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RE: marketing genius required; apply within - 10/12/2007 12:45:26 PM

subtee

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Advertising is indeed expensive and will be a factor in price differential between company A and company B. Public relations, however, is not expensive, except in terms of paying for a service, (not unlike trucking).

I was suggesting that LadyEllen could do her own writing, since she is obviously quite adept at it. She also has stories to tell, it seems to me, in terms of the situation and trends that affect the people she is trying to reach. Then it becomes just a matter of time, which is certainly "expensive" also, but not in any realm like advertising. The cost will be in the time spent to write and submit articles; to write (monthly, quarterly) email blasts--informative, not containing sales lingo--to a customer and/or prospect list; to research, if necessary the trades, publications, editors and writers to whom she should target her writings; to cultivate relationships, whenever possible, with the folks who make publication decisions.

The trade off with public relations, of course, is there is no guarantee of print or broadcast. However, like a funnel, the more that goes in, the more will get through eventually. Everything that is accepted will position and then underscore the company and its prinicpals as "experts." There is a "third party endorsement" attendant when a media outlet accepts and prints or broadcasts releases. Traditional marketing and advertising is met with much cynicsm.

As experts in their field, they will be top of mind for those choosing a trucking company and also for those who are already their customers; they will be glad that they are.

(in reply to SilverWulf)

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RE: marketing genius required; apply within - 10/12/2007 12:50:18 PM

Rule

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quote:

ORIGINAL: LadyEllen
Now, recent developments in the market have led to a shortage of vehicles

So, we have to find some way in which we can charge 20% more than at present

It seems to me that twenty per cent is barely sufficient to break even. You say that hauliers go for as low as 55 and make a profit at 64, whereas you are at 77.

You must make a loss at those prices. It seems to me that it is more advantageous - less of a loss - if you sold your cheap Romanian trucks and hired a haulier; that would give you at least two per cent, even if it is all taken by administration and finances.

So the question is: can you sell those cheap Romanian trucks at a profit, considering that there is a shortage of vehicles? If so, you had better start a trade in Romanian trucks.

(in reply to LadyEllen)

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Post #: 22

RE: marketing genius required; apply within - 10/12/2007 2:11:27 PM

LadyEllen

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Hi Rule

No - we didnt acquire the Romanian trucks; out of the question once we did the costing exercise. Our problem is that we cant hire hauliers for the cost we need (64p/km), when we know damned sure that 64p is what the market pricing is at. Instead hauliers want 69p, which is an issue when we're selling at around 71p to customers who wont pay more than that and have huge choice if they dont like our pricing at any point.

If we're to sell at 10% mark up on 69p, we need 80p - this includes 5% for empty km which need to be paid for. 20% margins is ideal - 10% is good; this margin is what pays our overheads and because we have fairly low overheads, we usually retain 3%. Not bad, when one considers UK hauliers operating within the UK do well to start with a 3% margin and retain less than 0.5% after overheads.

E

_____________________________

In a test against the leading brand, 9 out of 10 participants couldnt tell the difference. Dumbasses.

(in reply to Rule)

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RE: marketing genius required; apply within - 10/13/2007 4:11:17 AM

Rule

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You need a cheaper truck, or one that runs on cheaper fuel, like coal, like a steam locomotive.

Have you tried to negotiate with the Romanian truck factory? Perhaps they can supply a dressed down truck for the price that you are willing to pay.

(in reply to LadyEllen)

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RE: marketing genius required; apply within - 10/13/2007 4:41:58 AM

LadyEllen

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From: Stourport-England
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Hi Rule

Oh believe me, we had the right spec to be as cheap as possible - the only extras on the Romanian trucks were two fuel tanks so that we could use only fuel bought in Luxembourg (where its cheapest) and get to most of Italy, refill on the way back and cover most of UK - without buying fuel in UK or Italy where its dearest.

The only way to make the new trucks even break even at market rate was to totally ignore depreciation at around 10p/km - so we'd buy the trucks, run them round for a few years at the end of which they'd be scrap of zero value and not only not have made a penny, but be c. £80k per truck worse off than when we started. Going bankrupt slowly, as I believe Silver Wulf indicated was the case in the US.

We even looked at putting two drivers on - in theory that means 4350km per week instead of 3100km - more km to spread the overhead over, bringing the cost per km down to where it needs to be. In practice though, the maximum we could do with two drivers was 3600km, because of timings of when we could load and deliver and reload. 3600km isnt enough to gain that benefit.

E

_____________________________

In a test against the leading brand, 9 out of 10 participants couldnt tell the difference. Dumbasses.

(in reply to Rule)

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RE: marketing genius required; apply within - 10/13/2007 4:47:12 AM

NeedToUseYou

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I don't know much about trucking from your end. From your description it sounds like a market in flux, and is bound to be shaken out eventually. Really, your in a good and bad position. If you don't own the actual trucks, and are pretty much just selling your knowledge of the interaction between trucking participants, it shouldn't cost you anything to bail out for awhile, or what I'd be inclined to do in such a situation would be to stop all non-essential costs associated with that business, and try to maintain the best clients to maintain a presence in the interim.

My inclination after doing that would be to try to remarket your current knowledge into something transport related but not directly transport. As I don't know what knowledge you have, it's just speculation. But something like, if you know of large wholesalers, manufacturers, etc and how they operate, or could get access to that information readily, you could act as a middle man for those type of transactions to smaller businesses, and then you'd almost certainly get the shipping to or you would get a cut of the cost of product, either way you'd be making money.

Actually, that's something I could use, someone/ some company deep into the transport industry, that also has knowledge of sourcing, preferably also in regions that speak other languages like china.

That's just an idea, and it might not work at all, if you don't really know how the individual companies you ship for do business.

Basicly you'd be a wholesaler broker/transport broker. That is really all any retail business needs. And 99% of wholesalers are way overpriced. If you were reasonable in your markups, and made the ship / product costs all inclusive, there should be ample room for profit. You just wouldn't give the option for another shipper.

Don't know if that's ridiculous or not, I've never been on your end of it, and don't know how much info you have on the companies you deal with.

(in reply to LadyEllen)

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RE: marketing genius required; apply within - 10/13/2007 4:52:39 AM

LadyEllen

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Hi NTUY

Its something I'm looking into at the moment - a more complete supply chain solution, with my Czech friend who has the idea of supplying reuseable packaging - plastic/metal pallets, boxes, containers and so on for the automotive industry etc as part of his transport service. It would distinguish us - get us into the situation where customers are easier to lock in too.

My former employer (boo, hiss) had the idea of renting a supply chain management system - it cost thousands to buy, but of course the customers we were aiming for could buy it too.

Your idea sounds interesting, but I'd be tempted to switch businesses altogether if we got into sourcing that way too - our 10% margins on transport are awful compared to what we would make from importing and wholesaling I'd have thought.

E

_____________________________

In a test against the leading brand, 9 out of 10 participants couldnt tell the difference. Dumbasses.

(in reply to NeedToUseYou)

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Post #: 27