX - skyline. NickA and myself have all dropped the membership - the range staff isn't bad but their gun store help and prices are both ridiculous.

Woops thanks for the reminder. I haven't been back in months need to drop the membership.

It's very nice with NRA style target system, prices are bad and have LEO only firearms that me as a civilian can not buy (M&P 308 AR) it is their decision yet sell suppressors to civies.

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[KeeFus]

We have something like this in SA TX - skyline. NickA and myself have all dropped the membership - the range staff isn't bad but their gun store help and prices are both ridiculous.

I won't be joining it. If they have some USPSA or IDPA for those that aren't members I will probably give them a try. Otherwise, their membership fees, like the lifetime are ridiculous.

VIP Lifetime $12,500** $10,000

Given their location, North Raleigh area, they may get some rich folk to bite on it. Otherwise I don't see how they will get any lifetime members.


http://triangleshootingacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/TSA-Membership-Application-20141.pdf

[okie john]

What exactly is a "purchasing experience"? Granted, I'm not the gun-buying public at large, but I'm not looking for a faux "experience" when I buy something.

It's everything that happens when you go to buy something from them, from the first time you click on the website until the moment you walk out the door with your new stuff in hand. It happens every time you buy something, even if you buy from a buddy in his garage. The question here is how they plan to manipulate it with the decor, staff, etc.

Yes, I'm in advertising.


Okie John

[HCM]

Woops thanks for the reminder. I haven't been back in months need to drop the membership.

It's very nice with NRA style target system, prices are bad and have LEO only firearms that me as a civilian can not buy (M&P 308 AR) it is their decision yet sell suppressors to civies.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

The target system and venilation are nice but the lighting set up is poor. They also only allow brass cased ammunition and have grates on the floor of the firing points to capture the brass. Unlike when the first opened, they now discourage recovery of your brass.

You're not missing anything on their LE pricing - their LE price for the M&P 308 is the same as Academy's retail price. They are not actually an LE dealer and don't follow S&W LE pricing. Didn't know they didn't sell NFA to civilians - oh well.

[HCM]

I won't be joining it. If they have some USPSA or IDPA for those that aren't members I will probably give them a try. Otherwise, their membership fees, like the lifetime are ridiculous.

VIP Lifetime $12,500** $10,000

Given their location, North Raleigh area, they may get some rich folk to bite on it. Otherwise I don't see how they will get any lifetime members.


http://triangleshootingacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/TSA-Membership-Application-20141.pdf

Wow that's crazy.

[JM Campbell]

They will sell NFA to civies but not the M&P 308

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[Hambo]

To be honest, if you're here amongst the gun geeks at P-F, you're probably not the target market for the "experience" they're selling.

Still, the typical gun shop experience SUCKS.

If you're knowledgeable, the best you can hope for is that somebody will shut up and stay out of your way until you need them to help you access something, but you usually end up with some self-appointed expert telling you stories about how the Sig P226 X5 Competition saved his life when his Osprey got shot down in Vietnadastan during the hot parts of the cold war.

If you're not knowledgeable, that guy is an annoyance at best, but very likely an intimidating obstacle to actually purchasing something or the stereotypical used-car salesman type who says "Little lady, this is what you need, right here" while pushing the airweight snubby with pink grips and a box of +Ps across the counter.

So you shop around here too? Unfortunately the 21st century retail paradigm features an "experience" where customers sip latte while getting their eyes gouged out at MSRP plus 10% for the atmosphere while attended to by $8/HR employees who learned all they know about firearms from XBox. How I wish that they would take some of the decor money and pay it as higher wages to people who have real experience on the range, in the field, or at the reloading bench.

[Bigguy]

Not just the firearms industry. I get so tired of explaining to the people I care enough about to help that the info they got from the geek squad is pure crapolia! Putting a shirt with a logo on it on a high school kid does not transform them into an IT expert. What they're shoving at you is what their boss told them to push, not what their vast years of experience tells them actually fits your needs.

[GardoneVT]

So you shop around here too? Unfortunately the 21st century retail paradigm features an "experience" where customers sip latte while getting their eyes gouged out at MSRP plus 10% for the atmosphere while attended to by $8/HR employees who learned all they know about firearms from XBox. How I wish that they would take some of the decor money and pay it as higher wages to people who have real experience on the range, in the field, or at the reloading bench.

At least those places sell decent coffee. Ive lost patience with the chairborne rangers at the city gun shop, where they charge at least $100 over market price and have the decor of a WalMart's loading dock.

A lot of science in the business world makes it clear people dont really care about price, but they do care about emotional satisfaction with the purchase. Having proper furniture, merchandise available to handle, and staff which dont antagonize customers of a different religion then themselves are basic business strategies employed by nearly every industry -except firearms. Even the shady used car lots near the base gate with the "E-3 AND BELOW FINANCED HERE!" signs have better customer service then a typical gun shop.

[PPGMD]

A lot of science in the business world makes it clear people dont really care about price, but they do care about emotional satisfaction with the purchase. Having proper furniture, merchandise available to handle, and staff which dont antagonize customers of a different religion then themselves are basic business strategies employed by nearly every industry -except firearms.

