UNITEDDSN.COM

While at the NRA Annual Meeting and Exhibit in Nashville recently, United spotted aconcerning trend developing among firearms manufacturers (both big and small) and we felt compelled to speak out about what could be, for many, a missed opportunity. Anopportunity to gain greater awareness, greater exposure and thereafter, greater revenue.

‘DON’T YOU TOUCH THAT SWITCH’

Ask any Senior Brand or Marketing Director worth their salt about the importance of not switching off marketing efforts and you'll receive any number of animated, enthusiastic responses. Most will agree, common sense dictates that brand storytelling should continue year-round, regardless of sales cycles, seasonal activity, National Holidays or financial year end's. Consumers today are incredibly fickle, there's little or no brand loyalty these days and therefore, to retain your place in the consumer consciousness, you should never, ever switch off your brand storytelling.

Thing is, we live in the real world, where budgets are cut, product launches fall behind, trends happen (and pass), so called 'loyal' audience's move on alarmingly quickly and there's an ever growing number of unproven new sales channels to contemplate.

So imagine our surprise when (on entering the exhibition hall at the Music City Center) we saw little or no evidence of a genuine push by brands to engage with the consumer in really compelling, memorable ways.

Sure, there was a whole plethora of tees, caps, badges and the occasional giveaway to be grabbed, but beyond the most obvious (and at times tedious) attempts by promotional staff to push branded merchandise into the palms of the passing throng, there was not much to make you want to stay and really browse each brands booth, and crucially… to understand what everyone was doing to promote their new innovations and product launches, inspiring real, genuine customer engagement.

It was very apparent that the NRA Exhibit had become something of an 'afterthought' for many, and as such was a genuine, missed opportunity to really engage, educate and inform the consumer crowd about what's new, what's now and why they should care.

Consumers are a fickle bunch, they will embrace you with open arms one minute and immediately run off to be wooed by your competitors the next. Therefore, at events like NRA, where you have to all intents and purposes got yourself a captive audience it is vital they are able to discover who you are and how you are different... different and better than your competitors.

You only have to look back 12-18 months to remember the paradigm shift between a buoyant U.S firearms marketplace where AR Rifle platforms were doing strong business, to the sudden dip in firearms sales brought about by a sluggish U.S economy and a lack of consumer confidence, resulting in new firearms platforms sitting in the warehouse or gathering dust on shop shelves across the country. Now, in early 2015, the market is finally showing signs of a slow but steady recovery.

So, it'll come as no great surprise that the brands that continued to amp up their branding, marketing and communications through the lean months are the ones who are now sitting pretty at the top of their respective categories. MAGPUL's position as the U.S leading firearms accessories manufacturer was helped in no small part by their dedication to innovation, simplicity and efficiency, and their continued efforts to educate customers on the merits of their products through the Internet, training classes, and instructional videos.

SIG SAUER released their much-lauded MCX after a prolonged branding and marketing effort saw them build a frenzied anticipation for the consumer MCX models upon their release in early 2015. Italian firearms manufacturer Beretta's US Corporation opened the latest of their iconic Beretta Galleries, within the Bass Pro Shops destination store in the Pyramid, Memphis in April 2015, only the third such destination store in the U.S to date.

Your brand story is your single most powerful communications tool. It supports your sales teams, informs and educates your consumer audience and binds together your business from the inside-out, bringing together your manufacturing, R&D, marketing, sales, legal and other teams by giving them a meaningful, powerful narrative to rally behind and be proud of.

So don't you touch that switch! Keep it locked on full-auto and keep those messages firing!

Crucially, each brand understood how vital it was to not switch off their marketing efforts during the difficult trading conditions. In keeping the narrative alive and staying connected to the consumer throughout the slow-down they knew their products and services would then be 'front of mind' when the market recovered and consumers felt better placed to make such a considered purchase.