I am willing to bet that the science is targeting uneducated consumers. Educated consumers will flock toward the lowest price if all things are equal.

[GardoneVT]

I am willing to bet that the science is targeting uneducated consumers. Educated consumers will flock toward the lowest price if all things are equal.

Agreed-but funny things happen where human psychology meets economic theory. Theory says customers will disspassionately buy from the lowest priced vendor. In fact, careful social manipulation of consumer taste on the part of marketing savvy firms can result in people willingly spending a premium . It isnt remotely logical to stand outside of Apple stores to buy an iPhone, but it happens en masse every year because the emotional experience for those people is worth it.

We live in a world where emotional manipulation sells goods from cell phones to gum, and we have to play the game if we expect to see gun ownership grow in the years to come. For many folks their first point of contact with anything Second Amendment related is a gun store-and those folks are greeted with condescension, blatant sexism, and bullkitten. I wonder how many iPhones Apple would sell if every time a new customer visited a store, the staff cracked racist remarks and the decor looked like a 1970s Mafioso warehouse.

[PPGMD]

We live in a world where emotional manipulation sells goods from cell phones to gum, and we have to play the game if we expect to see gun ownership grow in the years to come. For many folks their first point of contact with anything Second Amendment related is a gun store-and those folks are greeted with condescension, blatant sexism, and bullkitten. I wonder how many iPhones Apple would sell if every time a new customer visited a store, the staff cracked racist remarks and the decor looked like a 1970s Mafioso warehouse.

Except that those older gun shops are fewer and fewer these days.

Most gun shops I see these days, with exception of the goods they sell, resemble any other low end small retailer. And at those retailers I've been heard anything racist come from the person behind the counter.

I've been to these fancy gun shops, the quality of employees are not much different. And the range isn't much nicer than most other indoor ranges built in the last decade.

[MDS]

Now that I shoot in the woods, I don't see myself going to the range very much. Unless I want to take someone to try out a few rentals. But I'm all for it if it attracts a new kind of audience to shooting. By all means, have some focus groups and find ways to reduce the anxiety that new people feel when walking into a gun store! Make it glamorous, install a foosball table in the waiting room, put a friggin roller coaster in the parking lot if it will help! I can only wish all the best and huge success to this and every other semi-responsible gun store/range.

[JRB]

Not too long ago, a Type I FFL holder and long time friend of mine asked me what I'd do with a Type 1 FFL, and how I'd make that my bread-and-butter business and how I'd make it successful, against all the typical gunstores out there.

Now, I have no plans to apply for or ever hold an FFL, but I told him that I'd market it directly at people that'd never want to walk into a 'normal' gun store.

I'd call it something like 'Rainbow Guns' or 'Rainbow Personal Protection' and I'd get coordinated with the Pink Pistols, sponsor LBGT events, all that kind of stuff. I'd run ads in the local-free papers, have billboards near the college campuses, etc.
I'd stock it deep with all the less 'scary' firearm alternatives like pepper spray, stun guns, etc. I would seek to familiarize customers with the basics personal defense, firearm use, and the local & regional legalities of such things, and I'd strongly encourage seeking personal protection classes from vetted local instructors that were as free of derp as I could find that were also truly sympathetic to the cause, so to speak.

I would do my level best to be as welcoming to anyone that might feel uncomfortable in the normal, stereotypical 'gun store'. The entire concept behind it would be a personal-defense oriented storefront where anyone, regardless of their color, culture, identity, orientation, etc could come get real-world advice on personal defense on anything from keychain pepper spray all the way to a totin' permit with a firearm & holster selection as derpless as my imperfect, nowhere-near-the-best-guy abilities could possibly provide, and without duh war stories, or brash hostility or a dismissive attitude if someone asks a 'dumb' question. Yeah, I'd be talking a lot, and I'd have to be patient, but I think it'd be worth it.

I'd like to have an established clientele of local LBGT's, Sikhs, Muslims, or anyone else of any ethnicity or religion or appearance that'd subject them to cleetus's incessant and offensively ignorant gaze or heckling at a normal gun store - they'd be understood and absolutely welcomed at my store with a smile.
I know that kind of mixed clientele might not all really get along amongst themselves - I wouldn't expect traditional Muslims to be terribly comfortable around a linebacker-sized dude in full drag - but I'd hope that they'd be more comfortable in a place like mine than the one down the street with the mass of Cleetii that might viciously judge an honest person because that person dared to follow a faith that got twisted by a bunch of violent kittenholes on the other side of the planet.

I know that would face some static, I know that my target demographic in such a case doesn't sit well with a lot of folks for daring to exist at all. But those same demographics are victimized quite a bit in this country and I couldn't earnestly support the whole concept of the 2A to the fullest if I didn't believe in EVERYONE's right to be armed and defend themselves effectively, even if I personally might find their lifestyle or faith a bit too different for my own personal tastes and preferences.

Yeah, my friend and I had a laugh at the thought of watching some Huffpo reporter's head implode as they toured that hypothetical store.

It was just an inspired thought between old friends after a nice meal, but if the right person started such a place (probably not me) I could see it doing relatively well. Staffing and dealing with the politics from both sides of the naysayers would likely be the hardest part of it all.